Category: Thought

“. . . cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible…avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt….it is essential that you…bear in mind, that towards the payments of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not…inconvenient and unpleasant…”

“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world . . .”

“. . . avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.”

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.”

“I do not consider myself a hero. What have we come to if turning down a bribe is heroic?”

“The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.”

“Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.”

“The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.”

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“Hello? Uh, hello? Hello, Dmitri? Listen, I can’t hear too well, do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little? [pause] Oh, that’s much better. . . . Now then, Dmitri, you know how we’ve always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb. [pause] The BOMB, Dmitri! The hydrogen bomb! Well now, what happened is, uh, one of our base commanders, he had a sort of, well, he went a little funny in the head. You know. Just a little…funny. And uh, he went and did a silly thing. Well, I’ll tell you what he did, he ordered his planes…to attack your country. Well, let me finish, Dmitri. Let me finish, Dmitri. Well, listen, how do you think I feel about it? Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dmitri? . . . I’m just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened. It’s a friendly call. Of course it’s a friendly call. Listen, if it wasn’t friendly, you probably wouldn’t have even got it. They will not reach their targets for at least another hour. [pause] I’m sorry too, Dmitri. I’m very sorry. All right! You’re sorrier than I am! But I am sorry as well. I am as sorry as you are Dmitri. Don’t say that you are more sorry than I am, because I am capable of being just as sorry as you are. So we’re both sorry, all right? All right.”

“If we were directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we would soon want for bread.”

“The draft or draft registration destroys the very values our society is committed to defending.”

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”