[Jason Vines]

Post quotes you think are illuminating or resonant...

Here are some quotes I like:

Thomas Jefferson said:

Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

Thomas Jefferson said:

Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.

Ayn Rand said:

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

George Washington said:

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

Bobby Donnell of THE PRACTICE said:

It's better that ten guilty men go free, than one innocent man suffer.

Mark Twain said:

It was the schoolboy who said, Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

Mark Twain said:

I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious— except he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force.

Ayn Rand said:

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

This post has been edited by Jason Vines: 18 November 2005 - 12:39 PM

[-January-]

there is one thing stronger then evil...and thats us...

[-Oz-]

"You're not your fuckin' khakis." -Fight Club
"You've gone completely sideways, man!" -Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
"And the reaction of a pikey, is quite a fuckin' thing." -Snatch
"To protect our precious... bodily fluids!" -How I Learned To Love The Bomb or Dr. Strangelove

[Jason Vines]

Apologies to Archangel of TrekWeb for copying this from his sig , but:

Quote

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
---Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

[Yoda]

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.--------Mark Twain

[tomba1701]

I've got two that are somewhat partisan, but also very true.

One that I heard a few months back was from Mark Levin (talk radio host and author of a book on the judiciary and originalism vs. activism). The topic was moving Election Day to a weekend or making it a holiday, in order to encourage turnout. Levin's response:

Quote

"I support moving Election Day to April 15, Tax Day. Also to encourage voting...but for the right people and against the wrong people!"

Another great one I've heard is from Justice Scalia (or Darth Scalia). It gives a little insight into the acerbic wit he is known for in his written dissents. He was giving a speech on the Chuck Schumer led fight to make ideology an explicit criteria for evaluating judicial nominees. According to Chucky, being outside of the Democrtic Party-defined "meainstream" would automatically disqualify a judge. Everyone needed to be bland "moderate" types. Scalia's response:

Quote

"Now there is talk of only nominating "judicial moderates". What is judicial moderation? Somewhere in the middle between what the Constitution actually says and what you wish it said?"

*******************
Love the second one. Even Scalia's biggest detractors give him some points for the humor in his opinions.

This post has been edited by tomba1701: 12 February 2006 - 03:40 AM

[-Oz-]

Procrastinators unite tomorrow.

[Offbyonekenobi]

"Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice... pull down your pants, and slide on the ice."

[Jason Vines]

From Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, p. 267:

"Actually Roosevelt was identifying with Euripides--like himself, an upper-class celebrant of middle-class virtues--as he mused at length on the vulnerability of republics that failed to preserve their social equipoise. Whichever class arose to dominate others--whether high, low, or bourgeois--always made disproportionate claims on the government:

Theodore Roosevelt said:

Again and again in the republics of ancient Greece, in those of medieval Italy, and medieval Flanders, this tendency was shwon, and whenever the tendency became a habit it invariably and inevitably proved fatal to the state... There resulted violent alternations between tyranny and disorder, and a final complete loss of liberty to all citizens--destruction in the end overtaking the class which had for the moment been victorious as well as that which had momentarily been defeated. The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.

[Emphasis mine.]

"Uniquely, the checks and balances of American democracy worked to prevent any such lodgment. National unity was a moral challenge, rather than an economic one:

Theodore Roosevelt said:

The line of cleavage between good and bad citizenship lies, not between the man of wealth who acts squarely by his fellow and the man who seeks each day's wage by that day's work, wronging no one... On the contrary, [it] separates the rich man who does well from the rich man who does ill, the poor man of good conduct from the poor man of bad conduct. This line of cleavage lies at right angles to any arbitrary line of division as that separating one class from another, one locality from another, of a man with a certain degree of property from those of a less degree of property.

"A civilized commonwealth, enjoying 'the true liberties which can only come through order,' depended on square dealing between representatives of capital and labor. Just as the former had accepted a limited degree of public scrutiny, so must the latter face up to their own public duty. In any recession acerbated by strikes and union violence, 'the first and severest suffering would come among those of us who are least well off at present.'"

