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Thought

William Cullen Bryant

Here the free spirit of mankind, at length, 
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place 
A limit to the giant’s unchained strength, 
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?

William Cullen Bryant, The Ages, XXXIII.
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Thought

Michael Rectenwald

[K]eep the beach heads that we have and spread out. Don’t give up the connections. We must retain the network of thought deviationism. . . .

Michael Rectenwald, author of Beyond Woke and the novel Thought Criminal, on Facebook, January 10, 4:26 AM. See also “Our Info War.”
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Thought

Washington Irving

The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.

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Thought

Epicurus

Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm.

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Thought

Frédéric Bastiat

[T]o destroy an error is to build up the truth that stands opposed to it.

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Thought

Ludwig von Mises

What characterizes capitalism is not the bad taste of the crowds, but the fact that these crowds, made prosperous by capitalism, became consumers of literature — of course, of trashy literature. The book market is flooded by a downpour of trivial fiction for the semibarbarians. But this does not prevent great authors from creating imperishable works.

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Thought

Frédéric Bastiat

Among the new arrangements that feeble mortals are invited to make trial of, there is one that is presented to us in terms worthy of attention. Its formula is: Association, voluntary and progressive.

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Thought

George Eliot

Most of us who have had decent parents would shrink from wishing that our father and mother had been somebody else whom we never knew; yet it is held no impiety, rather, a graceful mark of instruction, for a man to wail that he was not the son of another age and another nation, of which also he knows nothing except through the easy process of an imperfect imagination and a flattering fancy.

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879).
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Thought

Grover Cleveland

Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the Government, but they should scrupulously avoid in their political action, as well as in the discharge of their official duty, offending by a display of obtrusive partisanship their neighbors who have relations with them as public officials.

Stephen Grover Cleveland, 22nd President of the United States, message to the heads of departments (July 14, 1886).

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Thought

Tully

The distinguishing property of man is to search for and to follow after truth.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties, 44 BC.

Fun Fact: Roman politician, lawyer and philosopher Cicero was known as “Tully” by many of America’s Founding Fathers.