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13 | reyssat | 1 | $100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at |
2 | which time it will be worth absolutely nothing. |
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3 | -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love" |
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4 | % |
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5 | 1st graffitiist: QUESTION AUTHORITY! |
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6 | |||
7 | 2nd graffitiist: Why? |
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8 | % |
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9 | A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a |
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10 | "Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. |
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11 | -- Mahatma Ghandi |
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12 | % |
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13 | A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon it adds up to real money. |
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14 | -- Sen. Everett Dirksen, on the U.S. defense budget |
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15 | % |
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16 | A billion seconds ago Harry Truman was president. |
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17 | A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ. |
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18 | A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth. |
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19 | A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury. |
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20 | % |
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21 | A bureaucrat's idea of cleaning up his files is to make a copy of everything |
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22 | before he destroys it. |
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23 | % |
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24 | A candidate is a person who gets money from the rich and votes from the |
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25 | poor to protect them from each other. |
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26 | % |
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27 | A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but |
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28 | won't cross the street to vote in a national election. |
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29 | -- Bill Vaughan |
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30 | % |
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31 | A Difficulty for Every Solution. |
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32 | -- Motto of the Federal Civil Service |
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33 | % |
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34 | A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur coat. |
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35 | % |
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36 | A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you |
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37 | actually look forward to the trip. |
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38 | -- Caskie Stinnett, "Out of the Red" |
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39 | % |
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40 | A diplomat's life consists of three things: protocol, Geritol, and alcohol. |
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41 | -- Adlai Stevenson |
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42 | % |
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43 | A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. |
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44 | -- Winston Churchill |
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45 | % |
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46 | A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular. |
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47 | -- Adlai Stevenson |
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48 | % |
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49 | A general leading the State Department resembles a dragon commanding ducks. |
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50 | -- New York Times, Jan. 20, 1981 |
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51 | % |
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52 | A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough |
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53 | to take it all away. |
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54 | -- Barry Goldwater |
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55 | % |
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56 | A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges. |
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57 | -- B. Franklin |
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58 | % |
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59 | A great nation is any mob of people which produces at least one honest |
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60 | man a century. |
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61 | % |
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62 | A group of politicians deciding to dump a President because his morals |
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63 | are bad is like the Mafia getting together to bump off the Godfather for |
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64 | not going to church on Sunday. |
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65 | -- Russell Baker |
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66 | % |
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67 | A lack of leadership is no substitute for inaction. |
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68 | % |
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69 | A long memory is the most subversive idea in America. |
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70 | % |
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71 | A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. |
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72 | -- Alexander Hamilton |
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73 | % |
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74 | A nuclear war can ruin your whole day. |
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75 | % |
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76 | A penny saved is a penny taxed. |
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77 | % |
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78 | A penny saved kills your career in government. |
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79 | % |
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80 | A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to |
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81 | govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over expenditures |
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82 | on armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins |
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83 | itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and |
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84 | manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain. |
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85 | -- Anatole France |
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86 | % |
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87 | A political man can have as his aim the realization of freedom, |
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88 | but he has no means to realize it other than through violence. |
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89 | -- Jean Paul Sartre |
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90 | % |
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91 | A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then |
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92 | asks you not to kill him. |
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93 | -- Sir Winston Churchill, 1952 |
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94 | % |
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95 | A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be |
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96 | too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which |
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97 | was intended for her preservation. |
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98 | -- Colton |
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99 | % |
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100 | A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat without having |
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101 | his neighbour notice it. |
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102 | -- Trygve Lie |
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103 | % |
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104 | A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices |
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105 | that the system works. |
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106 | % |
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107 | A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you. |
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108 | -- Ramsey Clark |
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109 | % |
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110 | A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from |
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111 | the vexation of thinking. |
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112 | -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1831 |
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113 | % |
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114 | A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years. |
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115 | -- Harry S. Truman |
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116 | % |
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117 | A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. |
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118 | -- O'Henry |
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119 | % |
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120 | A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many |
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121 | bad measures. |
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122 | -- Daniel Webster |
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123 | % |
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124 | Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, D.C. |
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125 | % |
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126 | "After I asked him what he meant, he replied that freedom consisted of |
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127 | the unimpeded right to get rich, to use his ability, no matter what the |
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128 | cost to others, to win advancement." |
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129 | -- Norman Thomas |
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130 | % |
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131 | Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. |
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132 | -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, |
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133 | Ecole Superieure de Guerre |
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134 | % |
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135 | Alea iacta est. |
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136 | [The die is cast] |
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137 | -- Gaius Julius Caesar |
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138 | % |
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139 | Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing - and that was |
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140 | the closest our country has ever been to being even. |
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141 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
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142 | % |
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143 | All [zoos] actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent |
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144 | upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a |
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145 | visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is |
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146 | informing, stimulating and ennobling. |
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147 | -- H. L. Mencken |
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148 | % |
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149 | All bad precedents began as justifiable measures. |
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150 | -- Gaius Julius Caesar, quoted in "The Conspiracy of |
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151 | Catiline", by Sallust |
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152 | % |
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153 | All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means. |
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154 | -- Chou En Lai |
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155 | % |
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156 | All kings is mostly rapscallions. |
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157 | --Mark Twain |
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158 | % |
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159 | All other things being equal, a bald man cannot be elected President of |
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160 | the United States. |
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161 | -- Vic Gold |
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162 | % |
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163 | All people are born alike -- except Republicans and Democrats. |
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164 | -- Groucho Marx |
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165 | % |
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166 | All the taxes paid over a lifetime by the average American are spent by |
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167 | the government in less than a second. |
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168 | -- Jim Fiebig |
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169 | % |
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170 | All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers ... Each one owes |
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171 | infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in |
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172 | which he was born. |
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173 | -- Francois Fenelon |
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174 | % |
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175 | America is the country where you buy a lifetime supply of aspirin for one |
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176 | dollar, and use it up in two weeks. |
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177 | % |
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178 | America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism |
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179 | to decadence without touching civilization. |
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180 | -- John O'Hara |
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181 | % |
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182 | America: born free and taxed to death. |
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183 | % |
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184 | An ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie and intrigue for the |
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185 | benefit of his country. |
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186 | -- Sir Henry Wotton, 1568-1639 |
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187 | % |
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188 | An American's a person who isn't afraid to criticize the president but is |
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189 | always polite to traffic cops. |
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190 | % |
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191 | An efficient and a successful administration manifests itself equally in |
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192 | small as in great matters. |
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193 | -- W. Churchill |
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194 | % |
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195 | An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought. |
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196 | -- Simon Cameron |
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197 | |||
198 | There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians. When |
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199 | bought they stay bought. |
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200 | -- Bill Moyers |
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201 | % |
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202 | Anarchy may not be a better form of government, but it's better than no |
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203 | government at all. |
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204 | % |
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205 | "...and the fully armed nuclear warheads, are, of course, merely a |
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206 | courtesy detail." |
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207 | % |
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208 | And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, for if you hit a man |
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209 | with a plowshare, he's going to know he's been hit. |
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210 | % |
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211 | And yet, seasons must be taken with a grain of salt, for they too have |
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212 | a sense of humor, as does history. Corn stalks comedy, comedy stalks |
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213 | tragedy, and this too is historic. And yet, still, when corn meets |
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214 | tragedy face to face, we have politics. |
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215 | -- Dalglish, Larsen and Sutherland, "Root Crops and |
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216 | Ground Cover" |
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217 | % |
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218 | Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes. |
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219 | Galileo: No, unhappy the land that _____needs heroes. |
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220 | -- Bertolt Brecht, "Life of Galileo" |
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221 | % |
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222 | Another such victory over the Romans, and we are undone. |
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223 | -- Pyrrhus |
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224 | % |
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225 | Any excuse will serve a tyrant. |
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226 | -- Aesop |
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227 | % |
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228 | "Any news from the President on a successor?" he asked hopefully. |
