General Quotes

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. — Herbert Spencer

The graveyards are full of indispensable men. — Charles de Gaulle

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. — Robert Heinlein

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Circles

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. — Mark Twain, Notebook, 1887

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. — Andre Gide

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. — Hubert Humphrey

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude. — William James

The Social Security Act does not require an individual (citizen) to have a Social Security number to live and work within the United States, nor does it require an SSN simply for the purpose of having one…. — Vincent Sanudo, Social Security Administration

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. — Theodore Roosevelt

Everybody has asked the question … “What shall we do with the Negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! — Frederick Douglass, What the Black Man Wants

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage -the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors. Racism claims that the content of a man’s mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man’s convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical factors beyond his control. This is the caveman’s version of the doctrine of innate ideas-or of inherited knowledge – which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science. Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of animals, but not between animals and men. Like every form of determinism, racism invalidates the specific attribute which distinguishes man from all other living species: his rational faculty. Racism negates two aspects of man’s life: reason and choice, or mind and morality, replacing them with chemical predestination. — Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets? — Dick Cavett

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt. — John Philpot Curran, Speech upon the Right of Election (1790)

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

What thinking rational human being has never been in conflict with his Gods? — Will Spencer

In the mirrors of many judgements, my hands are the color of blood. I am a part of the evil which exists to oppose other evils. … on that Great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on that day when the world is completely cleansed of evil, then I, too, will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Perhaps even sooner than that, I now judge. But whatever… Until that time, I shall not wash my hands nor let them hang useless. — Roger Zelazny, The Guns of Avalon

The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hatred is a luxury of the idle. — Will Spencer

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. — Thomas Jefferson

Those who don’t read the newspapers are better off than those who do insofar as those who know nothing are better off than those whose heads are filled with half-truths and lies. — Thomas Jefferson

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats. — Howard Aiken

Decalogue
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred. — Thomas Jefferson

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else. — Theodore Roosevelt

The history of the world is but the biography of heroes. — Thomas Carlyle

The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. — John Gilmore

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. — William James

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless. — Thomas Edison

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes. — Benjamin Disraeli

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. — Mark Twain

Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. — Winston Churchill

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. — Samuel Butler

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst. — Dale Carnegie

Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. — Mark Twain

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. — Helen Keller

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. — Abraham Lincoln

Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions. — Frank Lloyd Wright

He who acts under an emotional impulse also acts. What distinguishes an emotional action from other actions is the valuation of input and output. Emotions disarrange valuations. Inflamed with passion, man sees the goal as more desirable and the price he has to pay for it as less burdensome than he would in cool deliberation. — Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

The greatest open-minded idea I’m aware of is to know that one does not know what is best for others, whether it’s in economic, social, or moral policy, or in the affairs of other nations. Believing one knows what is best for others represents the greatest example of a closed mind. — Ron Paul, A Wise Consistency

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert Heinlein

Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; doing well, wisest and best of all. — Persian proverb

He who dares not to offend cannot be honest. — Thomas Paine

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. — Voltaire, 1764

There’s nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos. — Jim Hightower

One should respect public opinion insofar as it is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. — Bertrand Russell

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food. — Erasmus

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded, and the amount of eccentricity in a society has been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. — John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapter 3

If I knew for certain that a man was coming to my house to do me good, I would run for my life. — Henry David Thoreau

I know a lot of you believe that most people in the news business are liberal. Let me tell you, I know a lot of them, and they were almost evenly divided this time. Half of them liked Senator Kerry; the other half hated President Bush. — Andy Rooney

A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson

I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm. — Henry Truman

Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth. — Chuck Norris

At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats. — P.J. O’Rourke

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, – This I have done, and this is what it means to be an American. — John Wayne

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. — Gilbert Chesterton

The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, whom we shall welcome to participate in all of our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment. — George Washington

Always do what you say you are going to do. It is the glue and fiber that binds successful relationships. — Jeffrey Timmons

(What is good in life?) To crush your enemies, to drive them before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. — Conan, Conan the Barbarian

Organization! Hell! I’m the organization! … Hell! There ain’t no rules around here! We are trying to accomplish some’pn’. – — Thomas Alva Edison, When asked what rules he ran his laboratory organization by; Wachhorst, Wyn, Thomas Alva Edison, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981, pp. 180-83

It everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking. — George Patton

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them. — Malcolm Forbes