Category: Thought

“Civil courage, in fact, can grow only out of the free responsibility of free men.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), p. 5.

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”

Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774).

“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant station to which the laws of nature & of nature’s god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change.

“We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles & organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses & usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government & to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government. The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.”

Thomas Jefferson first draft of the “Declaration of the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled,” July 3, 1776, Professor Julian Boyd’s reconstruction.

“One wonders that there can be found a man courageous enough to occupy the post. It is a matter of meditation. Having given it a few minutes I come to the conclusion in the serenity of my heart and the peace of my conscience that he must be either an extreme megalomaniac or an utterly unconscious being.”

Joseph Conrad on “The Censor of Plays,” 1907

“The economists observe man, the laws of his organization, and the social relations that result from those laws. The socialists conjure up an imaginary society, and then create a human heart to suit that society.”

Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Harmonies, preface: “Letter to the Youth of France.”

“Many a man can save himself if he admits he’s done wrong and takes his punishment.”

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879), Torvald Helmer, Act I

“You don’t get nothing for nothing in this life.”

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879), Dr. Rank, Act III

“I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as you are.”

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879), Nora Helmer, Act III

“You don’t get nothing for nothing in this life.”

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879), Dr. Rank, Act III