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229 | "None," Anita replied. "She's having great difficulty finding someone |
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230 | qualified who is willing to accept the post." |
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231 | "Then I stay," said Dr. Fresh. "I'm not good for much, but I |
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232 | can at least make a decision." |
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233 | "Somewhere," he grumphed, "there must be a naive, opportunistic |
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234 | young welp with a masochistic streak who would like to run the most |
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235 | up-and-down bureaucracy in the history of mankind." |
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236 | -- R.L. Forward, "Flight of the Dragonfly" |
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237 | % |
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238 | Anybody that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years |
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239 | organising and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office. |
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240 | -- David Broder |
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241 | % |
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242 | Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no |
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243 | account be allowed to do the job. |
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244 | -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" |
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245 | % |
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246 | As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. |
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247 | When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular. |
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248 | -- Oscar Wilde, "Intentions" |
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249 | % |
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250 | Audacity, and again, audacity, and always audacity. |
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251 | -- G.J. Danton |
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252 | % |
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253 | Ban the bomb. Save the world for conventional warfare. |
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254 | % |
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255 | Be it our wealth, our jobs, or even our homes; nothing is safe while the |
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256 | legislature is in session. |
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257 | % |
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258 | Bedfellows make strange politicians. |
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259 | % |
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260 | Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. |
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261 | -- Herbert Hoover |
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262 | % |
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263 | C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre! |
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264 | [It is magnificent, but it is not war] |
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265 | -- Pierre Bosquet, witnessing the charge of the Light Brigade |
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266 | % |
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267 | "Cable is not a luxury, since many areas have poor TV reception." |
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268 | -- The mayor of Tucson, Arizona, 1989 |
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269 | % |
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270 | Canada Post doesn't really charge 32 cents for a stamp. It's 2 cents |
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271 | for postage and 30 cents for storage. |
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272 | -- Gerald Regan, Cabinet Minister, 12/31/83 Financial Post |
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273 | % |
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274 | Census Taker to Housewife: |
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275 | Did you ever have the measles, and, if so, how many? |
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276 | % |
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277 | Concerning the war in Vietnam, Senator George Aiken of Vermount noted |
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278 | in January, 1966, "I'm not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need |
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279 | more owls." |
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280 | -- Bill Adler, "The Washington Wits" |
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281 | % |
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282 | Conquering Russia should be done steppe by steppe. |
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283 | % |
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284 | Corruption is not the #1 priority of the Police Commissioner. His job |
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285 | is to enforce the law and fight crime. |
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286 | -- P.B.A. President E. J. Kiernan |
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287 | % |
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288 | Crime does not pay ... as well as politics. |
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289 | -- Alfred E. Newman |
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290 | % |
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291 | Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It |
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292 | eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the |
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293 | business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation." |
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294 | -- Johnny Hart |
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295 | % |
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296 | Demand the establishment of the government in its rightful home at Disneyland. |
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297 | % |
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298 | Democracy becomes a government of bullies, tempered by editors. |
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299 | -- Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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300 | % |
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301 | Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than |
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302 | we deserve. |
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303 | -- George Bernard Shaw |
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304 | % |
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305 | Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder |
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306 | aloud what the country could do under first-class management. |
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307 | -- Senator Soaper |
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308 | % |
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309 | Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the |
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310 | incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. |
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311 | -- G.B. Shaw |
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312 | % |
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313 | Democracy is a government where you can say what you think even if you |
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314 | don't think. |
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315 | % |
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316 | Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who |
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317 | will get the blame. |
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318 | -- Laurence J. Peter |
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319 | % |
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320 | Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. |
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321 | -- Jawaharlal Nehru |
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322 | % |
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323 | Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them. |
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324 | -- Arman de Caillavet, 1913 |
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325 | % |
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326 | Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people |
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327 | are right more than half of the time. |
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328 | -- E. B. White |
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329 | % |
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330 | Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other |
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331 | forms that have been tried from time to time. |
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332 | -- Winston Churchill |
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333 | % |
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334 | Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for |
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335 | the people. |
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336 | -- Oscar Wilde |
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337 | % |
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338 | Demographic polls show that you have lost credibility across the board. |
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339 | Especially with those 14 year-old Valley girls. |
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340 | % |
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341 | Diplomacy is about surviving until the next century. Politics is about |
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342 | surviving until Friday afternoon. |
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343 | -- Sir Humphrey Appleby |
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344 | % |
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345 | Diplomacy is the art of letting the other party have things your way. |
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346 | -- Daniele Vare |
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347 | % |
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348 | Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie" until you can find a rock. |
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349 | -- Wynn Catlin |
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350 | % |
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351 | Diplomacy is to do and say, the nastiest thing in the nicest way. |
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352 | -- Balfour |
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353 | % |
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354 | Disclose classified information only when a NEED TO KNOW exists. |
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355 | % |
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356 | Don't be humble ... you're not that great. |
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357 | -- Golda Meir |
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358 | % |
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359 | Don't mind him; politicians always sound like that. |
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360 | % |
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361 | Don't steal... the IRS hates competition! |
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362 | % |
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363 | Don't suspect your friends -- turn them in! |
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364 | -- "Brazil" |
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365 | % |
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366 | Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and |
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367 | the lash. |
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368 | -- Winston Churchill |
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369 | % |
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370 | Don't vote -- it only encourages them! |
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371 | % |
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372 | Due to a shortage of devoted followers, the production of great leaders |
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373 | has been discontinued. |
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374 | % |
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375 | Each person has the right to take part in the management of public affairs |
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376 | in his country, provided he has prior experience, a will to succeed, a |
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377 | university degree, influential parents, good looks, a curriculum vitae, two |
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378 | 3x4 snapshots, and a good tax record. |
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379 | % |
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380 | Each person has the right to take the subway. |
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381 | % |
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382 | Even though they raised the rate for first class mail in the United |
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383 | States we really shouldn't complain -- it's still only two cents a day. |
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384 | |||
385 | [and getting better! Soon it'll be down to a penny a day!] |
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386 | % |
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387 | Ever wonder if taxation without representation might have been cheaper? |
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388 | % |
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389 | Every country has the government it deserves. |
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390 | -- Joseph De Maistre |
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391 | % |
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392 | Every one says that politicians lie all the time, and that just isn't so! |
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393 | But you do have to understand body language to know when they're lying and |
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394 | when they aren't. |
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395 | |||
396 | When a politician rubs his nose, he isn't lying. |
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397 | When a politician tugs on his ear, he isn't lying. |
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398 | When a politician scratches his collar bone, he isn't lying. |
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399 | When his mouth starts moving, that's when he's lying! |
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400 | % |
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401 | Everything is controlled by a small evil group to which, unfortunately, |
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402 | no one we know belongs. |
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403 | % |
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404 | Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice... moderation in the pursuit |
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405 | of justice is no virtue. |
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406 | -- Barry Goldwater |
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407 | % |
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408 | Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. |
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409 | -- George Santayana |
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410 | % |
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411 | Far back in the mists of ancient time, in the great and glorious days of the |
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412 | former Galactic Empire, life was wild, rich and largely tax free. |
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413 | |||
414 | Mighty starships plied their way between exotic suns, seeking adventure and |
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415 | reward among the furthest reaches of Galactic space. In those days, spirits |
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416 | were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women |
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417 | and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures |
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418 | from Alpha Centauri. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty |
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419 | deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before -- and thus |
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420 | was the Empire forged. |
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421 | -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" |
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422 | % |
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423 | Fay: The British police force used to be run by men of integrity. |
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424 | Truscott: That is a mistake which has been rectified. |
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425 | -- Joe Orton, "Loot" |
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426 | % |
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427 | Fear and loathing, my man, fear and loathing. |
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428 | -- H.S. Thompson |
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429 | % |
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430 | First rule of public speaking. |
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431 | First, tell 'em what you're goin' to tell 'em; |
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432 | then tell 'em; |
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433 | then tell 'em what you've tole 'em. |
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434 | % |
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435 | For the first time we have a weapon that nobody has used for thirty years. |
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436 | This gives me great hope for the human race. |
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437 | -- Harlan Ellison |
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438 | % |
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439 | Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws |
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440 | of nature! |
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441 | -- G.B. Shaw |
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442 | % |
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443 | Fraud is the homage that force pays to reason. |
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444 | -- Charles Curtis, "A Commonplace Book" |
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445 | % |
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446 | Free Speech Is The Right To Shout 'Theater' In A Crowded Fire. |
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447 | -- A Yippie Proverb |
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448 | % |
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449 | Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite. |
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450 | % |
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451 | Freedom is nothing else but the chance to do better. |
