Thinking

When someone would rather that you didn’t think too deeply, beware. There’s something wrong somewhere.

Source: Anthony Bari (Fictional Criminal Attorney)
Taken from: A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, by Paul Rosenberg 2002

Definition: Axiom

An axiom is a statement that identifies the base of knowledge and of any further statement pertaining to that knowledge, a statement necessarily contained in all others, whether any particular speaker chooses to identify it or not. An axiom is a proposition that defeats its opponents by the fact that they have to accept it and use it in the process of any attempt to deny it.

Source:  John Galt (Fictional Character)
Taken From:  Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (1957)

The Unseen

Politicians love to talk about how many policemen or school lunches they are paying for, but they never tell you that they first took that money from the nice man who owns the hardware store on the corner. And that now he won’t be able to take his kids to see their aged relatives in India.

Source:  James Farber, Fictional Investment Banker
Taken from: A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, by Paul Rosenberg 2002

Pity

Name a person more evil than the man with a heart closed to pity:
"The man who uses another's pity for him as a weapon."

Source:  Midas (Michael) Mulligan (Fictional Character)
Taken From:  Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Justice and Trepidation

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . ." 

Source: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia1781-1782
Taken From:  Chris Manion, LRC Blog 4/18/2011

Adjusting Ones Morals

I do not adjust the morals of anyone but myself.

William Volker (d 1947)
Source:  "Mr. Anonymous" The Story of William Volker by Herbert C. Cornuelle (1951)

Definition: Classical Liberalism

Classical liberalism — which we shall call here simply liberalism — is based on the conception of civil society as, by and large, self-regulating when its members are free to act within very wide bounds of their individual rights. Among these the right to private property, including freedom of contract and free disposition of one's own labor, is given a very high priority. Historically, liberalism has manifested a hostility to state action, which, it insists, should be reduced to a minimum

Source:  Ralph Raico, Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism at Mises.org, 03/04/2010
Taken From:  Source

Government Activities

I've learned something about government, Albert, government must be restricted to those activities which can be entrusted to the worst citizens, not the best.

William Volker (d 1947)
Source:  "Mr. Anonymous" The Story of William Volker by Herbert C. Cornuelle (1951)

Economics

economics is apolitical or nonpolitical … it is perfectly neutral with regard to judgments of value, as it refers always to means and never to the choice of ultimate ends.

Source:  Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Pg 881
Taken From:  Ralph Raico, Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism at Mises.org, 03/04/2010

Liberty

Liberty, the Mother, not the Daughter, of Order.

Source:  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
Taken From:  Ralph Raico, Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism at Mises.org, 03/04/2010

The Market Force

The selective process of the market is actuated by the composite effort of all members of the market economy.… The resultant of these endeavors is not only the price structure but no less the social structure, the assignment of definite tasks to the various individuals. The market makes people rich or poor, determines who shall run the big plants and who shall scrub the floors, fixes how many people shall work in the copper mines and how many in the symphony orchestras. None of these decisions is made once and for all; they are revocable every day.

Source:  Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Pg 311
Taken From:  Ralph Raico, Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism at Mises.org, 03/04/2010

Antidemocratic Governance

International governance tends to be effective, only when it is antidemocratic.

Source:  Gideon Rachman, "And now for a world government".  The Financial Times, Dec 8th, 2008
Taken From:  The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order by Andrew Gavin Marshall

A View on Heaven

Look to history, and you see that from some of the most oppressive societies can come the greatest of humanity. Russia, a nation which has never in its history experienced true political freedom for the individual, has managed to produce some of the greatest music, art, expression and literature as a vibrant outcry of humanity from a society so overcome with the need to control it. It the fact that such triumphs of human spirit can come from such tyrannies over human nature is a sobering display of the great mystery of human beings. Why waste humanity by subjecting it to poverty? Think of the difference that could be made if all of humanity was allowed to flourish individually and collectively; think of all the ideas, art, expression, intellect and beauty we aren’t getting from those who have no voice.

Source:  The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order by Andrew Gavin Marshall, June 24, 2010
Taken From:  Source

Become that Person

A young woman in her adult Sunday School class came to [Ms Mears]. The woman complained that she had no friends. Mears asked: "If you had a friend, what would she be like?" The woman mentioned several highly positive traits. Mears said: "Then become that person."  

