Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.
— Arnold H. Glasow
To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.
— George Mason
Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
— Rita Mae Brown
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
— Sir Winston Churchill
The words of a President have an enormous weight, and ought not to be used indiscriminately.
— President Calvin Coolidge (R)
It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.
— Anatole France
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
— President Abraham Lincoln (R)
We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm.
— George Orwell
This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.
— Hannah Arendt
America’s high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I don’t just mean that they’re broken, flawed, or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools—even when they’re working as designed—cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.
— Bill Gates
So, let us not be blind to our differences—but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.
— President John F. Kennedy (D)
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
— Dante Alighieri
To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.
— Robert Frost
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
— Oscar Wilde
Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
— George Bernard Shaw
Creative thinkers make many false starts, and continually waver between unmanageable fantasies and systematic attack.
— Harry Hepner
Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man.…It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Love is not everything, it is merely one piece among many pieces that go into a functional relationship. Trust, respect, an ability to compromise, and compatibility with respect to goals, family, and finances are all equally important. Love, without those other factors, is nothing worth hanging on to.
— Scott Bradford
Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
Students will not be prepared for work in an economy that demands higher-order skills if their schools focus exclusively on the basics. Students will not learn to think for themselves if their schools expect them just to stay in line and keep quiet.
— Nick Rabkin and Robin Redmond, The Washington Post
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
— Thomas Edison
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
— Henry Drummond
Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one’s own person is its ultimate reward.
— Patricia Sampson
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.
— Sir Winston Churchill
The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.
— Dwight Morrow
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
— Peter Drucker
Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
— William Faulkner
Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations.
— Ralph Charell
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
— Albert Einstein
To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
— Samuel Johnson
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
— Mahatma Gandhi
Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.
— Oscar Wilde
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
— Bertrand Russell
We all sit around in a circle and suppose, while the secret sits in the center and knows.
— Robert Frost
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
— William M. Thackeray
Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
— William Jennings Bryan
Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
— King Solomon, Proverbs 17:28 (RSV)
Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.
— Comte DeBussy-Rabutin
Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.
— Sally Koch
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
— Mark Twain
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
— Samuel Johnson
All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.
— Ambrose Pierce
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.
— George Bernard Shaw
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
— Emile Zola
He is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
— Jim Elliot
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
— Albert Einstein
Too much democracy leads to tyranny.…Tyranny of the majority need not be institutionalized by law. Public opinion, when regarded too highly, also exercises tyranny.
— Alexis de Tocqueville
A man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
But let us never forget…beyond Europe’s borders, in a world where oppression and violence are very real, liberation is still a moral goal, and freedom and security still need defenders.
— President George W. Bush (R)
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
— Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler
Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
— President John F. Kennedy (D)
The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
— President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
Government doesn’t solve problems, it subsidizes them.
— President Ronald Reagan (R)
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.
— Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN)
Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates.
— President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
If you think too much about being reelected, it is very difficult to be worth reelecting.
— President Woodrow Wilson (D)
The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.
— Governor Adlai Stevenson (D-IL)
The wisest thing to do with a fool is encourage him to hire a hall and discourse to his fellow citizens. Nothing chills nonsense like exposure to air.
— President Woodrow Wilson (D)
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
— Soren Aabye Kierkegaard
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
— President John F. Kennedy (D)
People who live their lives selfishly and at the detriment of others are often the ones who complain loudest about how badly they think they’ve been mistreated.
— Scott Bradford
The United States has lasted well more than 200 years, but it is still young in the grand scheme of things. The apathy of the people can still be its downfall.
— Scott Bradford
When I say ‘follow your heart,’ it’s actually shorthand for ‘follow your heart unless your brain makes a reasonable objection.’
— Scott Bradford
It is sad that we live in a society where the haphazard money-driven PR stunt of a huge corporation is permitted to substitute for a life lesson.
— Scott Bradford
Never expect the worst, but always be ready for it anyway.
— Scott Bradford
It’s always good to break ice that you’re not standing on.
— Scott Bradford
So I’m just sayin’ to BREATHE while you go along in this relationship, because if two people leave each other breathless too long somebody’s gonna lose consciousness.
— Scott Bradford
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws…[that] disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
— Cesare Beccaria, “On Crimes and Punishments”, 1764
If you want to build a ship, then don’t drum up men to gather wood, give orders, and divide the work. Rather, teach them to yearn for the far and the endless sea.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along…. We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
— President George W. Bush (R)
Gun control historically serves as a gateway to tyranny. Tyrants from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason that unarmed people are easier to control.
— Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)
Our Founders, having just expelled the British army, knew that the right to bear arms serves as the guardian of every other right. This is the principle so often ignored by both sides in the gun control debate. Only armed citizens can resist tyrannical government.
— Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)
I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.
— Mahatma Ghandhi
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
— Mark Twain
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
— Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting
It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.
— Steve Jobs
A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.
— President George Washington
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.
— Adolf Hitler
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
— (If you seek peace, prepare for war.)
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation.…We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents an efficient challenge to a nation’s security to constitute maximum peril.
— President John F. Kennedy (D)
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
— Robert Hutchins
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
— Mahatma Gandhi
Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?…If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?
— Governor Patrick Henry (VA)
We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
— President Ronald Reagan (R)
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
— G. K. Chesterton
The real conflict is the inner conflict…. [T]here are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?
— Saint Maximilian Kolbe
The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers.
— Saint Maximilian Kolbe
So this is how liberty dies…with thunderous applause.
— Padmé Amidala, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church.…If we Catholics believed all of the untruths and lies which were said against the Church, we probably would hate the Church a thousand times more than they do.
— Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
— President Gerald Ford (R)
Today’s various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages[, and] the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are…anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man.
— Pope Benedict XVI
The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery.
— Pope Benedict XVI
Having a computer doesn’t make you a hacker. Having a lighter doesn’t make you an arsonist. And having a gun doesn’t make you a killer.
— Anonymous, The Chattanoogan, 7/7/2009
The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.
— President James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
— Sir Winston Churchill
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane[,] and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are.
— Henry Louis Mencken
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
— Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.
— Mark Twain
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
— Albert Einstein
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
— Albert Einstein
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
— Albert Einstein
It is to me a new and consolatory proof that wherever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
I believe America’s greatest problem is not un-godliness. It is not spiritual darkness. It is an un-repentant church who has decided that it is more important to be politically correct than it is to proclaim the principles of the Word.
— Senior Pastor Harry Jackson, Hope Christian Church
For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.
— Joseph Dunninger
It’s disingenuous to call something a ‘right’ if you simultaneously demand that people take advantage of their ‘right’ whether they want to or not. That’s not a right, it’s a command. Republics have rights; tyrants have commands.
— Scott Bradford
One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.
— President Ronald Reagan (R)
Our citizens have been always free to make, vend, and export arms…the benefits of them will be left equally free and open to all.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we’ve removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gifts of God?
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian [Nazi] onslaught on liberty. Up ’til then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty.
— Albert Einstein
It is only right, however, that at all times and in all places, the Church should have true freedom to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine, to exercise her role freely among men, and also to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when the fundamental rights of a person or the salvation of souls require it.
— Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
It is a fact, too—although a curious one—that the sale of small arms to gun enthusiasts or sportsmen produces a greater sense of moral outrage in western society than is produced by the sale to psychotic despots of weaponry capable of killing thousands.
— Margaret Thatcher
Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum est.
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer’s hands.)
Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.
— John Basil Barnhill, Indictment of Socialism No. 3
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
— Blessed Pope John Paul II
Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
— Blessed Pope John Paul II
If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!
— Saint Catherine of Sienna
We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.
— Saint Teresa of Avila
Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could.
— Saint Gregory Nazianzen
You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.
— Saint Therese of Lisieux
Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.
— Saint Rose of Lima
Pray, hope, and don’t worry.
— Saint Pio of Pietrelcino
Conscience has rights because it has duties.
— Blessed John Henry Newman
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:19-21 (RSV)
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
— Saint James, James 2:14-17 (RSV)
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
— Saint Jude, Jude 1:17-19 (RSV)
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 22:37-40 (RSV)
Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
— John 20:21-23 (RSV)
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
— General John Stark
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
— Governor Patrick Henry (VA)
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
— Mark Twain
All the armies of Europe combined could not by force make a track upon the Blue Ridge, or take a drink from the Ohio. If we are to be destroyed, we must do it ourselves.
— President Abraham Lincoln (R)
In free government the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.
— Benjamin Franklin
God who gave us life gave us liberty.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
…the [Catholic Church] has not merely told this truth or that truth, but has revealed itself as a truth-telling thing. All other philosophies say the things that plainly seem to be true; only this philosophy has again and again said the thing that does not seem to be true, but is true.
— G. K. Chesterton
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
— President George Washington
Civilization is an enormous improvement on the lack thereof.
— P. J. O’Rourke
To grasp the true meaning of socialism, imagine a world where everything is designed by the post office, even the sleaze.
— P. J. O’Rourke
The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take something and not pay for it.
— P. J. O’Rourke
You can’t get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That’s all you need to know about communism.
— P. J. O’Rourke
Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.