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452 | -- Camus |
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453 | % |
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454 | Freedom is slavery. |
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455 | Ignorance is strength. |
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456 | War is peace. |
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457 | -- George Orwell |
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458 | % |
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459 | Freedom of the press is for those who happen to own one. |
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460 | % |
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461 | Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. |
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462 | -- Kris Kristofferson, "Me and Bobby McGee" |
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463 | % |
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464 | "... gentlemen do not read each other's mail." |
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465 | -- Secretary of State Henry Stimson, on closing down |
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466 | the Black Chamber, the precursor to the National |
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467 | Security Agency. |
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468 | % |
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469 | Gentlemen, |
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470 | Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the |
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471 | approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been |
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472 | diligently complying with your requests which have been sent by H.M. ship |
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473 | from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our headquarters. |
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474 | We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, |
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475 | and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty's Government holds |
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476 | me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit, and |
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477 | spleen of every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted |
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478 | for, with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence. |
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479 | Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains |
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480 | unaccounted for in one infantry battalion's petty cash and there has been |
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481 | a hideous confusion as the the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to |
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482 | one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This |
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483 | reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, |
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484 | since we are war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise |
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485 | to you gentlemen in Whitehall. |
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486 | This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request |
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487 | elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty's Government so that I |
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488 | may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. |
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489 | I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as |
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490 | given below. I shall pursue either one with the best of my ability, but |
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491 | I cannot do both: |
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492 | 1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the |
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493 | benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or perchance: |
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494 | 2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain. |
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495 | -- Duke of Wellington, to the British Foreign Office, |
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496 | London, 1812 |
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497 | % |
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498 | George Orwell 1984. Northwestern 0. |
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499 | -- Chicago Reader 10/15/82 |
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500 | % |
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501 | George Orwell was an optimist. |
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502 | % |
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503 | George Washington was first in war, first in peace -- and the first to |
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504 | have his birthday juggled to make a long weekend. |
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505 | -- Ashley Cooper |
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506 | % |
||
507 | Give all orders verbally. Never write anything down that might go into a |
||
508 | "Pearl Harbor File". |
||
509 | % |
||
510 | "Give me enough medals, and I'll win any war." |
||
511 | -- Napoleon |
||
512 | % |
||
513 | Giving money and power to governments is like giving whiskey and |
||
514 | car keys to teenage boys. |
||
515 | -- P.J. O'Rourke |
||
516 | % |
||
517 | God shows his contempt for wealth by the kind of person he selects to |
||
518 | receive it. |
||
519 | -- Austin O'Malley |
||
520 | % |
||
521 | Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of |
||
522 | those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the |
||
523 | will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of |
||
524 | government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders. |
||
525 | -- Frank Herbert, "Children of Dune" |
||
526 | % |
||
527 | Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed. |
||
528 | % |
||
529 | Got a complaint about the Internal Revenue Service? |
||
530 | Call the convenient toll-free "IRS Taxpayer Complaint Hot Line Number": |
||
531 | |||
532 | 1-800-AUDITME |
||
533 | % |
||
534 | Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Don't overdo it. |
||
535 | -- Lao Tsu |
||
536 | % |
||
537 | Government [is] an illusion the governed should not encourage. |
||
538 | -- John Updike, "Couples" |
||
539 | % |
||
540 | Government lies, and newspapers lie, but in a democracy they are different lies. |
||
541 | % |
||
542 | Government spending? I don't know what it's all about. I don't know |
||
543 | any more about this thing than an economist does, and, God knows, he |
||
544 | doesn't know much. |
||
545 | -- Will Rogers |
||
546 | % |
||
547 | Graduating seniors, parents and friends... |
||
548 | Let me begin by reassuring you that my remarks today will stand up |
||
549 | to the most stringent requirements of the new appropriateness. |
||
550 | The intra-college sensitivity advisory committee has vetted the |
||
551 | text of even trace amounts of subconscious racism, sexism and classism. |
||
552 | Moreover, a faculty panel of deconstructionists have reconfigured |
||
553 | the rhetorical components within a post-structuralist framework, so as to |
||
554 | expunge any offensive elements of western rationalism and linear logic. |
||
555 | Finally, all references flowing from a white, male, eurocentric |
||
556 | perspective have been eliminated, as have any other ruminations deemed |
||
557 | denigrating to the political consensus of the moment. |
||
558 | |||
559 | Thank you and good luck. |
||
560 | -- Doonesbury, the University Chancellor's graduation speech. |
||
561 | % |
||
562 | Great Moments in History: #3 |
||
563 | |||
564 | August 27, 1949: |
||
565 | A Hall of Fame opened to honor outstanding members of the |
||
566 | Women's Air Corp. It was a WAC's Museum. |
||
567 | % |
||
568 | Grover Cleveland, though constantly at loggerheads with the |
||
569 | Senate, got on better with the House of Representatives. A popular |
||
570 | story circulating during his presidency concerned the night he was |
||
571 | roused by his wife crying, "Wake up! I think there are burglars in the |
||
572 | house." |
||
573 | "No, no, my dear," said the president sleepily, "in the Senate maybe, |
||
574 | but not in the House." |
||
575 | % |
||
576 | Grub first, then ethics. |
||
577 | -- Bertolt Brecht |
||
578 | % |
||
579 | Hark ye, Clinker, you are a most notorious offender. You stand convicted of |
||
580 | sickness, hunger, wretchedness, and want. |
||
581 | -- Tobias Smollet |
||
582 | % |
||
583 | Has the great art and mystery of politics no apparent utility? Does it |
||
584 | appear to be unqualifiedly ratty, raffish, sordid, obscene and low down, |
||
585 | and its salient virtuosi a gang of umitigated scoundrels? Then let us |
||
586 | not forget its high capacity to soothe and tickel the midriff, its |
||
587 | incomparable services as a maker of entertainment. |
||
588 | -- H.L. Mencken, "A Carnival of Buncombe" |
||
589 | % |
||
590 | Have you noticed the way people's intelligence capabilities decline |
||
591 | sharply the minute they start waving guns around? |
||
592 | -- Dr. Who |
||
593 | % |
||
594 | He didn't run for reelection. "Politics brings you into contact with all |
||
595 | the people you'd give anything to avoid," he said. "I'm staying home." |
||
596 | -- Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegone Days" |
||
597 | % |
||
598 | He is the best of men who dislikes power. |
||
599 | -- Mohammed |
||
600 | % |
||
601 | He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself. |
||
602 | % |
||
603 | He thinks the Gettysburg Address is where Lincoln lived. |
||
604 | -- Wanda, "A Fish Called Wanda" |
||
605 | % |
||
606 | He who attacks the fundamentals of the American broadcasting industry |
||
607 | attacks democracy itself. |
||
608 | -- William S. Paley, chairman of CBS |
||
609 | % |
||
610 | He who renders warfare fatal to all engaged in it will be the greatest |
||
611 | benefactor the world has yet known. |
||
612 | -- Sir Richard Burton |
||
613 | % |
||
614 | He who slings mud generally loses ground. |
||
615 | -- Adlai Stevenson |
||
616 | % |
||
617 | He's just a politician trying to save both his faces... |
||
618 | % |
||
619 | Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the |
||
620 | sun now stands I Will Fight No More Forever. |
||
621 | -- Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce |
||
622 | % |
||
623 | Here comes the orator, with his flood of words and his drop of reason. |
||
624 | % |
||
625 | History has much to say on following the proper procedures. From a history |
||
626 | of the Mexican revolution: |
||
627 | "Hidalgo was later defeated at Guadalajara. The rebel army was |
||
628 | captured on its way through the mountains. All were courtmartialed and |
||
629 | shot, except Hidalgo, because he was a priest. He was handed over to |
||
630 | the bishop of Durango who excommunicated him and returned him to the |
||
631 | army where he was then executed." |
||
632 | % |
||
633 | History is on our side (as long as we can control the historians). |
||
634 | % |
||
635 | History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree on. |
||
636 | -- Napoleon Bonaparte, "Maxims" |
||
637 | % |
||
638 | History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, |
||
639 | periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them |
||
640 | asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at |
||
641 | intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another... Truly the imago |
||
642 | state of Man seems to be terribly distant, but every moult is a step gained. |
||
643 | -- Charles Darwin, from "Origin of the Species" |
||
644 | % |
||
645 | History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have |
||
646 | exhausted all other alternatives. |
||
647 | -- Abba Eban |
||
648 | % |
||
649 | How can you govern a nation which has 246 kinds of cheese? |
||
650 | -- Charles de Gaulle |
||
651 | % |
||
652 | How is the world ruled, and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to |
||
653 | journalists, and they believe what they read. |
||
654 | -- Karl Kraus, "Aphorisms and More Aphorisms" |
||
655 | % |
||
656 | I am a friend of the working man, and I would rather be his friend |
||
657 | than be one. |
||
658 | -- Clarence Darrow |
||
659 | % |
||
660 | I am convinced that the truest act of courage is to sacrifice ourselves |
||
661 | for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man |
||
662 | is to suffer for others. |
||
663 | -- Cesar Chavez |
||
664 | % |
||
665 | I am not a politician and my other habits are also good. |
||
666 | -- A. Ward |
||
667 | % |
||
668 | I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half. |
||
669 | -- Jay Gould |
||
670 | % |
||
671 | I don't care how poor and inefficient a little country is; they like to |
||
672 | run their own business. I know men that would make my wife a better |
||
673 | husband than I am; but, darn it, I'm not going to give her to 'em. |
||
674 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
675 | % |
||
676 | "I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating." |
||
677 | -- Boss Tweed |
||
678 | % |
||
679 | I don't like the Dutchman. He's a crocodile. He's sneaky. I don't trust him. |
||
680 | -- Jack "Legs" Diamond, just before a peace conference |
||
681 | with Dutch Schultz. |
||
682 | |||
683 | I don't trust Legs. He's nuts. He gets excited and starts pulling a |
||
684 | trigger like another guy wipes his nose. |
||
685 | -- Dutch Schultz, just before a peace conference with |
||
686 | "Legs" Diamond. |
||
687 | % |
||
688 | I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the |
||
689 | streets and frighten the horses. |
||
690 | -- Victor Hugo |
||
691 | % |
||
692 | I DON'T THINK I'M ALONE when I say I'd like to see more and more planets |
||
693 | fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system. |
||
694 | -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988. |
||
695 | % |
||
696 | I find this corpse guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and I fine it $40. |
||
697 | -- Judge Roy Bean, finding a pistol and $40 on a man he'd |
||
698 | just shot. |
||
699 | % |
||
700 | I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. |
||
701 | -- Augustus Caesar |
||
702 | % |
||
703 | I have a dream. I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, |
||
704 | the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to |
||
705 | sit down together at the table of brotherhood. |
||
706 | -- Martin Luther King, Jr. |
||
707 | % |
||
708 | I have already given two cousins to the war and I stand ready to sacrifice |
||
709 | my wife's brother. |
||
710 | -- Artemus Ward |
||
711 | % |
||
712 | I have always noticed that whenever a radical takes to Imperialism, |
||
713 | he catches it in a very acute form. |
||
714 | -- Winston Churchill, 1903 |
||
715 | % |
||
716 | I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I tell them the truth |
||
717 | and they never believe me. |
||
718 | -- Camillo Di Cavour |
||
719 | % |
||
720 | I have gained this by philosophy: |
||
721 | that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. |
||
722 | -- Aristotle |
||
723 | % |
||
724 | I have never understood this liking for war. It panders to instincts |
||
725 | already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment. |
||
726 | -- Alan Bennett |
||
727 | % |
||
728 | I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing... |
||
729 | -- Thomas Jefferson |
||
730 | % |
||
731 | I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World |
||
732 | War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. |
||
733 | -- Albert Einstein |
||
734 | % |
||
735 | I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote |
||
736 | peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much |
||
737 | that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them |
||
738 | have it. |
||
739 | -- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
||
740 | % |
||
741 | I might have gone to West Point, but I was too proud to speak to a congressman. |
||
742 | -- Will Rogers |
||
743 | % |
||
744 | I needed the good will of the legislature of four states. I formed the |
||
745 | legislative bodies with my own money. I found that it was cheaper that way. |
||
746 | -- Jay Gould |
||
747 | % |
||
748 | I never deny, I never contradict. I sometimes forget. |
||
749 | -- Benjamin Disraeli, British PM, on dealing with the |
||
750 | Royal Family |
||
751 | % |
||
752 | I never vote for anyone. I always vote against. |
||
753 | -- W.C. Fields |
||
754 | % |
||
755 | I owe the government $3400 in taxes. So I sent them two hammers and a |
||
756 | toilet seat. |
||
757 | -- Michael McShane |
||
758 | % |
||
759 | I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as |
||
760 | the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must |
||
761 | not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we |
||
762 | must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, |
||
763 | in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from |
||
764 | wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they |
||
765 | will be happy. |
||
766 | -- Thomas Jefferson |
||
767 | % |
||
768 | I pledge allegiance to the flag |
||
769 | of the United States of America |
||
770 | and to the republic for which it stands, |
||
771 | one nation, |
||
772 | indivisible, |
||
773 | with liberty |
||
774 | and justice for all. |
||
775 | -- Francis Bellamy, 1892 |
||
776 | % |
||
777 | I prefer the most unjust peace to the most righteous war. |
||
778 | -- Cicero |
||
779 | |||
780 | Even peace may be purchased at too high a price. |
||
781 | -- Poor Richard |
||
782 | % |
||
783 | I realize that the MX missile is none of our concern. I realize that the |
||
784 | whole point of living in a democracy is that we pay professional |
||
785 | congresspersons to concern themselves with things like the MX missile so we |
||
786 | can be free to concern ourselves with getting hold of the plumber. |
||
787 | |||
788 | But from time to time, I feel I must address major public issues such as |
||
789 | this, because in a free and open society, where the very future of the world |
||
790 | hinges on decisions made by our elected leaders, you never win large cash |
||
791 | journalism awards if you stick to the topics I usually write about, such as |
||
792 | nose-picking. |
||
793 | -- Dave Barry, "At Last, the Ultimate Deterrent Against |
||
794 | Political Fallout" |
||
795 | % |
||
796 | I see a good deal of talk from Washington about lowering taxes. I hope |
||
797 | they do get 'em lowered down enough so people can afford to pay 'em. |
||
798 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
799 | % |
||
800 | I see where we are starting to pay some attention to our neigbors to |
||
801 | the south. We could never understand why Mexico wasn't just crazy about |
||
802 | us; for we have always had their good will, and oil and minerals, at heart. |
||
803 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
804 | % |
||
805 | I steal. |
||
806 | -- Sam Giancana, explaining his livelihood to his draft board |
||
807 | |||
808 | Easy. I own Chicago. I own Miami. I own Las Vegas. |
||
809 | -- Sam Giancana, when asked what he did for a living |
||
810 | % |
||
811 | I think that all good, right thinking people in this country are sick and |
||
812 | tired of being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are |
||
813 | fed up with being told that all good, right thinking people in this country |
||
814 | are fed up with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not, and I'm sick and |
||
815 | tired of being told that I am! |
||
816 | -- Monty Python |
||
817 | % |
||
818 | I think the world is run by C students. |
||
819 | -- Al McGuire |
||
820 | % |
||
821 | I trust the first lion he meets will do his duty. |
||
822 | -- J.P. Morgan on Teddy Roosevelt's safari |
||
823 | % |
||
824 | I try not to break the rules but merely to test their elasticity. |
||
825 | -- Bill Veeck |