[Bondo]

This almost breaks the thread, but it is illuminating, and I know how much Jason in particular likes Star Wars. Anyway, it popped up on Gmail today.

"Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together." - Oprah Winfrey

[Offbyonekenobi]

These are brilliant... Rock God Gene Simmons...
What I've Learned- Gene Simmons

My favorites:

You can't argue with facts and figures. Either people want it, in which case they pay for it, or it's two guys sitting around at the Plaza having a discussion, which means nothing. I mean, Titanic. I wasn't crazy about the movie. But you know what? I'm gonna shut up, because the people have spoken. End of story!

Prostitute yourself. As far as I'm concerned, that's even braver than waiting for the public to catch on.

Anybody who picks up a guitar and tells you that there's some inner message that they're trying to convey . . . it's nonsense. They're not being honest. The reason they're doing this is they wanna get lots of chicks and they don't want to work for a living.

People say, "I want to get laid a lot and make lots of money." That's not the right order.

Just because I'm Jack Nicholson in the insane asylum doesn't mean I'm one of them. It's just where I live. You know, it's . . . I'm Gene Simmons, and all the others are pretenders to the throne. I love that phrase. I'm gonna love reading that back.

The Koran is actually a beautiful book. Some of it has some good ideas. But practically speaking, these guys are out of their minds.

You gotta hang on to life. You can let them drag you kicking and screaming off this earth, or you can sit with your colostomy bag and watch CNN. This old bastard who married Anna Nicole Smith? I get it. What are you gonna do, hang out with Grandma? Biology says you shouldn't. Biology says, "Get a young one."

I think I know it all, relatively speaking.

My mother used to say this to me when I was a kid: "I'd throw myself in front of a truck for you." Over and over again. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about. "What do you mean, you want to throw . . . you'll die." I say that to my kids now.

[Jason Vines]

Alexander Hamilton said this in the first Federalist essay:

Alexander Hamilton said:

I am well aware that it would be disingenuous to resolve indiscriminately the opposition of any set of men (merely because their situations might subject them to suspicion) into interested or ambitious views. Candor will oblige us to admit that even such men may be actuated by upright intentions; and it cannot be doubted that much of the opposition which has made its appearance, or may hereafter make its appearance, will spring from sources, blameless at least, if not respectable--the honest errors of minds led astray by preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy. And a further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate the truth are influenced by purer principles than their antagonists. Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties. For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

I thought this a nice buttress for the principles of this very site.

[Jason Vines]

I'm reading Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial, and a quote on p. 329, from former Secretary of State Colin Powell's deputy and friend, Richard Armitage, pops out at me:

State of Denial said:

"Their idea of diplomacy," Armitage said to Powell once, "is to say, 'Look fucker, you do what we want.'"

Armitage is referring to the "diplomatic" (a.k.a., bullying) approach of the Bush administration.

[Jason Vines]

Narn Ambassador G'Kar in the Babylon 5 episode "The Long, Twilight Struggle":

G'Kar said:

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments, tyrants, and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.

That quote gave me goosebumps when I first heard it almost 10 years ago, and it still quickens my heart!

Such eloquent words and powerful feelings make G'Kar not just one of the most compelling characters in science fiction, but in general.

[Jason Vines]

I found this quote from Douglas Adams, on pp. 20-21 of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, insightful:

Douglas Adams said:

Religion... has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, "Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not? - because you're not!" If somebody votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an argument about it. But on the other hand if somebody says, "I musn't move a light switch on a Saturday," you say, "I respect that."

Why should it be that it's perfectly legitimate to support the Labour Party or the Conservative Party, Republicans or Democrats, this model of economics versus that, Macintosh instead of Windows - but to have an opinion about how the Universe began, about who created the Universe... no, that's holy?... We are used to not challenging religious ideas but it's very interesting how much of a furore Richard [Dawkins] creates when he does it! Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you're not allowed to say these things. Yet when you look at it rationally there is no reason why those ideas shouldn't be as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed somehow between us that they shouldn't be.