"The price good man pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." (Plato)
"It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent." (W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage," 1915)
"I'm a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. (Abraham Lincoln)
"Facts are stupid things." (Ronald Reagan)
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man." (Bertrand Russell)
"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true." (Martin Luther King Jr.)
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President." (Theodore Roosevelt)
"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth." (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. (Sir Winston Churchill)
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." (George Carlin)
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. (Dwight D. Eisenhower)
"Law is mind without reason." (Aristotle)
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illulminates it." (Martin Lulther King, Jr.)
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." (Friedrich Nietzsche)
"Procrastination isn't the problem, it's the solution. So procrastinate now. Don't put it off." (Ellen DeGeneres)
"By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart." (Confucius)
"Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one later in life. It causes man to seek and accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position. (Bertrand Russell)
"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." (Douglas Adams)
"A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation." (Cicero)
"One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
"Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better." (George Santayana)
"It is knowledge that influences and equalizes the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal. (Benjamin Disraeli)
"Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance among the entire population." (Albert Einstein)
"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." (Sir Francis Bacon)
"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." (W. Somerset Maugham)
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to office." (Aesop)
"I belong to no organized party. I am a democrat." (Will Rogers)
"The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This make me forever ineligible for public office. (H. L. Mencken)
"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." (Dwight D. Eisenhower)
"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it." (Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")
"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." (Sir Winston Churchill)
"Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?" (Jane Austen)
"Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf Bourgignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are unlikely to do it very well." (Michael Wolfe, quoted by Naomi Klein in "The Shock Doctrine", p.426, paperback ed., 2008)
"I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there." (Confucius)
"The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others. (Theodore Roosevelt)
"But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!" (Friedrich Nietzsche, "Also Sprach Zarathustra")
"We are all here for a spell; get all the good laughs you can." (Will Rogers)
"Well, if crime fighters fight cime, and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?" (George Carlin)
"Tradition is a guide and not a jailer." (W. Somerset Maugham)
"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood." (Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love")
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." (Douglas Adams)
"There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know." (Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary")
"History, despite it wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again." (Maya Angelou)
"Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality." (George Santayana)
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality.It is enough if one tries to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." (Albert Einstein)
"Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that offers whiter teeth and fresher breath." (Dave Barry, "Kids Today; They Don't Know Dum Diddly Doo")
"Like all weak men, he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind." (W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage," 1915)