||
826 | % |
||
827 | I try to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out. |
||
828 | -- Judge Harold T. Stone |
||
829 | % |
||
830 | I use not only all the brains I have, but all those I can borrow as well. |
||
831 | -- Woodrow Wilson |
||
832 | % |
||
833 | I used to be a rebel in my youth. |
||
834 | |||
835 | This cause... that cause... (chuckle) I backed 'em ALL! But I learned. |
||
836 | Rebellion is simply a device used by the immature to hide from his own |
||
837 | problems. So I lost interest in politics. Now when I feel aroused by |
||
838 | a civil rights case or a passport hearing... I realize it's just a device. |
||
839 | I go to my analyst and we work it out. You have no idea how much better |
||
840 | I feel these days. |
||
841 | -- J. Feiffer |
||
842 | % |
||
843 | I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law. |
||
844 | -- Martin Luther King, Jr. |
||
845 | % |
||
846 | I was appalled by this story of the destruction of a member of a valued |
||
847 | endangered species. It's all very well to celebrate the practicality of |
||
848 | pigs by ennobling the porcine sibling who constructed his home out of |
||
849 | bricks and mortar. But to wantonly destroy a wolf, even one with an |
||
850 | excessive taste for porkers, is unconscionable in these ecologically |
||
851 | critical times when both man and his domestic beasts continue to maraud |
||
852 | the earth. |
||
853 | Sylvia Kamerman, "Book Reviewing" |
||
854 | % |
||
855 | I was offered a job as a hoodlum and I turned it down cold. A thief is |
||
856 | anybody who gets out and works for his living, like robbing a bank or |
||
857 | breaking into a place and stealing stuff, or kidnapping somebody. He really |
||
858 | gives some effort to it. A hoodlum is a pretty lousy sort of scum. He |
||
859 | works for gangsters and bumps guys off when they have been put on the spot. |
||
860 | Why, after I'd made my rep, some of the Chicago Syndicate wanted me to work |
||
861 | for them as a hood -- you know, handling a machine gun. They offered me |
||
862 | two hundred and fifty dollars a week and all the protection I needed. I |
||
863 | was on the lam at the time and not able to work at my regular line. But |
||
864 | I wouldn't consider it. "I'm a thief," I said. "I'm no lousy hoodlum." |
||
865 | -- Alvin Karpis, "Public Enemy Number One" |
||
866 | % |
||
867 | I went to my mother and told her I intended to commence a different life. I |
||
868 | asked for and obtained her blessing and at once commenced the career of a |
||
869 | robber. |
||
870 | -- Tiburcio Vasquez |
||
871 | % |
||
872 | I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, |
||
873 | we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad. |
||
874 | -- Jack Handley |
||
875 | % |
||
876 | I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in |
||
877 | understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, |
||
878 | our tasks will be solved. |
||
879 | -- Warren G. Harding |
||
880 | % |
||
881 | I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word 'fair' in connection |
||
882 | with income tax policies. |
||
883 | -- William F. Buckley |
||
884 | % |
||
885 | I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one. |
||
886 | -- Marcus Procius Cato |
||
887 | % |
||
888 | I would rather be a serf in a poor man's house and be above ground than |
||
889 | reign among the dead. |
||
890 | -- Achilles, "The Odessey", XI, 489-91 |
||
891 | % |
||
892 | I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the |
||
893 | whole field to private industry. |
||
894 | -- Joseph Heller |
||
895 | % |
||
896 | "I'll carry your books, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, |
||
897 | carry forward, Cary Grant, cash & carry, Carry Me Back To Old Virginia, |
||
898 | I'll even Hara Kari if you show me how, but I will *not* carry a gun." |
||
899 | -- Hawkeye, M*A*S*H |
||
900 | % |
||
901 | "I'll rob that rich person and give it to some poor deserving slob. |
||
902 | That will *prove* I'm Robin Hood." |
||
903 | -- Daffy Duck, "Robin Hood Daffy", [1958, Chuck Jones] |
||
904 | % |
||
905 | I'm going to Vietnam at the request of the White House. President Johnson |
||
906 | says a war isn't really a war without my jokes. |
||
907 | -- Bob Hope |
||
908 | % |
||
909 | "I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'M NOT GOING!" |
||
910 | % |
||
911 | I'm proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is |
||
912 | -- I could be just as proud for half the money. |
||
913 | -- Arthur Godfrey |
||
914 | % |
||
915 | "I'm willing to sacrifice anything for this cause, even other people's lives." |
||
916 | % |
||
917 | I've always considered statesmen to be more expendable than soldiers. |
||
918 | % |
||
919 | If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; |
||
920 | and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money it values more, it |
||
921 | will lose that, too. |
||
922 | -- W. Somerset Maugham |
||
923 | % |
||
924 | If built in great numbers, motels will be used for nothing but illegal |
||
925 | purposes. |
||
926 | -- J. Edgar Hoover |
||
927 | % |
||
928 | If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a deal faster. |
||
929 | -- The Duchess, "Through the Looking Glass" |
||
930 | % |
||
931 | If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it's still a foolish thing. |
||
932 | -- Bertrand Russell |
||
933 | % |
||
934 | If God had meant for us to be in the Army, we would have been born with |
||
935 | green, baggy skin. |
||
936 | % |
||
937 | If God wanted us to have a President, He would have sent us a candidate. |
||
938 | -- Jerry Dreshfield |
||
939 | % |
||
940 | If Karl, instead of writing a lot about Capital, had made a lot of Capital, |
||
941 | it would have been much better. |
||
942 | -- Karl Marx's Mother |
||
943 | % |
||
944 | If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, |
||
945 | he should see how bad it is with representation. |
||
946 | % |
||
947 | If people have to choose between freedom and sandwiches, they |
||
948 | will take sandwiches. |
||
949 | -- Lord Boyd-orr |
||
950 | |||
951 | Eats first, morals after. |
||
952 | -- Bertolt Brecht, "The Threepenny Opera" |
||
953 | % |
||
954 | If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress? |
||
955 | % |
||
956 | If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom. |
||
957 | -- Robert Frost |
||
958 | % |
||
959 | If the American dream is for Americans only, it will remain our dream |
||
960 | and never be our destiny. |
||
961 | -- Ren'e de Visme Williamson |
||
962 | % |
||
963 | If the government doesn't trust the people, why doesn't it dissolve them |
||
964 | and elect a new people? |
||
965 | % |
||
966 | "If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!" |
||
967 | -- "Ma" Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa 1920) |
||
968 | % |
||
969 | If the rich could pay the poor to die for them, what a living the poor |
||
970 | could make! |
||
971 | % |
||
972 | If they were so inclined, they could impeach him because they don't like |
||
973 | his necktie. |
||
974 | -- Attorney General William Saxbe |
||
975 | % |
||
976 | If voting could change the system, it would be illegal. If not voting |
||
977 | could change the system, it would be illegal. |
||
978 | % |
||
979 | If we all work together, we can totally disrupt the system. |
||
980 | % |
||
981 | If we can ever make red tape nutritional, we can feed the world. |
||
982 | -- R. Schaeberle, "Management Accounting" |
||
983 | % |
||
984 | If we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, |
||
985 | and involve others in our doom. |
||
986 | -- Samuel Adams |
||
987 | % |
||
988 | If we won't stand together, we don't stand a chance. |
||
989 | % |
||
990 | If you don't strike oil in twenty minutes, stop boring. |
||
991 | -- Andrew Carnegie, on public speaking |
||
992 | % |
||
993 | "If you ever want to get anywhere in politics, my boy, you're going to |
||
994 | have to get a toehold in the public eye." |
||
995 | % |
||
996 | If you give Congress a chance to vote on both sides of an issue, it |
||
997 | will always do it. |
||
998 | -- Les Aspin, D., Wisconsin |
||
999 | % |
||
1000 | If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is |
||
1001 | make the rubble bounce. |
||
1002 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1003 | % |
||
1004 | If you live in a country run by committee, be on the committee. |
||
1005 | -- Graham Summer |
||
1006 | % |
||
1007 | If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year |
||
1008 | with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep. |
||
1009 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
1010 | % |
||
1011 | If you took all of the grains of sand in the world, and lined |
||
1012 | them up end to end in a row, you'd be working for the government! |
||
1013 | -- Mr. Interesting |
||
1014 | % |
||
1015 | If you want to understand your government, don't begin by reading the |
||
1016 | Constitution. It conveys precious little of the flavor of today's |
||
1017 | statecraft. Instead, read selected portions of the Washington telephone |
||
1018 | directory containing listings for all the organizations with titles |
||
1019 | beginning with the word "National." |
||
1020 | -- George Will |
||
1021 | % |
||
1022 | If you wants to get elected president, you'se got to think up some |
||
1023 | memoraboble homily so's school kids can be pestered into memorizin' |
||
1024 | it, even if they don't know what it means. |
||
1025 | -- Walt Kelly, "The Pogo Party" |
||
1026 | % |
||
1027 | If your hands are clean and your cause is just and your demands are |
||
1028 | reasonable, at least it's a start. |
||
1029 | % |
||
1030 | Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. |
||
1031 | -- Robert Orben |
||
1032 | |||
1033 | Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery. |
||
1034 | -- Jack Paar |
||
1035 | % |
||
1036 | Imbalance of power corrupts and monopoly of power corrupts absolutely. |
||
1037 | -- Genji |
||
1038 | % |
||
1039 | Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery. |
||
1040 | -- Jack Paar |
||
1041 | % |
||
1042 | In America, any boy may become president and I suppose that's just one |
||
1043 | of the risks he takes. |
||
1044 | -- Adlai Stevenson |
||
1045 | % |
||
1046 | In an orderly world, there's always a place for the disorderly. |
||
1047 | % |
||
1048 | In case of atomic attack, the federal ruling against prayer in schools |
||
1049 | will be temporarily canceled. |
||
1050 | % |
||
1051 | In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable. |
||
1052 | -- W. Churchill, on General Montgomery |
||
1053 | % |
||
1054 | In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last |
||
1055 | resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but |
||
1056 | inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. |
||
1057 | -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" |
||
1058 | % |
||
1059 | In fiction the recourse of the powerless is murder; in life the recourse |
||
1060 | of the powerless is petty theft. |
||
1061 | % |
||
1062 | In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because |
||
1063 | I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up |
||
1064 | because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I |
||
1065 | didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the |
||
1066 | Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came |
||
1067 | for me -- and by that time no one was left to speak up. |
||
1068 | -- Pastor Martin Niemoller |
||
1069 | % |
||
1070 | In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, |
||
1071 | murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci |
||
1072 | and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had |
||
1073 | five hundred years of democracy and peace -- and what did they produce? |
||
1074 | The cuckoo-clock. |
||
1075 | -- Orson Welles, "The Third Man" |
||
1076 | % |
||
1077 | In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence |
||
1078 | is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office. |
||
1079 | -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" |
||
1080 | % |
||
1081 | In Pierre Trudeau, Canada has finally produced a Prime Minister worthy of |
||
1082 | assassination. |
||
1083 | -- John Diefenbaker |
||
1084 | % |
||
1085 | In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls. |
||
1086 | -- Lenny Bruce |
||
1087 | % |
||
1088 | In those days he was wiser than he is now -- he used to frequently take |
||
1089 | my advice. |
||
1090 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1091 | % |
||
1092 | In war it is not men, but the man who counts. |
||
1093 | -- Napoleon |
||
1094 | % |
||
1095 | In war, truth is the first casualty. |
||
1096 | -- U Thant |
||
1097 | % |
||
1098 | ... indifference is a militant thing ... when it goes away it leaves |
||
1099 | smoking ruins, where lie citizens bayonetted through the throat. It is |
||
1100 | not a children's pastime like mere highway robbery. |
||
1101 | -- Stephen Crane |
||
1102 | % |
||
1103 | Individualists unite! |
||
1104 | % |
||
1105 | Indomitable in retreat; invincible in advance; insufferable in victory. |
||
1106 | -- Winston Churchill, on General Montgomery |
||
1107 | % |
||
1108 | Inform all the troops that communications have completely broken down. |
||
1109 | % |
||
1110 | Inheritance taxes are getting so out of line, that the deceased family |
||
1111 | often doesn't have a legacy to stand on. |
||
1112 | % |
||
1113 | Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. |
||
1114 | -- Martin Luther King, Jr. |
||
1115 | % |
||
1116 | Interesting poll results reported in today's New York Post: people on the |
||
1117 | street in midtown Manhattan were asked whether they approved of the US |
||
1118 | invasion of Grenada. Fifty-three percent said yes; 39 percent said no; |
||
1119 | and 8 percent said "Gimme a quarter?" |
||
1120 | -- David Letterman |
||
1121 | % |
||
1122 | Interfere? Of course we should interfere! Always do what you're |
||
1123 | best at, that's what I say. |
||
1124 | -- Doctor Who |
||
1125 | % |
||
1126 | It follows that any commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan |
||
1127 | which he considers defective is at fault; he must put forth his reasons, |
||
1128 | insist of the plan being changed, and finally tender his resignation rather |
||
1129 | than be the instrument of his army's downfall. |
||
1130 | -- Napoleon, "Military Maxims and Thought" |
||
1131 | % |
||
1132 | It got to the point where I had to get a haircut or both feet firmly |
||
1133 | planted in the air. |
||
1134 | % |
||
1135 | It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. |
||
1136 | % |
||
1137 | It is better to wear chains than to believe you are free, and weight |
||
1138 | yourself down with invisible chains. |
||
1139 | % |
||
1140 | It is difficult to legislate morality in the absence of moral legislators. |
||
1141 | % |
||
1142 | It is easier to be a "humanitarian" than to render your own country its |
||
1143 | proper due; it is easier to be a "patriot" than to make your community a |
||
1144 | better place to live in; it is easier to be a "civic leader" than to treat |
||
1145 | your own family with loving understanding; for the smaller the focus of |
||
1146 | attention, the harder the task. |
||
1147 | -- Sydney J. Harris |
||
1148 | % |
||
1149 | It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. |
||
1150 | -- Alfred Adler |
||
1151 | % |
||
1152 | It is enough to make one sympathize with a tyrant for the determination |
||
1153 | of his courtiers to deceive him for their own personal ends... |
||
1154 | -- Russell Baker and Charles Peters |
||
1155 | % |
||
1156 | It is impossible to defend perfectly against the attack of those who want |
||
1157 | to die. |
||
1158 | % |
||
1159 | It is like saying that for the cause of peace, God and the Devil will |
||
1160 | have a high-level meeting. |
||
1161 | -- Rev. Carl McIntire, on Nixon's China trip |
||
1162 | % |
||
1163 | It is necessary for the welfare of society that genius should be privileged |
||
1164 | to utter sedition, to blaspheme, to outrage good taste, to corrupt the |
||
1165 | youthful mind, and generally to scandalize one's uncles. |
||
1166 | -- George Bernard Shaw |
||
1167 | % |
||
1168 | It is not the critic who counts, or how the strong man stumbled, or whether |
||
1169 | the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the |
||
1170 | man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and |
||
1171 | blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who |
||
1172 | knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, and who spends himself in a |
||
1173 | worthy cause, and if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that |
||
1174 | he'll never be with those cold and timid souls who never know either victory |
||
1175 | or defeat. |
||
1176 | -- Teddy Roosevelt |
||
1177 | % |
||
1178 | It is now 10 p.m. Do you know where Henry Kissinger is? |
||
1179 | -- Elizabeth Carpenter |
||
1180 | % |
||
1181 | It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a |
||
1182 | sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate |
||
1183 | in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, |
||
1184 | too, shall pass away." |
||
1185 | -- Abraham Lincoln |
||
1186 | % |
||
1187 | It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better |
||
1188 | still to be a live lion. And usually easier. |
||
1189 | -- Lazarus Long |
||
1190 | % |
||
1191 | It pays in England to be a revolutionary and a bible-smacker most of |
||
1192 | one's life and then come round. |
||
1193 | -- Lord Alfred Douglas |
||
1194 | % |
||
1195 | It seems a little silly now, but this country was founded as a protest |
||
1196 | against taxation. |
||
1197 | % |
||
1198 | It seems like the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag. |
||
1199 | % |
||
1200 | It took a while to surface, but it appears that a long-distance credit card |
||
1201 | may have saved a U.S. Army unit from heavy casualties during the Grenada |
||
1202 | military rescue/invasion. Major General David Nichols, Air Force ... said |
||
1203 | the Army unit was in a house surrounded by Cuban forces. One soldier found |
||
1204 | a telephone and, using his credit card, called Ft. Bragg, N.C., telling Army |
||
1205 | officiers there of the perilous situation. The officers in turn called the |
||
1206 | Air Force, which sent in gunships to scatter the Cubans and relieve the unit. |
||
1207 | -- Aviation Week and Space Technology |
||
1208 | % |
||
1209 | "It was a Roman who said it was sweet to die for one's country. The |
||
1210 | Greeks never said it was sweet to die for anything. They had no vital lies." |
||
1211 | -- Edith Hamilton, "The Greek Way" |
||
1212 | % |
||
1213 | It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. |
||
1214 | Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top. |
||
1215 | -- Hunter S. Thompson |
||
1216 | % |
||
1217 | It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for. |
||
1218 | % |
||
1219 | It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression |
||
1220 | when you lose yours. |
||
1221 | -- Harry S. Truman |
||
1222 | % |
||
1223 | "It's a summons." |
||
1224 | "What's a summons?" |
||
1225 | "It means summon's in trouble." |
||
1226 | -- Rocky and Bullwinkle |
||
1227 | % |
||
1228 | It's getting uncommonly easy to kill people in large numbers, and the first |
||
1229 | thing a principle does -- if it really is a principle -- is to kill somebody. |
||
1230 | -- Dorothy L. Sayers, "Gaudy Night" |
||
1231 | % |
||
1232 | It's important that people know what you stand for. |
||
1233 | It's more important that they know what you won't stand for. |
||
1234 | % |
||
1235 | It's no surprise that things are so screwed up: everyone that knows how |
||
1236 | to run a government is either driving taxicabs or cutting hair. |
||
1237 | -- George Burns |
||
1238 | % |
||
1239 | It's the opinion of some that crops could be grown on the moon. Which raises |
||
1240 | the fear that it may not be long before we're paying somebody not to. |
||
1241 | -- Franklin P. Jones |
||
1242 | % |
||
1243 | Jacek, a Polish schoolboy, is told by his teacher that he has |
||
1244 | been chosen to carry the Polish flag in the May Day parade. |
||
1245 | "Why me?" whines the boy. "Three years ago I carried the flag |
||
1246 | when Brezhnev was the Secretary; then I carried the flag when it was |
||
1247 | Andropov's turn, and again when Chernenko was in the Kremlin. Why is |
||
1248 | it always me, teacher?" |
||
1249 | "Because, Jacek, you have such golden hands," the teacher |
||
1250 | explains. |
||
