When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. Albert Einstein
Physicist, theory of relativity (1879-1955)
The Constitution…plainly is not adequate to protect the individual against the …
The Constitution…plainly is not adequate to protect the individual against the growing bureaucracy…. The individual is almost certain to be plowed under, unless he has a well-organized active political group to speak for him. … But if a powerful sponsor is lack, individual liberty withers. Justice William O. Douglas
1968
It is amazing at how small a price may the wedding ring …
It is amazing at how small a price may the wedding ring be placed upon a worthless hand; but, by the beauty of our law, what heaps of gold are indispensable to take it off! Douglas Jerold
1858
We’re going to pick up Senate seats as a result of …
We’re going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war [in 2008]. Sen. Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding. Senator Harry Reid
On the meaning of the Iraq War to the Democratic Party, April 13, 2007
America’s mission to the world did not end when the cold …
America’s mission to the world did not end when the cold war ended. Our mission is ongoing. Our mission is to continue to tell the world that we are for freedom and human rights of all men and women, for all time — and to do everything we can to transform the ancient dream and hope of freedom into a democratic reality everywhere! And with God’s help we will. Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp, November 30, 1990
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions …
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826)
By profession I am a soldier and take great pride in that …
By profession I am a soldier and take great pride in that fact, but I am prouder, infinitely prouder, to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentialities of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. General Douglas MacArthur
Reminiscences, 1964,1880-1964
Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by …
Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing. I just don’t get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups, which we can ill afford with a faltering economy.As with the massive boondoggle of the stimulus package, which Obama foolishly let Congress turn into a pork rut, too much has been attempted all at once; focused, targeted initiatives would, instead, have won wide public support. …It isn’t conservative rumors or lies that are stopping healthcare legislation; it’s the justifiable alarm of an electorate that has been cut out of the loop and is watching its representatives construct a tangled labyrinth for others but not for themselves. No, the airheads of Congress will keep their own plush healthcare plan — it’s the rest of us guinea pigs who will be thrown to the wolves….And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the “mob” — a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.But somehow liberals have drifted into a strange servility toward big government, which they revere as a godlike foster father-mother who can dispense all bounty and magically heal all ills. The ethical collapse of the left was nowhere more evident than in the near total silence of liberal media and Web sites at the Obama administration’s outrageous solicitation to private citizens to report unacceptable “casual conversations” to the White House. If Republicans had done this, there would have been an angry explosion by Democrats from coast to coast. I was stunned at the failure of liberals to see the blatant totalitarianism in this incident, which the president should have immediately denounced. His failure to do so implicates him in it….As a libertarian and refugee from the authoritarian Roman Catholic church of my youth, I simply do not understand the drift of my party toward a soulless collectivism. This is in fact what Sarah Palin hit on in her shocking image of a “death panel” under Obamacare that would make irrevocable decisions about the disabled and elderly. When I first saw that phrase, headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top! But on reflection, I realized that Palin’s shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate’s unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished. Camille Paglia
Obama supporter, August 12, 2009, Salon (while often wrong, she is certainly right here)
My concern extends beyond this single legislative moment. My concern extends beyond …
My concern extends beyond this single legislative moment. My concern extends beyond any single group in our society. My concern is for the freedom of all who live in it and for all who will be born into it. It is the general welfare that must be considered now, not just the special appeals for special welfare. This is the time to attend to the liberties of all. Barry Goldwater
Senator Barry Goldwater, June 18, 1964 (1909-1998)
I can only say that there is not a man living who …
I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of [slavery]…by Legislative authority… George Washington
In a letter to Robert Morris on April 12, 1786 (Fitzpatrick v.28, p.408).