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Reflections on Government
email | December 8, 2004 | Unknown

Posted on 12/08/2004 1:32:17 PM PST by OESY

1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. ............Mark Twain

2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. ........Winston Churchill

3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. .............George Bernard Shaw

4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. ............G. Gordon Liddy

5) Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. .............James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

6) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. .......Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

7) Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ................P.J O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

8) Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. ..........Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

9) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. .........Ronald Reagan (1986)

10) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. ..............Will Rogers

11) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. .........P.J. O'Rourke

12) In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. ........Voltaire (1764)

13) Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. .........Pericles (430 B.C.)

14) No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. ....Mark Twain (1866)

15) Talk is cheap ... except when Congress does it. .....Unknown

16) The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. ........Ronald Reagan

17) The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. ......Winston Churchill

18) The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. .....Mark Twain

19) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. .......Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

20) There is no distinctly native American criminal class... save Congress. .....Mark Twain

21) What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. .......Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

22) A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. ........Thomas Jefferson


TOPICS: Government; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: bastiat; bovard; churchill; douglascasey; edwardlangley; herbertspencer; jefferson; liddy; marktwain; orourke; pericles; reagan; shaw; unknown; voltaire; willrogers

1 posted on 12/08/2004 1:32:17 PM PST by OESY
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To: OESY

nice! I will add some of yours to mine. (if thats ok)

http://www.neoperspectives.com/quotes.htm

On Government:

George Washington
Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master

Kenneth Baker
Socialists make the mistake of confusing individual worth with success. They believe you cannot allow people to succeed in case those who fail feel worthless.

Emily Vrabie
Don’t you know the difference between the two economic systems? Under capitalism man exploits man. But, under communism it’s the other way around.Winston Churchill
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of the miseries. 

Ronald Reagan
How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

Winston Churchill
If you are young, and not liberal, then you don't have a heart. If you are old, and not conservative, then you don't have a brain.

B.F.Skinner
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.*

H.L.Mencken
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make a better soup.

Ronald Reagan
There is nothing ignorant about my liberal friends; it's just that so much of what they know isn't so.

Daniel J. Boorstin
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge.*

Dr. Thomas Sowell
It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.

Henry David Thoreau
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life

Benjamin Franklin
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

Fredrick Douglas
What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us! Do nothing with us!....just let him alone!--your interference is doing him a positive injury.

Booker T. Washington
There is (a) class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs -- partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs ... There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.

Lizavetta
Modern liberalism requires everyone to look different but think the same.

Leo Tolstoy
The more that is given the less people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty is increased.

Ronald Reagan
The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.
Ronald Reagan

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

Ronald Reagan
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

Ronald Reagan
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem. 

Ronald Reagan
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Ronald Reagan
Today we are told we must choose between a left and right or, as others suggest, a third alternative, a kind of safe middle ground. I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism; and regardless of their humanitarian purpose those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path.

Thomas Jefferson
He who governs least, governs best. 

Robert Houghwout Jackson, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown
Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible. 

CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown
We no longer find slavery abhorrent. We embrace it. We demand more. Big government is not just the opiate of the masses. It is the opiate. The drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms; for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers and militant senior citizens.

Plutarch
The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.

The New York Times, in a 1909 editorial opposing the very first income tax
When men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others, they cannot easily be cured of it.

Benjamin Franklin
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

Benjamin Franklin
The king's cheese is half wasted in parings;
but no matter, 'tis made of the people's milk.

Benjamin Franklin
Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.

Benjamin Franklin
When there's no Law, there's no Bread.  

Dougals Adams
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Frank Dane
Never vote for the best candidate. Vote for the one that will do the last harm.

Mark Twain
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Mark Twain
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.

Ronald Reagan
To compare Congress to drunken sailors is an insult to drunken sailors.


2 posted on 12/08/2004 1:43:02 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/terrorism.htm)
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To: OESY

bump


3 posted on 12/08/2004 1:43:26 PM PST by blackeagle
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To: biblewonk
3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. .............George Bernard Shaw

Ping! :-) More gems above, too.

4 posted on 12/08/2004 1:45:40 PM PST by newgeezer (...until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.)
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To: OESY

ping


5 posted on 12/08/2004 1:47:49 PM PST by bigLusr (Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur)
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To: traviskicks

Excellent by both of you.

Bookmarked.


6 posted on 12/08/2004 1:49:18 PM PST by datura (It's Time To Destroy The UN.)
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To: OESY

(To a liberal): "Your compassion extends to the bottom of MY pocket!" - me.


7 posted on 12/08/2004 3:39:45 PM PST by Da Bilge Troll (The Compasionate Troll)
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To: traviskicks

Thanks. You have an impressive collection. I wish I hadn't forwarded my e-mail so quickly to other friends. LOL!


8 posted on 12/08/2004 4:18:56 PM PST by OESY
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To: OESY

thnx. i just updated my page with some of yours.


9 posted on 12/08/2004 4:39:19 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/terrorism.htm)
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To: OESY

This is my favorite:

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. .........P.J. O'Rourke


10 posted on 12/08/2004 4:39:58 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/terrorism.htm)
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To: traviskicks

Be wary of strong drink.
It can make you shoot at tax collectors, and miss.
—Robert A. Heinlein

"As night does not come at once, neither does
oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight
when everything remains unchanged. And it is in that
twilight that we must be most aware of the change in
the air, however slight; lest we become unwitting
victims of the darkness." -
US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas


11 posted on 12/08/2004 4:43:20 PM PST by NMC EXP (Choose one: [a] party [b] principle.)
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To: newgeezer
"How do you right women so well?".

"I start with a man, then I take away reason and accountability".

As Good as it Gets.

12 posted on 12/09/2004 6:38:58 AM PST by biblewonk (Neither was the man created for woman but the woman for the man.)
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