1251 | -- being told in Poland, 1987 |
||
1252 | % |
||
1253 | Join in the new game that's sweeping the country. It's called "Bureaucracy". |
||
1254 | Everybody stands in a circle. The first person to do anything loses. |
||
1255 | % |
||
1256 | Join the army, see the world, meet interesting, exciting people, and kill them. |
||
1257 | % |
||
1258 | Join the Navy; sail to far-off exotic lands, meet exciting interesting people, |
||
1259 | and kill them. |
||
1260 | % |
||
1261 | Just as most issues are seldom black or white, so are most good solutions |
||
1262 | seldom black or white. Beware of the solution that requires one side to be |
||
1263 | totally the loser and the other side to be totally the winner. The reason |
||
1264 | there are two sides to begin with usually is because neither side has all |
||
1265 | the facts. Therefore, when the wise mediator effects a compromise, he is |
||
1266 | not acting from political motivation. Rather, he is acting from a deep |
||
1267 | sense of respect for the whole truth. |
||
1268 | -- Stephen R. Schwambach |
||
1269 | % |
||
1270 | Keep your laws off my body! |
||
1271 | % |
||
1272 | Know thyself. If you need help, call the C.I.A. |
||
1273 | % |
||
1274 | L'etat c'est moi. |
||
1275 | [I am the state.] |
||
1276 | -- Louis XIV |
||
1277 | % |
||
1278 | Law stands mute in the midst of arms. |
||
1279 | -- Marcus Tullius Cicero |
||
1280 | % |
||
1281 | Lawful Dungeon Master -- and they're MY laws! |
||
1282 | % |
||
1283 | Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it; what |
||
1284 | is happening in America is that those parades are getting smaller and |
||
1285 | smaller -- and there are many more of them. |
||
1286 | -- John Naisbitt, "Megatrends" |
||
1287 | % |
||
1288 | Let no guilty man escape. |
||
1289 | -- U.S. Grant |
||
1290 | % |
||
1291 | Let the people think they govern and they will be governed. |
||
1292 | -- William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania |
||
1293 | % |
||
1294 | Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. |
||
1295 | -- John F. Kennedy |
||
1296 | % |
||
1297 | Liberty don't work as good in practice as it does in speeches. |
||
1298 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
1299 | % |
||
1300 | Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. |
||
1301 | -- Harry Emerson Fosdick |
||
1302 | % |
||
1303 | Life is a concentration camp. You're stuck here and there's no way |
||
1304 | out and you can only rage impotently against your persecutors. |
||
1305 | -- Woody Allen |
||
1306 | % |
||
1307 | Listen, there is no courage or any extra courage that I know of to find out |
||
1308 | the right thing to do. Now, it is not only necessary to do the right thing, |
||
1309 | but to do it in the right way and the only problem you have is what is the |
||
1310 | right thing to do and what is the right way to do it. That is the problem. |
||
1311 | But this economy of ours is not so simple that it obeys to the opinion of |
||
1312 | bias or the pronouncements of any particular individual, even to the President. |
||
1313 | This is an economy that is made up of 173 million people, and it reflects |
||
1314 | their desires, they're ready to buy, they're ready to spend, it is a thing |
||
1315 | that is too complex and too big to be affected adversely or advantageously |
||
1316 | just by a few words or any particular -- say, a little this and that, or even |
||
1317 | a panacea so alleged. |
||
1318 | -- D.D. Eisenhower, in response to: "Has the government |
||
1319 | been lacking in courage and boldness in facing up to |
||
1320 | the recession?" |
||
1321 | % |
||
1322 | Lots of folks are forced to skimp to support a government that won't. |
||
1323 | % |
||
1324 | Love America -- or give it back. |
||
1325 | % |
||
1326 | "MacDonald has the gift on compressing the largest amount of words into |
||
1327 | the smallest amount of thoughts." |
||
1328 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1329 | % |
||
1330 | Majorities, of course, start with minorities. |
||
1331 | -- Robert Moses |
||
1332 | % |
||
1333 | Man is a military animal, glories in gunpowder, and loves parade. |
||
1334 | -- P.J. Bailey |
||
1335 | % |
||
1336 | Man is by nature a political animal. |
||
1337 | -- Aristotle |
||
1338 | % |
||
1339 | Many a bum show has been saved by the flag. |
||
1340 | -- George M. Cohan |
||
1341 | % |
||
1342 | Massachusetts has the best politicians money can buy. |
||
1343 | % |
||
1344 | Message will arrive in the mail. Destroy, before the FBI sees it. |
||
1345 | % |
||
1346 | Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch. |
||
1347 | % |
||
1348 | Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms. |
||
1349 | -- Groucho Marx |
||
1350 | % |
||
1351 | Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. |
||
1352 | -- Groucho Marx |
||
1353 | % |
||
1354 | Most people want either less corruption or more of a chance to |
||
1355 | participate in it. |
||
1356 | % |
||
1357 | Mr. Salter's side of the conversation was limited to expressions of assent. |
||
1358 | When Lord Copper was right he said "Definitely, Lord Copper"; when he was |
||
1359 | wrong, "Up to a point." |
||
1360 | "Let me see, what's the name of the place I mean? Capital of Japan? |
||
1361 | Yokohama isn't it?" |
||
1362 | "Up to a point, Lord Copper." |
||
1363 | "And Hong Kong definitely belongs to us, doesn't it?" |
||
1364 | "Definitely, Lord Copper." |
||
1365 | -- Evelyn Waugh, "Scoop" |
||
1366 | % |
||
1367 | My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty |
||
1368 | nights -- or very early mornings -- when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, |
||
1369 | instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at |
||
1370 | a hundred miles an hour ... booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at |
||
1371 | the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which |
||
1372 | turnoff to take when I got to the other end ... but being absolutely certain |
||
1373 | that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were |
||
1374 | just as high and wild as I was: no doubt at all about that. |
||
1375 | -- Hunter S. Thompson |
||
1376 | % |
||
1377 | "My country, right or wrong" is a thing that no patriot would think |
||
1378 | of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying "My mother, |
||
1379 | drunk or sober." |
||
1380 | -- G.K. Chesterton, "The Defendant" |
||
1381 | % |
||
1382 | My experience with government is when things are non-controversial, beautifully |
||
1383 | co-ordinated and all the rest, it must be that not much is going on. |
||
1384 | -- J.F. Kennedy |
||
1385 | % |
||
1386 | My father was a saint, I'm not. |
||
1387 | -- Indira Gandhi |
||
1388 | % |
||
1389 | My folks didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they were there to meet |
||
1390 | the boat. |
||
1391 | % |
||
1392 | My own life has been spent chronicling the rise and fall of human systems, |
||
1393 | and I am convinced that we are terribly vulnerable. ... We should be |
||
1394 | reluctant to turn back upon the frontier of this epoch. Space is indifferent |
||
1395 | to what we do; it has no feeling, no design, no interest in whether or not |
||
1396 | we grapple with it. But we cannot be indifferent to space, because the grand, |
||
1397 | slow march of intelligence has brought us, in our generation, to a point |
||
1398 | from which we can explore and understand and utilize it. To turn back now |
||
1399 | would be to deny our history, our capabilities. |
||
1400 | -- James A. Michener |
||
1401 | % |
||
1402 | NAPOLEON: What shall we do with this soldier, Giuseppe? Everything he |
||
1403 | says is wrong. |
||
1404 | GIUSEPPE: Make him a general, Excellency, and then everything he says |
||
1405 | will be right. |
||
1406 | -- G. B. Shaw, "The Man of Destiny" |
||
1407 | % |
||
1408 | National security is in your hands - guard it well. |
||
1409 | % |
||
1410 | Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. |
||
1411 | It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. |
||
1412 | -- William Pitt, 1783 |
||
1413 | % |
||
1414 | Neglect of duty does not cease, by repetition, to be neglect of duty. |
||
1415 | -- Napoleon |
||
1416 | % |
||
1417 | Nemo me impune lacessit. |
||
1418 | [No one provokes me with impunity] |
||
1419 | -- Motto of the Crown of Scotland |
||
1420 | % |
||
1421 | Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. |
||
1422 | -- Salvor Hardin, "Foundation" |
||
1423 | % |
||
1424 | Never trust an automatic pistol or a D.A.'s deal. |
||
1425 | -- John Dillinger |
||
1426 | % |
||
1427 | "Never underestimate the power of a small tactical nuclear weapon." |
||
1428 | % |
||
1429 | Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying |
||
1430 | as an income tax refund. |
||
1431 | -- F. J. Raymond |
||
1432 | % |
||
1433 | Nihilism should commence with oneself. |
||
1434 | % |
||
1435 | No man's ambition has a right to stand in the way of performing a simple |
||
1436 | act of justice. |
||
1437 | -- John Altgeld |
||
1438 | % |
||
1439 | No matter whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not, th' supreme |
||
1440 | court follows th' iliction returns. |
||
1441 | -- Mr. Dooley |
||
1442 | % |
||
1443 | No, my friend, the way to have good and safe government, is not to trust it |
||
1444 | all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly |
||
1445 | the functions he is competent to. It is by dividing and subdividing these |
||
1446 | republics from the national one down through all its subordinations, until it |
||
1447 | ends in the administration of every man's farm by himself; by placing under |
||
1448 | every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best. |
||
1449 | -- Thomas Jefferson, to Joseph Cabell, 1816 |
||
1450 | % |
||
1451 | No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he had only had good |
||
1452 | intentions. He had money as well. |
||
1453 | -- Margaret Thatcher |
||
1454 | % |
||
1455 | Nobody shot me. |
||
1456 | -- Frank Gusenberg, his last words, when asked by police |
||
1457 | who had shot him 14 times with a machine gun in the Saint |
||
1458 | Valentine's Day Massacre. |
||
1459 | |||
1460 | Only Capone kills like that. |
||
1461 | -- George "Bugs" Moran, on the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre |
||
1462 | |||
1463 | The only man who kills like that is Bugs Moran. |
||
1464 | -- Al Capone, on the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre |
||
1465 | % |
||
1466 | Nobody takes a bribe. Of course at Christmas if you happen to hold out |
||
1467 | your hat and somebody happens to put a little something in it, well, that's |
||
1468 | different. |
||
1469 | -- New York City Police Commissioner (Ret.) William P. |
||
1470 | O'Brien, instructions to the force. |
||
1471 | % |
||
1472 | Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. |
||
1473 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1474 | |||
1475 | Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as |
||
1476 | satisfying as an income tax refund. |
||
1477 | -- F.J. Raymond |
||
1478 | % |
||
1479 | Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it. |
||
1480 | -- Andrew Young |
||
1481 | % |
||
1482 | Nothing, nothing, nothing, no error, no crime is so absolutely repugnant |
||
1483 | to God as everything which is official; and why? because the official is |
||
1484 | so impersonal and therefore the deepest insult which can be offered to a |
||
1485 | personality. |
||
1486 | -- Soren Kierkegaard |
||
1487 | % |
||
1488 | Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature. |
||
1489 | % |
||
1490 | "Nuclear war would mean abolition of most comforts, and disruption of |
||
1491 | normal routines, for children and adults alike." |
||
1492 | -- Willard F. Libby, "You *Can* Survive Atomic Attack" |
||
1493 | % |
||
1494 | "Nuclear war would really set back cable." |
||
1495 | -- Ted Turner |
||
1496 | % |
||
1497 | O'Brien held up his left hand, its back toward Winston, with the |
||
1498 | thumb hidden and the four fingers extended. |
||
1499 | "How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?" |
||
1500 | "Four." |
||
1501 | "And if the Party says that it is not four but five -- then how many?" |
||
1502 | "Four." |
||
1503 | The word ended in a gasp of pain. |
||
1504 | -- George Orwell |
||
1505 | % |
||
1506 | Oh, I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal, I'd |
||
1507 | be irresponsible, too. |
||
1508 | -- Lichty & Wagner |
||
1509 | % |
||
1510 | Old soldiers never die. Young ones do. |
||
1511 | % |
||
1512 | On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only |
||
1513 | nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter |
||
1514 | what it does. |
||
1515 | -- Will Rogers |
||
1516 | % |
||
1517 | Once is happenstance, |
||
1518 | Twice is coincidence, |
||
1519 | Three times is enemy action. |
||
1520 | -- Auric Goldfinger |
||
1521 | % |
||
1522 | Once there was a marine biologist who loved dolphins. He spent his |
||
1523 | time trying to feed and protect his beloved creatures of the sea. One day, |
||
1524 | in a fit of inventive genius, he came up with a serum that would make |
||
1525 | dolphins live forever! |
||
1526 | Of course he was ecstatic. But he soon realized that in order to mass |
||
1527 | produce this serum he would need large amounts of a certain compound that was |
||
1528 | only found in nature in the metabolism of a rare South American bird. Carried |
||
1529 | away by his love for dolphins, he resolved that he would go to the zoo and |
||
1530 | steal one of these birds. |
||
1531 | Unbeknownst to him, as he was arriving at the zoo an elderly lion was |
||
1532 | escaping from its cage. The zookeepers were alarmed and immediately began |
||
1533 | combing the zoo for the escaped animal, unaware that it had simply lain down |
||
1534 | on the sidewalk and had gone to sleep. |
||
1535 | Meanwhile, the marine biologist arrived at the zoo and procured his |
||
1536 | bird. He was so excited by the prospect of helping his dolphins that he |
||
1537 | stepped absentmindedly stepped over the sleeping lion on his way back to his |
||
1538 | car. Immediately, 1500 policemen converged on him and arrested him for |
||
1539 | transporting a myna across a staid lion for immortal porpoises. |
||
1540 | % |
||
1541 | Once upon a time there was a kingdom ruled by a great bear. The peasants |
||
1542 | were not very rich, and one of the few ways to become at all wealthy was |
||
1543 | to become a Royal Knight. This required an interview with the bear. If |
||
1544 | the bear liked you, you were knighted on the spot. If not, the bear would |
||
1545 | just as likely remove your head with one swat of a paw. However, the family |
||
1546 | of these unfortunate would-be knights was compensated with a beautiful |
||
1547 | sheepdog from the royal kennels, which was itself a fairly valuable |
||
1548 | possession. And the moral of the story is: |
||
1549 | |||
1550 | The mourning after a terrible knight, nothing beats the dog of the bear that |
||
1551 | hit you. |
||
1552 | % |
||
1553 | Once you've seen one nuclear war, you've seen them all. |
||
1554 | % |
||
1555 | One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day. |
||
1556 | % |
||
1557 | One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to |
||
1558 | do and always a clever thing to say. |
||
1559 | -- Will Durant |
||
1560 | % |
||
1561 | One organism, one vote. |
||
1562 | % |
||
1563 | One planet is all you get. |
||
1564 | % |
||
1565 | One seldom sees a monument to a committee. |
||
1566 | % |
||
1567 | Only two kinds of witnesses exist. The first live in a neighborhood where |
||
1568 | a crime has been committed and in no circumstances have ever seen anything |
||
1569 | or even heard a shot. The second category are the neighbors of anyone who |
||
1570 | happens to be accused of the crime. These have always looked out of their |
||
1571 | windows when the shot was fired, and have noticed the accused person standing |
||
1572 | peacefully on his balcony a few yards away. |
||
1573 | -- Sicilian police officer |
||
1574 | % |
||
1575 | Our congratulations go to a Burlington Vermont civilian employee of the |
||
1576 | local Army National Guard base. He recently received a substational cash |
||
1577 | award from our government for inventing a device for optical scanning. |
||
1578 | His device reportedly will save the government more than $6 million a year |
||
1579 | by replacing a more expensive helicopter maintenance tool with his own, |
||
1580 | home-made, hand-held model. |
||
1581 | |||
1582 | Not suprisingly, we also have a couple of money-saving ideas that we submit |
||
1583 | to the Pentagon free of charge: |
||
1584 | |||
1585 | (a) Don't kill anybody. |
||
1586 | (b) Don't build things that do. |
||
1587 | (c) And don't pay other people to kill anybody. |
||
1588 | |||
1589 | We expect annual savings to be in the billions. |
||
1590 | -- Sojourners |
||
1591 | % |
||
1592 | Our sires' age was worse that our grandsires'. |
||
1593 | We their sons are more worthless than they: |
||
1594 | so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt. |
||
1595 | -- Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) |
||
1596 | % |
||
1597 | Our swords shall play the orators for us. |
||
1598 | -- Christopher Marlowe |
||
1599 | % |
||
1600 | Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. |
||
1601 | -- General Omar N. Bradley |
||
1602 | % |
||
1603 | Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. |
||
1604 | -- S. Johnson, "The Life of Samuel Johnson" by J. Boswell |
||
1605 | |||
1606 | In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last |
||
1607 | resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but |
||
1608 | inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. |
||
1609 | -- Ambrose Bierce |
||
1610 | |||
1611 | When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, |
||
1612 | he ignored the enormous possibilities of the word reform. |
||
1613 | -- Sen. Roscoe Conkling |
||
1614 | |||
1615 | Public office is the last refuge of a scoundrel. |
||
1616 | -- Boies Penrose |
||
1617 | % |
||
1618 | Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. |
||
1619 | -- Oscar Wilde |
||
1620 | % |
||
1621 | Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. |
||
1622 | -- Albert Einstein |
||
1623 | % |
||
1624 | Peace is much more precious than a piece of land... let there be no more wars. |
||
1625 | -- Mohammed Anwar Sadat, 1918-1981 |
||
1626 | % |
||
1627 | People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election. |
||
1628 | -- Otto Von Bismarck |
||
1629 | % |
||
1630 | People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction |
||
1631 | rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. |
||
1632 | -- John Kenneth Galbraith |
||
1633 | % |
||
1634 | People that can't find something to live for always seem to find something to |
||
1635 | die for. The problem is, they usually want the rest of us to die for it too. |
||
1636 | % |
||
1637 | People usually get what's coming to them ... unless it's been mailed. |
||
1638 | % |
||
1639 | People who develop the habit of thinking of themselves as world |
||
1640 | citizens are fulfilling the first requirement of sanity in our time. |
||
1641 | -- Norman Cousins |
||
1642 | % |
||
1643 | Perhaps the most widespread illusion is that if we were in power we would |
||
1644 | behave very differently from those who now hold it -- when, in truth, in |
||
1645 | order to get power we would have to become very much like them. (Lenin's |
||
1646 | fatal mistake, both in theory and in practice.) |
||
1647 | % |
||
1648 | Persistence in one opinion has never been considered a merit in political |
||
1649 | leaders. |
||
1650 | -- Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Ad familiares", 1st century BC |
||
1651 | % |
||
1652 | Pilfering Treasury property is paticularly dangerous: big thieves are |
||
1653 | ruthless in punishing little thieves. |
||
1654 | -- Diogenes |
||
1655 | % |
||
1656 | Poland has gun control. |
||
1657 | % |
||
1658 | Political history is far too criminal a subject to be a fit thing to |
||
1659 | teach children. |
||
1660 | -- W.H. Auden |
||
1661 | % |
||
1662 | Political speeches are like steer horns. A point here, a point there, |
||
1663 | and a lot of bull inbetween. |
||
1664 | -- Alfred E. Neuman |
||
1665 | % |
||
1666 | Political T.V. commercials prove one thing: some candidates can tell |
||
1667 | all their good points and qualifications in just 30 seconds. |
||
1668 | % |
||
1669 | Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even |
||
1670 | where there is no river. |
||
1671 | -- Nikita Khrushchev |
||
1672 | % |
||
1673 | Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. |
