Actually, it is foolish inconsistency that is the hobgoblin of little minds. …

Actually, it is foolish inconsistency that is the hobgoblin of little minds. Well considered consistency with all the evidence available is the hallmark of an ordered mind and ordered thought. Anyone who says otherwise is either too dumb to realize it or too dishonest to acknowledge it. Christian H F Riley
July 6, 1991

I finished your book yesterday. . . Since I read Von Baer’s Essays …

I finished your book yesterday. . . Since I read Von Baer’s Essays nine years ago no work on Natural History Science I have met with has made so great an impression on me & I do most heartily thank you for the great store of new views you have given me. . .As for your doctrines I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite. . .I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse & misrepresentation which unless I greatly mistake is in store for you. . . And as to the curs which will bark and yelp — you must recollect that some of your friends at any rate are endowed with an amount of combativeness which (though you have often & justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead — I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness Thomas Henry Huxley
1825-1895, Letter of T. H. Huxley to Charles Darwin, November 23, 1859, regarding the Origin of Species

In a democracy, personal liberties are rarely diminished overnight. Rather, they are …

In a democracy, personal liberties are rarely diminished overnight. Rather, they are lost gradually, by acts of well-meaning people, with good intentions, amid publicapproval. But the subtle loss of freedom is never recognized until the crisis is over and we look back in horror. And then it is too late. Judge Andrew Napolitano
Ocotber 2001