Safety

The average man doesn't want to be free. He wants to be safe. 

HL Mencken  (Notes on Democracy, 1926, Part III, p. 148)

Financial Rule

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the United States since the days of Andrew Jackson.

US President Franklin Roosevelt (November 21, 1933, in a letter to Colonel E. Mandell House)

President and the Press

No president should fear public scrutiny of his program, for from that scrutiny comes understanding, and from that understanding comes support or opposition; and both are necessary. ... Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed—and no republic can survive.  That is why the Athenian law-maker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment.

John F. Kennedy (April 27, 1961 - "President and the Press" Speech)

Command and Morality

Nothing is more dangerous for man’s private morality than the habit of command. The best man, the most intelligent, disinterested, generous, pure, will infallibly and always be spoiled at this trade. Two sentiments inherent in power never fail to produce this demoralization; they are: contempt for the masses and the overestimation of one’s own merits.

Mikhail Bakunin (Power Corrupts the Best, 1867)

O Peace!

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.

Alexander Pope (3rd most quoted writer behind Shakespeare & Tennyson)

Save us from...

Lord save us from the off-handed, flabby cheeked, brittle boned, weak-kneed, thin-skinned, pliable, plastic, spineless, effeminate, ossified, three karat Christianity,

Billy Sunday (Evangelist)