||
1674 | -- Arthur C. Clarke |
||
1675 | % |
||
1676 | Politicians speak for their parties, and parties never are, never have |
||
1677 | been, and never will be wrong. |
||
1678 | -- Walter Dwight |
||
1679 | % |
||
1680 | Politics -- the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign |
||
1681 | funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other. |
||
1682 | -- Oscar Ameringer |
||
1683 | % |
||
1684 | Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without |
||
1685 | greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics. |
||
1686 | -- Albert Camus |
||
1687 | % |
||
1688 | Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war, |
||
1689 | you can only be killed once. |
||
1690 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1691 | % |
||
1692 | Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing |
||
1693 | between the disastrous and the unpalatable. |
||
1694 | -- John Kenneth Galbraith |
||
1695 | % |
||
1696 | Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next |
||
1697 | week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to |
||
1698 | explain why it didn't happen. |
||
1699 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1700 | % |
||
1701 | Politics makes strange bedfellows, and journalism makes strange politics. |
||
1702 | -- Amy Gorin |
||
1703 | % |
||
1704 | Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the |
||
1705 | systematic organisation of hatreds. |
||
1706 | -- Henry Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams" |
||
1707 | % |
||
1708 | Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of matrydom to the |
||
1709 | reformers of error. |
||
1710 | -- Thomas Jefferson |
||
1711 | % |
||
1712 | Populus vult decipi. |
||
1713 | [The people like to be deceived.] |
||
1714 | % |
||
1715 | Post proelium, praemium. |
||
1716 | [After the battle, the reward.] |
||
1717 | % |
||
1718 | Postmen never die, they just lose their zip. |
||
1719 | % |
||
1720 | Poverty begins at home. |
||
1721 | % |
||
1722 | Poverty must have its satisfactions, else there would not be so many poor |
||
1723 | people. |
||
1724 | -- Don Herold |
||
1725 | % |
||
1726 | Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat. |
||
1727 | -- John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, 1981-1987 |
||
1728 | % |
||
1729 | Power is poison. |
||
1730 | % |
||
1731 | Power is the finest token of affection. |
||
1732 | % |
||
1733 | Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. |
||
1734 | -- Lord Acton |
||
1735 | % |
||
1736 | Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. |
||
1737 | -- Henry Adams |
||
1738 | % |
||
1739 | President Reagan has noted that there are too many economic pundits and |
||
1740 | forecasters and has decided on an excess prophets tax. |
||
1741 | % |
||
1742 | Put a rogue in the limelight and he will act like an honest man. |
||
1743 | -- Napoleon Bonaparte, "Maxims" |
||
1744 | % |
||
1745 | Question authority. |
||
1746 | % |
||
1747 | QUESTION AUTHORITY. |
||
1748 | |||
1749 | (Sez who?) |
||
1750 | % |
||
1751 | Question: Is it better to abide by the rules until they're changed or |
||
1752 | help speed the change by breaking them? |
||
1753 | % |
||
1754 | Remember folks. Street lights timed for 35 mph are also timed for 70 mph. |
||
1755 | -- Jim Samuels |
||
1756 | % |
||
1757 | "Remember, if it's being done correctly, here or abroad, it's ___not the U.S. |
||
1758 | Army doing it!" |
||
1759 | -- Good Morning VietNam |
||
1760 | % |
||
1761 | Reporter (to Mahatma Gandhi): Mr Gandhi, what do you think of Western |
||
1762 | Civilization? |
||
1763 | Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea. |
||
1764 | % |
||
1765 | Reunite Gondwondaland! |
||
1766 | % |
||
1767 | Rev. Jim: What does an amber light mean? |
||
1768 | Bobby: Slow down. |
||
1769 | Rev. Jim: What... does... an... amber... light... mean? |
||
1770 | Bobby: Slow down. |
||
1771 | Rev. Jim: What.... does.... an.... amber.... light.... |
||
1772 | % |
||
1773 | "Rights" is a fictional abstraction. No one has "Rights", neither machines |
||
1774 | nor flesh-and-blood. Persons... have opportunities, not rights, which they |
||
1775 | use or do not use. |
||
1776 | -- Lazarus Long |
||
1777 | % |
||
1778 | Rule the Empire through force. |
||
1779 | -- Shogun Tokugawa |
||
1780 | % |
||
1781 | Sauron is alive in Argentina! |
||
1782 | % |
||
1783 | Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency. |
||
1784 | -- Richard Nixon |
||
1785 | % |
||
1786 | Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny. |
||
1787 | % |
||
1788 | Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? |
||
1789 | [Who guards the Guardians?] |
||
1790 | % |
||
1791 | Sentenced to two years hard labor (for sodomy), Oscar Wilde stood handcuffed |
||
1792 | in driving rain waiting for transport to prison. "If this is the way Queen |
||
1793 | Victoria treats her prisoners," he remarked, "she doesn't deserve to have |
||
1794 | any." |
||
1795 | % |
||
1796 | Serfs up! |
||
1797 | -- Spartacus |
||
1798 | % |
||
1799 | Shah, shah! Ayatollah you so! |
||
1800 | % |
||
1801 | Sherry [Thomas Sheridan] is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken |
||
1802 | him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of |
||
1803 | stupidity, sir, is not in Nature. |
||
1804 | -- Samuel Johnson |
||
1805 | % |
||
1806 | Signs of crime: screaming or cries for help. |
||
1807 | -- The Brown University Security Crime Prevention Pamphlet |
||
1808 | % |
||
1809 | Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised |
||
1810 | when others believe him. |
||
1811 | -- Charles DeGaulle |
||
1812 | % |
||
1813 | Since aerosols are forbidden, the police are using roll-on Mace! |
||
1814 | % |
||
1815 | [Sir Stafford Cripps] has all the virtues I dislike and none of the |
||
1816 | vices I admire. |
||
1817 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
1818 | % |
||
1819 | Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work ... I did not, when |
||
1820 | a slave, understand the deep meanings of those rude, and apparently incoherent |
||
1821 | songs. I was myself within the circle, so that I neither saw nor heard as |
||
1822 | those without might see and hear. They told a tale which was then altogether |
||
1823 | beyond my feeble comprehension: they were tones, loud, long and deep, |
||
1824 | breathing the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest |
||
1825 | anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God |
||
1826 | for deliverance from chains. |
||
1827 | -- Frederick Douglass |
||
1828 | % |
||
1829 | So from the depths of its enchantment, Terra was able to calculate a course |
||
1830 | of action. Here at last was an opportunity to consort with Dirbanu on a |
||
1831 | friendly basis -- great Durbanu which, since it had force fields which Earth |
||
1832 | could not duplicate, must of necessity have many other things Earth could |
||
1833 | use; mighty Durbanu before whom we would kneel in supplication (with purely- |
||
1834 | for-defense bombs hidden in our pockets) with lowered heads (making invisible |
||
1835 | the knife in our teeth) and ask for crumbs from their table (in order to |
||
1836 | extrapolate the location of their kitchens). |
||
1837 | -- Theodore Sturgeon, "The World Well Lost" |
||
1838 | % |
||
1839 | ... so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those |
||
1840 | who wish to tyrranize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, |
||
1841 | and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious |
||
1842 | and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. |
||
1843 | -- Voltarine de Cleyre |
||
1844 | % |
||
1845 | So many men, so many opinions; every one his own way. |
||
1846 | -- Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) |
||
1847 | % |
||
1848 | Some men rob you with a six-gun -- others with a fountain pen. |
||
1849 | -- Woodie Guthrie |
||
1850 | % |
||
1851 | Somewhat alarmed at the continued growth of the number of employees |
||
1852 | on the Department of Agriculture payroll in 1962, Michigan Republican Robert |
||
1853 | Griffin proposed an amendment to the farm bill so that "the total number of |
||
1854 | employees in the Department of Agriculture at no time exceeds the number of |
||
1855 | farmers in America." |
||
1856 | -- Bill Adler, "The Washington Wits" |
||
1857 | % |
||
1858 | Stamp out organized crime!! Abolish the IRS. |
||
1859 | % |
||
1860 | Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? |
||
1861 | Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era -- the kind of peak that |
||
1862 | never comes again. San Fransisco in the middle sixties was a very special time |
||
1863 | and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long |
||
1864 | run... There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the |
||
1865 | Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could |
||
1866 | strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we |
||
1867 | were doing was right, that we were winning... |
||
1868 | And that, I think, was the handle -- that sense of inevitable victory |
||
1869 | over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't |
||
1870 | need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting |
||
1871 | -- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest |
||
1872 | of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go |
||
1873 | up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes |
||
1874 | you can almost ___see the high-water mark -- that place where the wave finally |
||
1875 | broke and rolled back. |
||
1876 | -- Hunter S. Thompson |
||
1877 | % |
||
1878 | Such a foolish notion, that war is called devotion, when the greatest |
||
1879 | warriors are the ones who stand for peace. |
||
1880 | % |
||
1881 | Support your local police force -- steal!! |
||
1882 | % |
||
1883 | Support your right to arm bears!! |
||
1884 | % |
||
1885 | Support your right to bare arms! |
||
1886 | -- A message from the National Short-Sleeved Shirt Association |
||
1887 | % |
||
1888 | Surprise! You are the lucky winner of random I.R.S. Audit! Just type |
||
1889 | in your name and social security number. Please remember that leaving |
||
1890 | the room is punishable under law: |
||
1891 | |||
1892 | Name |
||
1893 | # |
||
1894 | % |
||
1895 | Take Care of the Molehills, and the Mountains Will Take Care of Themselves. |
||
1896 | -- Motto of the Federal Civil Service |
||
1897 | % |
||
1898 | Take your Senator to lunch this week. |
||
1899 | % |
||
1900 | TANSTAAFL |
||
1901 | % |
||
1902 | Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind |
||
1903 | the tree." |
||
1904 | -- Russell Long |
||
1905 | % |
||
1906 | Taxes are going up so fast, the government is likely to price itself |
||
1907 | out of the market. |
||
1908 | % |
||
1909 | Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed. |
||
1910 | % |
||
1911 | Ten persons who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. |
||
1912 | -- Napoleon I |
||
1913 | % |
||
1914 | That government is best which governs least. |
||
1915 | -- Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" |
||
1916 | % |
||
1917 | That's where the money was. |
||
1918 | -- Willie Sutton, on being asked why he robbed a bank |
||
1919 | |||
1920 | It's a rather pleasant experience to be alone in a bank at night. |
||
1921 | -- Willie Sutton |
||
1922 | % |
||
1923 | ... The Anarchists' [national] anthem is an international anthem that |
||
1924 | consists of 365 raspberries blown in very quick succession to the tune |
||
1925 | of "Camptown Races". Nobody has to stand up for it, nobody has to |
||
1926 | listen to it, and, even better, nobody has to play it. |
||
1927 | -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac" |
||
1928 | % |
||
1929 | The Army needs leaders the way a foot needs a big toe. |
||
1930 | -- Bill Murray |
||
1931 | % |
||
1932 | The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use |
||
1933 | in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the |
||
1934 | Declaration not for that, but for future use. |
||
1935 | -- Abraham Lincoln |
||
1936 | % |
||
1937 | The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive. |
||
1938 | % |
||
1939 | The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any |
||
1940 | reward. |
||
1941 | -- John Maynard Keynes |
||
1942 | % |
||
1943 | The better the state is established, the fainter is humanity. |
||
1944 | To make the individual uncomfortable, that is my task. |
||
1945 | -- Nietzsche |
||
1946 | % |
||
1947 | The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy. |
||
1948 | % |
||
1949 | The Constitution may not be perfect, but it's a lot better than what we've got! |
||
1950 | % |
||
1951 | The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself. |
||
1952 | -- Hilaire Belloc |
||
1953 | % |
||
1954 | The Crown is full of it! |
||
1955 | -- Nate Harris, 1775 |
||
1956 | % |
||
1957 | The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class |
||
1958 | is unfit to govern. |
||
1959 | -- Lord Acton |
||
1960 | % |
||
1961 | The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. |
||
1962 | -- F. Dostoyevski |
||
1963 | % |
||
1964 | The dirty work at political conventions is almost always done in the grim |
||
1965 | hours between midnight and dawn. Hangmen and politicians work best when |
||
1966 | the human spirit is at its lowest ebb. |
||
1967 | -- Russell Baker |
||
1968 | % |
||
1969 | The distinction between Freedom and Liberty is not accurately known; |
||
1970 | naturalists have been unable to find a living specimen of either. |
||
1971 | -- Ambrose Bierce |
||
1972 | % |
||
1973 | The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man |
||
1974 | really clever who has not found that he is stupid. |
||
1975 | -- Gilbert K. Chesterson |
||
1976 | % |
||
1977 | The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun. |
||
1978 | -- Buckminster Fuller |
||
1979 | % |
||
1980 | The eyes of taxes are upon you. |
||
1981 | % |
||
1982 | The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not |
||
1983 | utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, |
||
1984 | a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible. |
||
1985 | -- Bertrand Russell, in "Marriage and Morals", 1929 |
||
1986 | % |
||
1987 | The fact that people are poor or discriminated against doesn't necessarily |
||
1988 | endow them with any special qualities of justice, nobility, charity or |
||
1989 | compassion. |
||
1990 | -- Saul Alinsky |
||
1991 | % |
||
1992 | The famous politician was trying to save both his faces. |
||
1993 | % |
||
1994 | The fashionable drawing rooms of London have always been happy to accept |
||
1995 | outsiders -- if only on their own, albeit undemanding terms. That is to |
||
1996 | say, artists, so long as they are not too talented, men of humble birth, |
||
1997 | so long as they have since amassed several million pounds, and socialists |
||
1998 | so long as they are Tories. |
||
1999 | -- Christopher Booker |
||
2000 | % |
||
2001 | The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. |
||
2002 | -- Abbie Hoffman |
||
2003 | % |
||
2004 | The founding fathers tried to set up a judicial system where the accused |
||
2005 | received a fair trial, not a system to insure an acquittal on technicalities. |
||
2006 | % |
||
2007 | The General disliked trying to explain the highly technical inner |
||
2008 | workings of the U.S. Air Force. |
||
2009 | "$7,662 for a ten cup coffee maker, General?" the Senator asked. |
||
2010 | In his head he ran through his standard explanations. "It's not so," |
||
2011 | he thought. "It's a deterrent." Soon he came up with, "It's computerized, |
||
2012 | Senator. Tiny computer chips make coffee that's smooth and full-bodied. Try |
||
2013 | a cup." |
||
2014 | The Senator did. "Pfffttt! Tastes like jet fuel!" |
||
2015 | "It's not so," the General thought. "It's a deterrent." |
||
2016 | Then he remembered something. "We bought a lot of untested computer |
||
2017 | chips," the General answered. "They got into everything. Just a little |
||
2018 | mix-up. Nothing serious." |
||
2019 | Then he remembered something else. It was at the site of the |
||
2020 | mysterious B-1 crash. A strange smell in the fuel lines. It smelled like |
||
2021 | coffee. Smooth and full bodied... |
||
2022 | -- Another Episode of General's Hospital |
||
2023 | % |
||
2024 | The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the |
||
2025 | people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people |
||
2026 | drudge along paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return. |
||
2027 | -- Gore Vidal |
||
2028 | % |
||
2029 | The government has just completed work on a missile that turned out to be a |
||
2030 | bit of a boondoggle; nicknamed "Civil Servant", it won't work and they can't |
||
2031 | fire it. |
||
2032 | % |
||
2033 | The Government just announced today the creation of the Neutron Bomb II. |
||
2034 | Similar to the Neutron Bomb, the Neutron Bomb II not only kills people |
||
2035 | and leaves buildings standing, but also does a little light housekeeping. |
||
2036 | % |
||
2037 | The graveyards are full of indispensable men. |
||
2038 | -- Charles de Gaulle |
||
2039 | % |
||
2040 | The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men |
||
2041 | of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. |
||
2042 | -- Justice Louis D. Brandeis |
||
2043 | % |
||
2044 | The greatest disloyalty one can offer to great pioneers is to refuse to |
||
2045 | move an inch from where they stood. |
||
2046 | % |
||
2047 | The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. |
||
2048 | -- Albert Einstein |
||
2049 | % |
||
2050 | The hater of property and of government takes care to have his warranty |
||
2051 | deed recorded, and the book written against fame and learning has the |
||
2052 | author's name on the title page. |
||
2053 | -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1831 |
||
2054 | % |
||
2055 | The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality |
||
2056 | of functions performed by private citizens. |
||
2057 | -- Alexis de Tocqueville |
||
2058 | % |
||
2059 | The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf |
||
2060 | has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know |
||
2061 | when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr. |
||
2062 | -- Will Rogers |
||
2063 | % |
||
2064 | The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; |
||
2065 | the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. |
||
2066 | -- Churchill |
||
2067 | % |
||
2068 | The introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the |
||
2069 | whole state, for styles of music are never disturbed without affecting |
||
2070 | the most important political institutions. ... The new style, gradually |
||
2071 | gaining a lodgement, quitely insinuates itself into manners and customs, |
||
2072 | and from it ... goes on to attack laws and constitutions, displaying the |
||
2073 | utmost impudence, until it ends by overturning everything. |
||
2074 | -- Plato, "Republic", 370 B.C. |
||
2075 | % |
||
2076 | The IRS spends God knows how much of your tax money on these toll-free |
||
2077 | information hot lines staffed by IRS employees, whose idea of a dynamite tax |
||
2078 | tip is that you should print neatly. If you ask them a real tax question, |
||
2079 | such as how you can cheat, they're useless. |
||
2080 | |||
2081 | So, for guidance, you want to look to big business. Big business never pays |
||
2082 | a nickel in taxes, according to Ralph Nader, who represents a big consumer |
||
2083 | organization that never pays a nickel in taxes... |
||
2084 | -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes" |
||
2085 | % |
||
2086 | The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free. |
||
2087 | -- Henry David Thoreau |
||
2088 | % |
||
2089 | The Least Successful Executions |
||
2090 | History has furnished us with two executioners worthy of attention. |
||
2091 | The first performed in Sydney in Australia. In 1803 three attempts were |
||
2092 | made to hang a Mr. Joseph Samuels. On the first two of these the rope |
||
2093 | snapped, while on the third Mr. Samuels just hung there peacefully until he |
||
2094 | and everyone else got bored. Since he had proved unsusceptible to capital |
||
2095 | punishment, he was reprieved. |
||
2096 | The most important British executioner was Mr. James Berry who |
||
2097 | tried three times in 1885 to hang Mr. John Lee at Exeter Jail, but on each |
||
2098 | occasion failed to get the trap door open. |
||
2099 | In recognition of this achievement, the Home Secretary commuted |
||
