Quotations
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain, a Biography
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest
reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a
last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
--
Thomas Jeffersonfound to be false, 05/04/2014. See
Strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms (Quotation)On the other hand...
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms within his own lands.
--Thomas Jefferson, Draft Constitution for Virginia (June 1776) This quote often appears with the parenthetical omitted and with the spurious extension, "The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government". (See Jefferson Encyclopedia).
A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.
--Thomas Jefferson, WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 341 (Andrew A. Lipscomb ed., 1903). Letter to his nephew.
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
--Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, 1796. (The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, 20 Vols., Washington, D.C., 1903-04, 9:341.
The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, … or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.
--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Major John Cartwright (5 June 1824)
"Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%."
--not Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Galileo Galilei
Its failings notwithstanding, there is much to be said in favor of journalism
in that by giving us the opinion of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with
the ignorance of the community.
Oscar Wilde
Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty --
a beauty cold and austere, like that of a sculpture, without appeal to any
part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trapping of painting or music,
yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the
greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense
of being more than man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is
to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The
terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.
Albert Einstein
We trained hard...but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Not Petronius Arbiter, 210 BC
Police can't be everywhere, and as incidents from Columbine
to Virginia Tech demonstrate, by the time they show up at a
mass shooting, it's usually too late. On the other hand, one
group of people is, by definition, always on the scene: the
victims. Only if they're armed, they may wind up not being
victims at all.
Glenn Reynolds
Gentlemen, I have lived a long time and am convinced that
God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot
fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that
an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer
imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning
before we proceed to business.
Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Carl Sagan(Too bad his idea of "the universe as it really is" was a universe without God. He knows better now.)
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
Philip K. Dick(While actually a true statement, this seems like a poke at those who believe in something beyond what the eye can see. Another example of humanist reasoning that asserts that our senses and our rational thinking
will be able to find out everything there is - there is nothing beyond or outside our ability
to know. Seems rather arrogant to me.)
"The door of God's mercy is thrown wide open, and Christ stands in the door and says to sinners 'Come.'"
Johnathan Edwards, from his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."