Ageless Observations

My friend Dick Stephen-Hassard, who was a shipmate aboard the USS MAURY (AGS-16) back in 1965, sent me this gem:

Some of the great old quotes have taken on renewed meaning and importance.

AGELESS OBSERVATIONS

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."

~~~~~ Mark Twain

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress....But then I repeat myself."

~~~~~ Mark Twain

"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

~~~~~ Winston Churchill

"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."

~~~~~ George Bernard Shaw

"A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money."

~~~~~ G. Gordon Liddy

"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner."

~~~~~ James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries."

~~~~~ Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

~~~~~ P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

~~~~~ Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

~~~~~ Ronald Reagan (1986)

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."

~~~~~ Will Rogers

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!"

~~~~~ P.J. O'Rourke

"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."

~~~~~ Voltaire (1764)

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!"

~~~~~ Pericles (430 B.C.)

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."

~~~~~ Mark Twain (1866)

"Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it."

~~~~~ Unknown

"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."

~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."

~~~~~ Winston Churchill

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."

~~~~~ Mark Twain

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."

~~~~~ Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

"There is no distinctly Native American criminal class ... save Congress."

~~~~~ Mark Twain

"What this country needs are more unemployed politicians."

~~~~~ Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

~~~~~ Thomas Jefferson