2100 | Lee's sentence to "life" imprisonment. He was released in 1917, emigrated |
||
2101 | to America and lived until 1933. |
||
2102 | -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures" |
||
2103 | % |
||
2104 | The Least Successful Police Dogs |
||
2105 | America has a very strong candidate in "La Dur", a fearsome looking |
||
2106 | schnauzer hound, who was retired from the Orlando police force in Florida |
||
2107 | in 1978. He consistently refused to do anything which might ruffle or |
||
2108 | offend the criminal classes. |
||
2109 | His handling officer, Rick Grim, had to admit: "He just won't go up |
||
2110 | and bite them. I got sick and tired of doing that dog's work for him." |
||
2111 | The British contenders in this category, however, took things a |
||
2112 | stage further. "Laddie" and "Boy" were trained as detector dogs for drug |
||
2113 | raids. Their employment was terminated following a raid in the Midlands in |
||
2114 | 1967. |
||
2115 | While the investigating officer questioned two suspects, they |
||
2116 | patted and stroked the dogs who eventually fell asleep in front of the |
||
2117 | fire. When the officer moved to arrest the suspects, one dog growled at |
||
2118 | him while the other leapt up and bit his thigh. |
||
2119 | -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures" |
||
2120 | % |
||
2121 | The less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag. |
||
2122 | -- Kin Hubbard |
||
2123 | % |
||
2124 | The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep. |
||
2125 | -- Woody Allen |
||
2126 | % |
||
2127 | "The Lord gave us farmers two strong hands so we could grab as much as |
||
2128 | we could with both of them." |
||
2129 | -- Joseph Heller, "Catch-22" |
||
2130 | % |
||
2131 | The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The |
||
2132 | terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency. |
||
2133 | -- Albert Einstein |
||
2134 | % |
||
2135 | The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The |
||
2136 | man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been. |
||
2137 | -- Alan Ashley-Pitt |
||
2138 | % |
||
2139 | The man with the best job in the country is the Vice President. All he has |
||
2140 | to do is get up every morning and say, "How's the President?" |
||
2141 | -- Will Rogers |
||
2142 | |||
2143 | The vice-presidency ain't worth a pitcher of warm spit. |
||
2144 | -- Vice President John Nance Garner |
||
2145 | % |
||
2146 | The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, |
||
2147 | while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. |
||
2148 | -- Wilhelm Stekel |
||
2149 | % |
||
2150 | The Minnesota Board of Education voted to consider requiring all |
||
2151 | students to do some "volunteer work" as a prerequisite to high school |
||
2152 | graduation. |
||
2153 | Senator Orrin Hatch said that "capital punishment is our society's |
||
2154 | recognition of the sanctity of human life." |
||
2155 | According to the tax bill signed by President Reagan on December 22, |
||
2156 | 1987, Don Tyson and his sister-in-law Barbara run a "family farm." Their |
||
2157 | "farm" has 25,000 employees and grosses $1.7 billion a year. But as a "family |
||
2158 | farm" they get tax breaks that save them $135 million a year. |
||
2159 | Scott L. Pickard, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of |
||
2160 | Public Works, calls them "ground-mounted confirmatory route markers." You |
||
2161 | probably call them road signs, but then you don't work in a government agency. |
||
2162 | It's not "elderly" or "senior citizens" anymore. Now it's "chrono- |
||
2163 | logically experienced citizens." |
||
2164 | According to the FAA, the propeller blade didn't break off, it was |
||
2165 | just a case of "uncontained blade liberation." |
||
2166 | -- Quarterly Review of Doublespeak (NCTE) |
||
2167 | % |
||
2168 | The Moral Majority is neither. |
||
2169 | % |
||
2170 | The more control, the more that requires control. |
||
2171 | % |
||
2172 | The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. |
||
2173 | % |
||
2174 | The new Congressmen say they're going to turn the government around. I |
||
2175 | hope I don't get run over again. |
||
2176 | % |
||
2177 | The Official Colorado State Vegetable is now the "state legislator". |
||
2178 | % |
||
2179 | The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky. |
||
2180 | -- David Gerrold |
||
2181 | % |
||
2182 | The poetry of heroism appeals irresitably to those who don't go to a war, |
||
2183 | and even more so to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy." |
||
2184 | -- Celine |
||
2185 | % |
||
2186 | The polite thing to do has always been to address people as they wish to be |
||
2187 | addressed, to treat them in a way they think dignified. But it is equally |
||
2188 | important to accept and tolerate different standards of courtesy, not |
||
2189 | expecting everyone else to adapt to one's own preferences. Only then can |
||
2190 | we hope to restore the insult to its proper social function of expressing |
||
2191 | true distaste. |
||
2192 | -- Judith Martin, "Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly |
||
2193 | Correct Behavior" |
||
2194 | % |
||
2195 | The politician is someone who deals in man's problems of adjustment. |
||
2196 | To ask a politician to lead us is to ask the tail of a dog to lead the dog. |
||
2197 | -- Buckminster Fuller |
||
2198 | % |
||
2199 | The price of greatness is responsibility. |
||
2200 | % |
||
2201 | The price of seeking to force our beliefs on others is that someday |
||
2202 | they might force their beliefs on us. |
||
2203 | -- Mario Cuomo |
||
2204 | % |
||
2205 | The primary theme of SoupCon is communication. The acronym "LEO" |
||
2206 | represents the secondary theme: |
||
2207 | |||
2208 | Law Enforcement Officials |
||
2209 | |||
2210 | The overall theme of SoupCon shall be: |
||
2211 | |||
2212 | Avoiding Communication with Law Enforcement Officials |
||
2213 | -- M. Gallaher |
||
2214 | % |
||
2215 | The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they seem to believe that |
||
2216 | for a group of people to behave in a way detrimental to the common good |
||
2217 | requires intent. |
||
2218 | % |
||
2219 | The problem with this country is that there is no death penalty for |
||
2220 | incompetence. |
||
2221 | % |
||
2222 | The public demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit |
||
2223 | raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties. |
||
2224 | -- H.L. Mencken, "Prejudice" |
||
2225 | % |
||
2226 | The public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble. |
||
2227 | -- Thomas Carlyle |
||
2228 | % |
||
2229 | The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but |
||
2230 | because it gave pleasure to the spectators. |
||
2231 | -- Thomas Macaulay, "History of England" |
||
2232 | % |
||
2233 | The question is, why are politicians so eager to be president? What is it |
||
2234 | about the job that makes it worth revealing, on national television, that |
||
2235 | you have the ethical standards of a slime-coated piece of industrial waste? |
||
2236 | -- Dave Barry, "On Presidential Politics" |
||
2237 | % |
||
2238 | The revolution will not be televised. |
||
2239 | % |
||
2240 | "The Right Honorable Gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests |
||
2241 | and to his imagination for his facts." |
||
2242 | -- Sheridan |
||
2243 | % |
||
2244 | The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today. |
||
2245 | -- Lewis Carroll |
||
2246 | % |
||
2247 | The scum also rises. |
||
2248 | -- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson |
||
2249 | % |
||
2250 | The so-called lessons of history are for the most part the rationalizations |
||
2251 | of the victors. History is written by the survivors. |
||
2252 | -- Max Lerner |
||
2253 | % |
||
2254 | The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering. |
||
2255 | % |
||
2256 | The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. |
||
2257 | The day has gone down in New England history as a terrible foretaste of |
||
2258 | Judgement Day. For at noon the skies turned from blue to grey and by |
||
2259 | mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that, in that religious age, |
||
2260 | men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing before the end came. |
||
2261 | The Connecticut House of Representatives was in session. And, as some of |
||
2262 | the men fell down and others clamored for an immediate adjournment, the |
||
2263 | Speaker of the House, one Col. Davenport, came to his feet. He silenced |
||
2264 | them and said these words: "The day of judgment is either approaching or |
||
2265 | it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I |
||
2266 | choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be |
||
2267 | brought." |
||
2268 | -- Alistair Cooke |
||
2269 | % |
||
2270 | The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians |
||
2271 | who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool |
||
2272 | all of the people all of the time. |
||
2273 | -- Franklin Adams |
||
2274 | % |
||
2275 | The two oldest professions in the world have been ruined by amateurs. |
||
2276 | -- G.B. Shaw |
||
2277 | % |
||
2278 | The two party system ... is a triumph of the dialectic. It showed that |
||
2279 | two could be one and one could be two and had probably been fabricated |
||
2280 | by Hegel for the American market on a subcontract from General Dynamics. |
||
2281 | -- I.F. Stone |
||
2282 | % |
||
2283 | The universe is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be |
||
2284 | ruled by interfering. |
||
2285 | -- Chinese proverb |
||
2286 | % |
||
2287 | The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of |
||
2288 | altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their |
||
2289 | views ... which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the |
||
2290 | facts that needs altering. |
||
2291 | -- Doctor Who, "Face of Evil" |
||
2292 | % |
||
2293 | "The wages of sin are death; but after they're done taking out taxes, |
||
2294 | it's just a tired feeling:" |
||
2295 | % |
||
2296 | The way I understand it, the Russians are sort of a combination of evil and |
||
2297 | incompetence... sort of like the Post Office with tanks. |
||
2298 | -- Emo Philips |
||
2299 | % |
||
2300 | The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great |
||
2301 | scholars great men. |
||
2302 | -- Oliver Wendell Holmes |
||
2303 | % |
||
2304 | The Worst Bank Robbery |
||
2305 | In August 1975 three men were on their way in to rob the Royal Bank of |
||
2306 | Scotland at Rothesay, when they got stuck in the revolving doors. They |
||
2307 | had to be helped free by the staff and, after thanking everyone, |
||
2308 | sheepishly left the building. |
||
2309 | A few minutes later they returned and announced their intention of |
||
2310 | robbing the bank, but none of the staff believed them. When they demanded |
||
2311 | 5,000 pounds in cash, the head cashier laughed at them, convinced that it |
||
2312 | was a practical joke. |
||
2313 | Then one of the men jumped over the counter, but fell to the floor |
||
2314 | clutching his ankle. The other two tried to make their getaway, but got |
||
2315 | trapped in the revolving doors again. |
||
2316 | % |
||
2317 | The Worst Prison Guards |
||
2318 | The largest number of convicts ever to escape simultaneously from a |
||
2319 | maximum security prison is 124. This record is held by Alcoente Prison, |
||
2320 | near Lisbon in Portugal. |
||
2321 | During the weeks leading up to the escape in July 1978 the prison |
||
2322 | warders had noticed that attendances had fallen at film shows which |
||
2323 | included "The Great Escape", and also that 220 knives and a huge quantity |
||
2324 | of electric cable had disappeared. A guard explained, "Yes, we were |
||
2325 | planning to look for them, but never got around to it." The warders had |
||
2326 | not, however, noticed the gaping holes in the wall because they were |
||
2327 | "covered with posters". Nor did they detect any of the spades, chisels, |
||
2328 | water hoses and electric drills amassed by the inmates in large quantities. |
||
2329 | The night before the breakout one guard had noticed that of the 36 |
||
2330 | prisoners in his block only 13 were present. He said this was "normal" |
||
2331 | because inmates sometimes missed roll-call or hid, but usually came back |
||
2332 | the next morning. |
||
2333 | "We only found out about the escape at 6:30 the next morning when |
||
2334 | one of the prisoners told us," a warder said later. [...] When they |
||
2335 | eventually checked, the prison guards found that exactly half of the gaol's |
||
2336 | population was missing. By way of explanation the Justice Minister, Dr. |
||
2337 | Santos Pais, claimed that the escape was "normal" and part of the |
||
2338 | "legitimate desire of the prisoner to regain his liberty." |
||
2339 | -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures" |
||
2340 | % |
||
2341 | There appears to be irrefutable evidence that the mere fact of overcrowding |
||
2342 | induces violence. |
||
2343 | -- Harvey Wheeler |
||
2344 | % |
||
2345 | There are a lot of lies going around.... and half of them are true. |
||
2346 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
2347 | % |
||
2348 | There are no manifestos like cannon and musketry. |
||
2349 | -- The Duke of Wellington |
||
2350 | % |
||
2351 | There are only two things in this world that I am sure of, death and |
||
2352 | taxes, and we just might do something about death one of these days. |
||
2353 | -- shades |
||
2354 | % |
||
2355 | There are two kinds of fool. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." |
||
2356 | And one says, "This is new, and therefore better" |
||
2357 | -- John Brunner, "The Shockwave Rider" |
||
2358 | % |
||
2359 | There but for the grace of God, goes God. |
||
2360 | -- Winston Churchill, speaking of Sir Stafford Cripps. |
||
2361 | % |
||
2362 | There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship. |
||
2363 | -- Ralph Nader |
||
2364 | % |
||
2365 | There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. |
||
2366 | -- Henry Kissinger |
||
2367 | % |
||
2368 | There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion. |
||
2369 | -- Anatole France |
||
2370 | % |
||
2371 | There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. |
||
2372 | -- Arthur C. Clarke |
||
2373 | % |
||
2374 | There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die, |
||
2375 | and we will conquer. Follow me. |
||
2376 | -- General Barnard E. Bee (CSA) |
||
2377 | % |
||
2378 | There is no act of treachery or mean-ness of which a political party |
||
2379 | is not capable; for in politics there is no honour. |
||
2380 | -- Benjamin Disraeli, "Vivian Grey" |
||
2381 | % |
||
2382 | There is no education that is not political. An apolitical |
||
2383 | education is also political because it is purposely isolating. |
||
2384 | % |
||
2385 | There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it. |
||
2386 | -- G.B. Shaw |
||
2387 | % |
||
2388 | There is no security on this earth. There is only opportunity. |
||
2389 | -- General Douglas MacArthur |
||
2390 | % |
||
2391 | There is not a man in the country that can't make a living for himself and |
||
2392 | family. But he can't make a living for them *and* his government, too, |
||
2393 | the way his government is living. What the government has got to do is |
||
2394 | live as cheap as the people. |
||
2395 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
2396 | % |
||
2397 | There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist -- |
||
2398 | the taxidermist leaves the hide. |
||
2399 | -- Mortimer Caplan |
||
2400 | % |
||
2401 | There is only one way to kill capitalism -- by taxes, taxes, and more taxes. |
||
2402 | -- Karl Marx |
||
2403 | % |
||
2404 | There is perhaps in every thing of any consequence, secret history, which |
||
2405 | it would be amusing to know, could we have it authentically communicated. |
||
2406 | -- James Boswell |
||
2407 | % |
||
2408 | There never was a good war or a bad peace. |
||
2409 | -- B. Franklin |
||
2410 | % |
||
2411 | There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government |
||
2412 | working for you. |
||
2413 | -- Will Rogers |
||
2414 | % |
||
2415 | There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead |
||
2416 | armadillos. |
||
2417 | -- Jim Hightower, Texas Agricultural Commissioner |
||
2418 | % |
||
2419 | They call them "squares" because it's the most complicated shape they can |
||
2420 | deal with. |
||
2421 | % |
||
2422 | "They make a desert and call it peace." |
||
2423 | -- Tacitus (55?-120?) |
||
2424 | % |
||
2425 | They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the |
||
2426 | system from within. I'm coming now I'm coming to reward them. First |
||
2427 | we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin. |
||
2428 | |||
2429 | I'm guided by a signal in the heavens. I'm guided by this birthmark on |
||
2430 | my skin. I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons. First we take Manhattan, |
||
2431 | then we take Berlin. |
||
2432 | |||
2433 | I'd really like to live beside you, baby. I love your body and your spirit |
||
2434 | and your clothes. But you see that line there moving through the station? |
||
2435 | I told you I told you I told you I was one of those. |
||
2436 | -- Leonard Cohen, "First We Take Manhattan" |
||
2437 | % |
||
2438 | "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary |
||
2439 | safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." |
||
2440 | -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 |
||
2441 | % |
||
2442 | They use different words for things in America. |
||
2443 | For instance they say elevator and we say lift. |
||
2444 | They say drapes and we say curtains. |
||
2445 | They say president and we say brain damaged git. |
||
2446 | -- Alexie Sayle |
||
2447 | % |
||
2448 | They will only cause the lower classes to move about needlessly. |
||
2449 | -- The Duke of Wellington, on early steam railroads. |
||
2450 | % |
||
2451 | They're giving bank robbing a bad name. |
||
2452 | -- John Dillinger, on Bonnie and Clyde |
||
2453 | % |
||
2454 | Thieves respect property; they merely wish the property to become |
||
2455 | their property that they may more perfectly respect it. |
||
2456 | -- G.K. Chesterton, "The Man Who Was Thursday" |
||
2457 | % |
||
2458 | This is a country where people are free to practice their religion, |
||
2459 | regardless of race, creed, color, obesity, or number of dangling keys... |
||
2460 | % |
||
2461 | Thompson, if he is to be believed, has sampled the entire rainbow of |
||
2462 | legal and illegal drugs in heroic efforts to feel better than he does. |
||
2463 | As for the truth about his health: I have asked around about it. I |
||
2464 | am told that he appears to be strong and rosy, and steadily sane. But we |
||
2465 | will be doing what he wants us to do, I think, if we consider his exterior |
||
2466 | a sort of Dorian Gray facade. Inwardly, he is being eaten alive by tinhorn |
||
2467 | politicians. |
||
2468 | The disease is fatal. There is no known cure. The most we can do |
||
2469 | for the poor devil, it seems to me, is to name his disease in his honor. |
||
2470 | From this moment on, let all those who feel that Americans can be as easily |
||
2471 | led to beauty as to ugliness, to truth as to public relations, to joy as to |
||
2472 | bitterness, be said to be suffering from Hunter Thompson's disease. I don't |
||
2473 | have it this morning. It comes and goes. This morning I don't have Hunter |
||
2474 | Thompson's disease. |
||
2475 | -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr., on Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Excerpt |
||
2476 | from "A Political Disease", Vonnegut's review of "Fear and |
||
2477 | Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" |
||
2478 | % |
||
2479 | "Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics." |
||
2480 | -- French Proverb |
||
2481 | % |
||
2482 | Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty |
||
2483 | Often have a share in their misfortunes. |
||
2484 | -- Bertolt Brecht, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" |
||
2485 | % |
||
2486 | Those who have some means think that the most important thing in the |
||
2487 | world is love. The poor know that it is money. |
||
2488 | -- Gerald Brenan |
||
2489 | % |
||
2490 | Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are |
||
2491 | men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean |
||
2492 | without the roar of its many waters. |
||
2493 | -- Frederick Douglass |
