Thought for Today

“‘Trust me’ government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what’s best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs—in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind of compact.”

~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

Thought for Today

"It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause."

~~~~~ H. L. Mencken

Thought for Today

“The principle of government control over information is inseparable from the principle of government control over people's lives.”

~~~~~ James Bovard

Thought for Today

“Capitalism is the greatest system ever created for alleviating general human misery, and yet it breeds ingratitude. People ask, ‘Why is there poverty in the world?’ It’s a silly question. Poverty is the default human condition... The interesting question isn’t ‘Why is there poverty?’ It’s ‘Why is there wealth?’ Or: ‘Why is there prosperity here but not there?’ At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labors are your own... In large measure our wealth isn’t the product of capitalism, it is capitalism. And yet we hate it. Leaving religion out of it, no idea has given more to humanity. The average working-class person today is richer, in real terms, than the average prince or potentate of 300 years ago. His food is better, his life longer, his health better, his menu of entertainments vastly more diverse, his toilette infinitely more civilized. And yet we constantly hear how cruel capitalism is while this collectivism or that is more loving because, unlike capitalism, collectivism is about the group, not the individual... Meanwhile, billions have ridden capitalism out of poverty. And yet the children of capitalism still whine.”

~~~~~ Jonah Goldberg

Thought for Today

“When World War II ended, the United States had the only undamaged industrial power in the world. Our military might was at its peak, and we alone had the ultimate weapon, the nuclear weapon, with the unquestioned ability to deliver it anywhere in the world. If we had sought world domination then, who could have opposed us? But the United States followed a different course, one unique in all the history of mankind. We used our power and wealth to rebuild the war-ravished economies of the world, including those of the nations who had been our enemies. May I say, there is absolutely no substance to charges that the United States is guilty of imperialism or attempts to impose its will on other countries, by use of force.”

~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

Thought for Today

“The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing. Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, ‘What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.’ But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.”

~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

Thought for Today

"Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of paradise, and the slaves of their own vaunts."

~~~~~ Francis Bacon

Thought for Today

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation."

~~~~~ John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819

Thought for Today

“If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs.”

~~~~~ Theodore Roosevelt

Thought for Today

"You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power – he's free again."

~~~~~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Thought for Today

"Facts have a cruel way of substituting themselves for fancies. There is nothing more remorseless, just as there is nothing more helpful, than truth."

~~~~~ William C. Redfield

Thought for Today

“The goal of the ‘liberals’ – as it emerges from the record of the past decades – was to smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus, statism was to come, not by vote or by violence, but by slow rot—by a long process of evasion and epistemological corruption, leading to a fait accompli.”

~~~~~ Ayn Rand

Thought for Today

"A sneer is the weapon of the weak."

~~~~~ James Russell Lowell

Thought for Today

"Last, but by no means least, courage, moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle; the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other."

~~~~~ Douglas MacArthur

Thought for Today

"A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake, as by never repeating it."

~~~~~ John Christian Bovee

Thought for Today

"Our elected officials don’t make America great, nor do temporal policies. America is great because of its people, its defining institutions and its freedoms."

~~~~~ Linda Chavez

Thought for Today

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."

~~~~~ John Quincy Adams

Thought for Today

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."

~~~~~ Abraham Lincoln

Thought for Today

"Hero worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom."

~~~~~ Herbert Spencer

Thought for Today

"By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn."

~~~~~ Latin proverb

Thought for Today

Years ago fairy tales all began with "Once upon a time... ;" now we know they all begin with, "If I am elected..."

~~~~~ Carolyn Warner

Thought for Today

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

~~~~~ George Orwell

Thought for Today

"Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants."

~~~~~ Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 1, 27 October 1787)

Thought for Today

"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."

~~~~~ Elbert Hubbard

Thought for Today

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

~~~~~ Isaac Asimov

Thought for Today

"Who overrefines his argument brings himself to grief."

~~~~~ Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Thought for Today

"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle."

~~~~~ George William Curtis

Thought for Today

"A pig ate his fill of acorns under an oak tree and then started to root around the tree. A crow remarked, `You should not do this. If you lay bare the roots, the tree will wither and die.' `Let it die,' said the pig. `Who cares so long as there are acorns?"

~~~~~ Government Fables

Thought for Today

“Before we panic about ‘global warming,’ we should take a look at six-day weather forecasts and see how much they change during those six days -- quite aside from how much they differ from what the weather actually turns out to be.”

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

“Entry into this country – either as an immigrant or a visitor – is a privilege, not a right. The safety of our citizens must come before the comfort and convenience of foreigners.”

~~~~~ Michelle Malkin