Source:  Henrietta Mears (d 1963), Unknown source
Taken From:  Gary North, April 9, 2011

Problems and Innate Man

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race

Source:  Attributed to Calvin Coolidge, 1933
Taken from:  InternetIndependence.com - You've Never Thought This Way Before 3/21/2011

Imperial Issues

I don’t want to try to insert Britain in some leading role where, as with so many of the world’s problems, we are responsible for the issue in the first place.

Source: David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK
Taken From: Cameron's F-word outburst at reporters over British Empire 'gaffe', Mail Online 4/10/2011

Deficit War Against the Earth

The U.S. has dropped 15 million tons of bombs on the earth’s surface in last 60 years, spread 1 million tons of napalm on fields and forests, and sprayed 20 million gallons of defoliants on some of the most diverse rainforests on the planet. By any measure, the U.S. military is conducting a war against the earth itself. Such an inane effort does not come cheaply. The total cost of all military expenses for 2012 is estimated to be $1.2 trillion dollars, one-third of the total federal budget. It is the U.S. military that is driving the U.S. itself into bankruptcy.

Source:  Dana Visalli, Deconstructing the U.S. Military;..., April 11th, 2011
Taken From:  Source

Isolationists and Anti-Social Definitions

If those who oppose violent invasions of other countries are considered ”isolationists,” is a person who refuses to break into his neighbor’s house to be regarded as ”anti-social”? 

Butler Shaffer (4/2/2011)
Source: LRC Blog - Getting Definitions Straight

Shovel Sizes

"How can you afford to give so much money away, Mr. Volker?"

"I heard of another man who was asked that same question. He explained it this way: 'The Lord shovels money to me faster than I can shovel it away. The only conclusion I can come to is that the Lord has a bigger shovel than I do.' "

William Volker (d 1947)
Source:  "Mr. Anonymous" The Story of William Volker by Herbert C. Cornuelle (1951)

Propoganda

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society... Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. . . . In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

Source:  Edward Bernays as quoted from The Father of Spin
Taken From:  The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Mackay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Ch1 (jollyjohnd@gmail.com)

Le crime fait la honte, et non pas l'échafaud!
The crime causes the shame, and not the scaffold!

Source:  Thomas Corneille
Taken From:  Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles Mackay (1841)

About:  This quote is used referring to the shame that certain deaths shouldn't be used on persons of Noble birth, because of such shame that death by hanging can bring the family.  However, as stated above, the shame isn't in the type of death, but in the crime.

Mass Fall, Individual Recovery

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

Source:  Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles Mackay (1841)
Taken From:  Source

Homogeneity and the Human Spirit

The economic efficiency we praise creates one-industry towns that become simplified and vulnerable communities. Businesses evolve into big corporations that dehumanize and feudalize our lives. Our monocultures of specialization create ecological disasters. We poison our water, land and air using the justification that more and faster are always better. Mass production produces the homogeneity that deadens the spirit and vitality of people they compensate by becoming hyper-consumers, fad-chasers, unsettled and disquieted beings in search of the meaning denied to them by a loss of complexity.

Source:  The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstle (2006)
Taken from:  21st Century Breakdown by James Quinn

Private Profits, Social Risks

Globalism had the same tendency to impoverish and enslave huge populations while enriching the elite who managed its operations. The American people were sold on it, even while it destroyed their towns, their landscapes, and their vocations. Globalism was primarily a way of privatizing the profits of business activities while socializing the costs.

Source:  The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstle (2006)
Taken from:  21st Century Breakdown by James Quinn

Winter's Waterfall

Wherever we’re headed, America is evolving in ways most of us don’t like or understand. Individually focused yet collectively adrift, we wonder if we’re heading toward a waterfall. Are we?

Source:   Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning (1997)
Taken from:  21st Century Breakdown by James Quinn

Money demands

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason;

Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian d'Anconia (Fictional Character)
Taken From:  Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (1957)

On Firearms and Government

All military type firearms are to be handed in immediately ... The SS, SA and Stahlhelm give every respectable German man the opportunity of campaigning with them. Therefore anyone who does not belong to one of the above named organizations and who unjustifiably nevertheless keeps his weapon ... must be regarded as an enemy of the national government.

SA Oberführer of Bad Tolz, March 1933.

Roots and Wings

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.

Hodding Carter (Unsourced, Apparently borrowed from Reverend Henry Ward Beecher)

Failure to Act

The failure to act is much more often the product of inner, emotional resistance than external resistance.

Dan Kennedy (Online Business Guru)
Taken From:  Internet Independence.com - Link