Quote O’ The Day – Page 8

A Principal source of errors and injustice, are false ideas of utility.
For example, that legislator has false ideas of utility, who considers particular more than general convenience; who had rather command the sentiments of mankind, than excite them, and dares say to reason, “Be thou a slave;” who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages, to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire, for fear of being burnt, and of water, for fear of being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it.

The laws of this nature, are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent.

Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance?

Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator; and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty?

It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack armed than unarmed persons.

— Cesare Beccaria in “On Crimes and Punishment” 1764

“You cannot truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of great violence. If you are not capable of violence, you are not peaceful, you are harmless”
–Stefan Grant

Appropriate to reiterate

“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.
– Voltaire

“Remember this, live by it, die for it if necessary: that our patriotism is medieval, outworn, obsolete; that the modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.”
– Mark Twain

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
– Adam Smith

The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion.
— James Burgh

On signing the Declaration of Independence:
“There, John Bull can read my name without spectacles!”

What it means to take rights seriously is that one will honor them even when there is significant social cost in doing so.
—Sanford Levinson

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who comes near that precious jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined.”
– Patrick Henry

“It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else’s opinion.”
– Thomas Sowell

When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.
– Victor Hugo

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the ‘ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome’. You must be willing to fire.
– T. Boone Pickens

The threat posed by humans to the natural environment is nothing compared to the threat to humans posed by global environmental policy.
— Fred L. Smith

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority.
There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.
-Daniel Webster.

Anybody who thinks Iran not having nuclear weapons benefits only Israel is a rat-brained lobotomite devoid of reasoning skills. – Cynical Publius

A well armed people make tyranny at scale far more costly. – FPC

May every mass shooter be hit by a truck then shot. – Kostas Moros

The Constitution is a written instrument. As such, its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it means now.
— The Supreme Court in South Carolina v. US, (1905)

We are becoming a nation of thieves by trying to live at everyone else’s expense. We have lost our moral mooring and the Church is partially responsible by failing to uphold its beliefs. One of the 10 Commandments says, “Thou shall not steal.” Now I am fairly confident that God did not mean, “Thou shall not steal–unless you get a majority vote.
– Walter Williams