||
2494 | % |
||
2495 | To be excellent when engaged in administration is to be like the North |
||
2496 | Star. As it remains in its one position, all the other stars surround it. |
||
2497 | -- Confucius |
||
2498 | % |
||
2499 | To make tax forms true they should read "Income Owed Us" and "Incommode You". |
||
2500 | % |
||
2501 | To say you got a vote of confidence would be to say you needed a vote of |
||
2502 | confidence. |
||
2503 | -- Andrew Young |
||
2504 | % |
||
2505 | To think contrary to one's era is heroism. But to speak against it is madness. |
||
2506 | -- Eugene Ionesco |
||
2507 | % |
||
2508 | To use violence is to already be defeated. |
||
2509 | -- Chinese proverb |
||
2510 | % |
||
2511 | Today is a good day to bribe a high-ranking public official. |
||
2512 | % |
||
2513 | Too often I find that the volume of paper expands to fill the available |
||
2514 | briefcases. |
||
2515 | -- Governor Jerry Brown |
||
2516 | % |
||
2517 | Travel important today; Internal Revenue men arrive tomorrow. |
||
2518 | % |
||
2519 | Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last. |
||
2520 | -- Charles DeGaulle |
||
2521 | % |
||
2522 | True leadership is the art of changing a group from what it is to what |
||
2523 | it ought to be. |
||
2524 | -- Virginia Allan |
||
2525 | % |
||
2526 | Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers |
||
2527 | in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and |
||
2528 | was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy |
||
2529 | fog, so the Captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities. |
||
2530 | Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, |
||
2531 | "Light, bearing on the starboard bow." |
||
2532 | "Is it steady or moving astern?" the Captain called out. |
||
2533 | Lookout replied, "Steady, Captain," which meant we were on a dangerous |
||
2534 | collision course with that ship. |
||
2535 | The Captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: We are on |
||
2536 | a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees." |
||
2537 | Back came a signal "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees." |
||
2538 | In reply, the Captain said, "Send: I'm a Captain, change course 20 |
||
2539 | degrees!" |
||
2540 | "I'm a seaman second class," came the reply, "You had better change |
||
2541 | course 20 degrees." |
||
2542 | By that time, the Captain was furious. He spit out, "Send: I'm a |
||
2543 | battleship, change course 20 degrees." |
||
2544 | Back came the flashing light: "I'm a lighthouse!" |
||
2545 | We changed course. |
||
2546 | -- The Naval Institute's "Proceedings" |
||
2547 | % |
||
2548 | "Ubi non accusator, ibi non judex." |
||
2549 | |||
2550 | (Where there is no police, there is no speed limit.) |
||
2551 | -- Roman Law, trans. Petr Beckmann (1971) |
||
2552 | % |
||
2553 | Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a |
||
2554 | just man is also a prison. |
||
2555 | -- Henry David Thoreau |
||
2556 | % |
||
2557 | Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some |
||
2558 | ordinance under which you can be booked. |
||
2559 | -- Robert D. Sprecht, Rand Corp. |
||
2560 | % |
||
2561 | Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. |
||
2562 | -- J.K. Galbraith |
||
2563 | % |
||
2564 | Under every stone lurks a politician. |
||
2565 | -- Aristophanes |
||
2566 | % |
||
2567 | United Nations, New York, December 25. The peace and joy of the Christmas |
||
2568 | season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of all the military |
||
2569 | forces of the world. Panic reigns in the hearts of all the patriots of |
||
2570 | every persuasion. Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time |
||
2571 | low over the world. |
||
2572 | -- Isaac Asimov |
||
2573 | % |
||
2574 | Unknown person(s) stole the American flag from its pole in Etra Park sometime |
||
2575 | between 3pm Jan 17 and 11:30 am Jan 20. The flag is described as red, white |
||
2576 | and blue, having 50 stars and was valued at $40. |
||
2577 | -- Windsor-Heights Herald "Police Blotter", Jan 28, 1987 |
||
2578 | % |
||
2579 | Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out |
||
2580 | twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages. |
||
2581 | -- H. L. Mencken |
||
2582 | % |
||
2583 | Usually, when a lot of men get together, it's called a war. |
||
2584 | -- Mel Brooks, "The Listener" |
||
2585 | % |
||
2586 | Veni, vidi, vici. |
||
2587 | [I came, I saw, I conquered]. |
||
2588 | -- Gaius Julius Caesar |
||
2589 | % |
||
2590 | Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen |
||
2591 | at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects. |
||
2592 | -- Herodotus |
||
2593 | % |
||
2594 | Victory uber allies! |
||
2595 | % |
||
2596 | "Violence accomplishes nothing." What a contemptible lie! Raw, naked |
||
2597 | violence has settled more issues throughout history than any other method |
||
2598 | ever employed. Perhaps the city fathers of Carthage could debate the |
||
2599 | issue, with Hitler and Alexander as judges? |
||
2600 | % |
||
2601 | Violence is a sword that has no handle -- you have to hold the blade. |
||
2602 | % |
||
2603 | Violence is molding. |
||
2604 | % |
||
2605 | Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. |
||
2606 | -- Salvor Hardin |
||
2607 | % |
||
2608 | Vote anarchist. |
||
2609 | % |
||
2610 | War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left. |
||
2611 | % |
||
2612 | War hath no fury like a non-combatant. |
||
2613 | -- Charles Edward Montague |
||
2614 | % |
||
2615 | War is an equal opportunity destroyer. |
||
2616 | % |
||
2617 | War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it. |
||
2618 | -- Desiderius Erasmus |
||
2619 | % |
||
2620 | War is like love, it always finds a way. |
||
2621 | -- Bertolt Brecht, "Mother Courage" |
||
2622 | % |
||
2623 | War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military. |
||
2624 | -- Clemenceau |
||
2625 | % |
||
2626 | War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ketchup is a vegetable. |
||
2627 | % |
||
2628 | War spares not the brave, but the cowardly. |
||
2629 | -- Anacreon |
||
2630 | % |
||
2631 | [Washington, D.C.] is the home of... taste for the people -- the big, |
||
2632 | the bland and the banal. |
||
2633 | -- Ada Louise Huxtable |
||
2634 | % |
||
2635 | Washington, D.C: Fifty square miles almost completely surrounded by reality. |
||
2636 | % |
||
2637 | We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean |
||
2638 | the same thing. |
||
2639 | -- A. Lincoln |
||
2640 | % |
||
2641 | We are all born equal... just some of us are more equal than others. |
||
2642 | % |
||
2643 | We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glowworm. |
||
2644 | -- Winston Churchill |
||
2645 | % |
||
2646 | We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. |
||
2647 | -- Calvin Coolidge |
||
2648 | % |
||
2649 | We have not inherited the earth from our parents, we've borrowed it from |
||
2650 | our children. |
||
2651 | % |
||
2652 | ... we must not judge the society of the future by considering whether or not |
||
2653 | we should like to live in it; the question is whether those who have grown up |
||
2654 | in it will be happier than those who have grown up in our society or those of |
||
2655 | the past. |
||
2656 | -- Joseph Wood Krutch |
||
2657 | % |
||
2658 | We should be glad we're living in the time that we are. If any of us had been |
||
2659 | born into a more enlightened age, I'm sure we would have immediately been taken |
||
2660 | out and shot. |
||
2661 | -- Strange de Jim |
||
2662 | % |
||
2663 | We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if only words were |
||
2664 | taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things |
||
2665 | themselves. |
||
2666 | -- John Locke |
||
2667 | % |
||
2668 | We should have a Vollyballocracy. We elect a six-pack of presidents. |
||
2669 | Each one serves until they screw up, at which point they rotate. |
||
2670 | -- Dennis Miller |
||
2671 | % |
||
2672 | We the unwilling, led by the ungrateful, are doing the impossible. |
||
2673 | We've done so much, for so long, with so little, |
||
2674 | that we are now qualified to do something with nothing. |
||
2675 | % |
||
2676 | We totally deny the allegations, and we're trying to identify the allegators. |
||
2677 | % |
||
2678 | We tried to close Ohio's borders and ran into a Constitutional problem. |
||
2679 | There's a provision in the Constitution that says you can't close your |
||
2680 | borders to interstate commerce, and garbage is a form of interstate commerce. |
||
2681 | -- Ohio Lt. Governor Paul Leonard |
||
2682 | % |
||
2683 | We'll try to cooperate fully with the IRS, because, as citizens, we feel |
||
2684 | a strong patriotic duty not to go to jail. |
||
2685 | -- Dave Barry |
||
2686 | % |
||
2687 | Well, don't worry about it... It's nothing. |
||
2688 | -- Lieutenant Kermit Tyler (Duty Officer of Shafter Information |
||
2689 | Center, Hawaii), upon being informed that Private Joseph |
||
2690 | Lockard had picked up a radar signal of what appeared to be |
||
2691 | at least 50 planes soaring toward Oahu at almost 180 miles |
||
2692 | per hour, December 7, 1941. |
||
2693 | % |
||
2694 | Well, he didn't know what to do, so he decided to look at the government, |
||
2695 | to see what they did, and scale it down and run his life that way. |
||
2696 | -- Laurie Anderson |
||
2697 | % |
||
2698 | What a strange game. The only winning move is not to play. |
||
2699 | -- WOP, "War Games" |
||
2700 | % |
||
2701 | What does it take for Americans to do great things; to go to the moon, to |
||
2702 | win wars, to dig canals linking oceans, to build railroads across a continent? |
||
2703 | In independent thought about this question, Neil Armstrong and I concluded |
||
2704 | that it takes a coincidence of four conditions, or in Neil's view, the |
||
2705 | simultaneous peaking of four of the many cycles of American life. First, a |
||
2706 | base of technology must exist from which to do the thing to be done. Second, |
||
2707 | a period of national uneasiness about America's place in the scheme of human |
||
2708 | activities must exist. Third, some catalytic event must occur that focuses |
||
2709 | the national attention upon the direction to proceed. Finally, an articulate |
||
2710 | and wise leader must sense these first three conditions and put forth with |
||
2711 | words and action the great thing to be accomplished. The motivation of young |
||
2712 | Americans to do what needs to be done flows from such a coincidence of |
||
2713 | conditions. ... The Thomas Jeffersons, The Teddy Roosevelts, The John |
||
2714 | Kennedys appear. We must begin to create the tools of leadership which they, |
||
2715 | and their young frontiersmen, will require to lead us onward and upward. |
||
2716 | -- Dr. Harrison H. Schmidt |
||
2717 | % |
||
2718 | "What George Washington did for us was to throw out the British, so that we |
||
2719 | wouldn't have a fat, insensitive government running our country. Nice try |
||
2720 | anyway, George." |
||
2721 | -- D.J. on KSFO/KYA |
||
2722 | % |
||
2723 | What I want is all of the power and none of the responsibility. |
||
2724 | % |
||
2725 | What is status? |
||
2726 | Status is when the President calls you for your opinion. |
||
2727 | |||
2728 | Uh, no... |
||
2729 | Status is when the President calls you in to discuss a |
||
2730 | problem with him. |
||
2731 | |||
2732 | Uh, that still ain't right... |
||
2733 | STATUS is when you're in the Oval Office talking to the President, |
||
2734 | and the phone rings. The President picks it up, listens for a |
||
2735 | minute, and hands it to you, saying, "It's for you." |
||
2736 | % |
||
2737 | What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank? |
||
2738 | -- Bertold Brecht |
||
2739 | % |
||
2740 | What is the sound of one hand clapping? |
||
2741 | % |
||
2742 | What orators lack in depth they make up in length. |
||
2743 | % |
||
2744 | What we need is either less corruption, or more chance to participate in it. |
||
2745 | % |
||
2746 | What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority. |
||
2747 | -- Robert Altman |
||
2748 | % |
||
2749 | When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public |
||
2750 | property. |
||
2751 | -- Thomas Jefferson |
||
2752 | % |
||
2753 | When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not |
||
2754 | far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel |
||
2755 | is that it made it possible to go elsewhere. |
||
2756 | -- R.A. Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love" |
||
2757 | % |
||
2758 | When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog along to see |
||
2759 | the sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain |
||
2760 | relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten. |
||
2761 | -- Robert Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" |
||
2762 | % |
||
2763 | When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before |
||
2764 | the white men came, an Indian said simply "Ours." |
||
2765 | -- Vine Deloria, Jr. |
||
2766 | % |
||
2767 | When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced |
||
2768 | to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. |
||
2769 | -- Brendan Behan |
||
2770 | % |
||
2771 | When I hear a man applauded by the mob I always feel a pang of pity |
||
2772 | for him. All he has to do to be hissed is to live long enough. |
||
2773 | -- H.L. Mencken, "Minority Report" |
||
2774 | % |
||
2775 | When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now |
||
2776 | I'm beginning to believe it. |
||
2777 | -- Clarence Darrow |
||
2778 | % |
||
2779 | When in doubt, do what the President does -- guess. |
||
2780 | % |
||
2781 | When neither their poverty nor their honor is touched, the majority of men |
||
2782 | live content. |
||
2783 | -- Niccolo Machiavelli |
||
2784 | % |
||
2785 | When smashing monuments, save the pedstals -- they always come in handy. |
||
2786 | -- Stanislaw J. Lem, "Unkempt Thoughts" |
||
2787 | % |
||
2788 | When some people decide it's time for everyone to make big changes, |
||
2789 | it means that they want you to change first. |
||
2790 | % |
||
2791 | When taxes are due, Americans tend to feel quite bled-white and blue. |
||
2792 | % |
||
2793 | When the government bureau's remedies don't match your problem, you modify |
||
2794 | the problem, not the remedy. |
||
2795 | % |
||
2796 | When the revolution comes, count your change. |
||
2797 | % |
||
2798 | When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is |
||
2799 | not hereditary. |
||
2800 | -- Thomas Paine |
||
2801 | % |
||
2802 | When we jumped into Sicily, the units became separated, and I couldn't find |
||
2803 | anyone. Eventually I stumbled across two colonels, a major, three captains, |
||
2804 | two lieutenants, and one rifleman, and we secured the bridge. Never in the |
||
2805 | history of war have so few been led by so many. |
||
2806 | -- General James Gavin |
||
2807 | % |
||
2808 | When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve |
||
2809 | people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. |
||
2810 | -- Norm Crosby |
||
2811 | % |
||
2812 | When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship. |
||
2813 | -- Harry Truman |
||
2814 | % |
||
2815 | When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite. |
||
2816 | -- Winston Churchill, on formal declarations of war |
||
2817 | % |
||
2818 | When you live in a sick society, just about everything you do is wrong. |
||
2819 | % |
||
2820 | When you say that you agree to a thing in principle, you mean that |
||
2821 | you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice. |
||
2822 | -- Otto Von Bismarck |
||
2823 | % |
||
2824 | When you're in command, command. |
||
2825 | -- Admiral Nimitz |
||
2826 | % |
||
2827 | Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to |
||
2828 | see it tried on him personally. |
||
2829 | -- Abraham Lincoln |
||
2830 | % |
||
2831 | Where the system is concerned, you're not allowed to ask "Why?". |
||
2832 | % |
||
2833 | Where you stand depends on where you sit. |
||
2834 | -- Rufus Miles, HEW |
||
2835 | % |
||
2836 | Why bother building any more nuclear warheads until we use the ones we have? |
||
2837 | % |
||
2838 | Why can't you be a non-conformist like everyone else? |
||
2839 | % |
||
2840 | Why don't somebody print the truth about our present economic condition? |
||
2841 | We spent years of wild buying on credit, everything under the sun, whether |
||
2842 | we needed it or not, and now we are having to pay for it, howling like a |
||
2843 | pet coon. This would be a great world to dance in if we didn't have to |
||
2844 | pay the fiddler. |
||
2845 | -- The Best of Will Rogers |
||
2846 | % |
||
2847 | Will Rogers, having paid too much income tax one year, tried in |
||
2848 | vain to claim a rebate. His numerous letters and queries remained |
||
2849 | unanswered. Eventually the form for the next year's return arrived. In |
||
2850 | the section marked "DEDUCTIONS," Rogers listed: "Bad debt, US Government |
||
2851 | -- $40,000." |
||
2852 | % |
||
2853 | ... with liberty and justice for all ... who can afford it. |
||
2854 | % |
||
2855 | With reasonable men I will reason; |
||
2856 | with humane men I will plead; |
||
2857 | but to tyrants I will give no quarter. |
||
2858 | -- William Lloyd Garrison |
||
2859 | % |
||
2860 | Workers of the world, arise! You have nothing to lose but your chairs. |
||
2861 | % |
||
2862 | World tensions have, if anything, increased in the quarter century since |
||
2863 | H.G. Wells uttered his glum warning: "There is no more evil thing on |
||
2864 | earth than race prejudice, none at all. I write deliberately -- it is |
||
2865 | the worst single thing in life now. It justifies and holds together more |
||
2866 | baseness, cruelty and abomination than any other sort of error in the world." |
||
2867 | -- Sydney Harris |
||
2868 | % |
||
2869 | World War Three can be averted by adherence to a strictly enforced dress code! |
||
2870 | % |
||
2871 | "Wrong," said Renner. |
||
2872 | "The tactful way," Rod said quietly, "the polite way to disagree with |
||
2873 | the Senator would be to say, `That turns out not to be the case.'" |
||
2874 | % |
||
2875 | You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having |
||
2876 | both at once. |
||
2877 | -- Lazarus Long |
||
2878 | % |
||
2879 | You first have to decide whether to use the short or the long form. The |
||
2880 | short form is what the Internal Revenue Service calls "simplified", which |
||
2881 | means it is designed for people who need the help of a Sears tax-preparation |
||
2882 | expert to distinguish between their first and last names. Here's the |
||
2883 | complete text: |
||
2884 | |||
2885 | "(1) How much did you make? (AMOUNT) |
||
2886 | (2) How much did we here at the government take out? (AMOUNT) |
||
2887 | (3) Hey! Sounds like we took too much! So we're going to |
||
2888 | send an official government check for (ONE-FIFTEENTH OF |
||
2889 | THE AMOUNT WE TOOK) directly to the (YOUR LAST NAME) |
||
2890 | household at (YOUR ADDRESS), for you to spend in any way |
||
2891 | you please! Which just goes to show you, (YOUR FIRST |
||
2892 | NAME), that it pays to file the short form!" |
||
2893 | |||
2894 | The IRS wants you to use this form because it gets to keep most of your |
||
2895 | money. So unless you have pond silt for brains, you want the long form. |
||
2896 | -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes" |
||
2897 | % |
||
2898 | You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, |
||
2899 | bad breeding, and a vulgar manner. |
||
2900 | -- Aristophanes |
||
2901 | % |
||
2902 | You must include all income you receive in the form of money, property |
||
2903 | and services if it is not specifically exempt. Report property (goods) |
||
2904 | and services at their fair market values. Examples include income from |
||
2905 | bartering or swapping transactions, side commissions, kickbacks, rent |
||
2906 | paid in services, illegal activities (such as stealing, drugs, etc.), |
||
2907 | cash skimming by proprietors and tradesmen, "moonlighting" services, |
||
2908 | gambling, prizes and awards. Not reporting such income can lead to |
||
2909 | prosecution for perjury and fraud. |
||
2910 | -- Excerpt from Taxachussetts income tax forms |
||
2911 | % |
||
2912 | You roll my log, and I will roll yours. |
||
2913 | -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca |
||
2914 | % |
||
2915 | You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for |
||
2916 | freedom and liberty. |
||
2917 | -- Henrik Ibsen |
||
2918 | % |