— P. J. O’Rourke
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican), The Federalist #62
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
— Benjamin Franklin
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
— Benjamin Franklin
I’ve lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth: That God governs in the Affairs of Men.
— Benjamin Franklin
…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
— Benjamin Franklin
If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it?
— Benjamin Franklin
I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.
— Saint Paul, 1 Timothy 3:14-15 (RSV)
Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.
— Margaret Thatcher
I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.
— Our Lady of Good Help, as recorded by Adele Brise, 1859
Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.
— Saint John of Kanty
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.
— “Yes, Virginia…” Editorial, The New York Sun, 1897
The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe. Contemplating it, we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God.
— Pope Benedict XVI
Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity.
— President George W. Bush (R)
Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
— Saint Teresa of Avila
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.
— Saint Francis de Sales
Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you…. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.
— Saint Francis de Sales
Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is better than merely to contemplate.
— Saint Thomas Aquinas
Love the sinner and hate the sin.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
An unjust law is no law at all.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light…although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odor.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
But it isn’t just a matter of faith, but of faith and works. Each is necessary. For the demons also believe and tremble, but their believing doesn’t do them any good. Faith alone is not enough, unless works too are joined to it: ‘Faith working through love,’ says the apostle.
— Saint Augustine of Hippo
No one in the world can change truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.
— Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.
— Saint John of the Cross
Much harm may result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse than what is better.
— Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.
— Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.
— Saint Peter of Alcantara
Comfort in tribulation can be secured only on the sure ground of faith holding as true the words of Scripture and the teaching of the Catholic Church.
— Saint Thomas More
If Saint Paul exhorts us to pray for one another, and we gladly think it right to ask every poor man to pray for us, should we think it evil to ask the holy Saints in Heaven to do the same?
— Saint Thomas More
The Devil never runs upon a man to seize him with his claws until he sees him on the ground, already having fallen by his own will.
— Saint Thomas More
The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.
— President George Washington
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
— President George Washington
It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones.
— President George Washington
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all.
— President George Washington
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
— President George Washington
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power….
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all.
— President John Adams (Federalist)
Virtue is not always amiable.
— President John Adams (Federalist)
The right of a nation to kill a tyrant, in cases of necessity, can no more be doubted, than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. But killing one tyrant only makes way for worse, unless the people have sense, spirit, and honesty enough to establish and support a constitution guarded at all points against the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.
— President John Adams (Federalist)
Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations….
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.
— President James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)
The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.
— President James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)
A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds…. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
— Governor Patrick Henry (VA)
It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this.
— Sec. of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.
— Sec. of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— First Amendment, United States Constitution
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
— Second Amendment, United States Constitution
No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
— Fifth Amendment, United States Constitution
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause….
— Fourth Amendment, United States Constitution
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
— Ninth Amendment, United States Constitution
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
— Tenth Amendment, United States Constitution
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an intolerable one….
— Thomas Paine, Common Sense
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
— God, Genesis 3:19 (RSV)
But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
— Edmund Burke
Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.
— Edmund Burke
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
— Edmund Burke
Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.
— Edmund Burke
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:3 (RSV)
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:4 (RSV)
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:5 (RSV)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:6 (RSV)
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:7 (RSV)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:8 (RSV)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:9 (RSV)
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:10 (RSV)
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:11-12 (RSV)
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:17-18 (RSV)
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen
— Ave Maria (Hail Mary), Traditional English Rendering
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.
— Fatima Prayer, Traditional English Rendering
A nation which kills its own children is a nation without a future.
— Blessed Pope John Paul II
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
— Saint John the Evangelist, 1 John 1:8-9 (RSV)
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him…
— Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (RSV)
Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, ‘God is hard to find.’
— Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90mph, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20.
— Sam Cohen
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
— Rita Mae Brown
Normal is the average of deviance.
— Rita Mae Brown
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.
— Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians 11:26-27 (RSV)
Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true.
— Blaise Pascal
…the [National Rifle] Association fills an important role in our national defense effort, and fosters in an active and meaningful fashion the spirit of the Minutemen.
— President John F. Kennedy (D)
I have attended public worship in all countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion, though I have not thought myself obliged to believe all I heard.
— President John Adams (Federalist)
I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.
— President Abraham Lincoln (R), (as recollected by Gilbert J. Greene)
Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right—a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world.
— President Abraham Lincoln (R)
Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal.
— President Abraham Lincoln (R)
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.
— President Abraham Lincoln (R)
[A] great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges.
— Benjamin Franklin
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
Let us see life as it really is…. It is a moment between two eternities.
— Saint Therese of Lisieux
God has created me to do him some definite service…. I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.
— Blessed John Henry Newman
The history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman’s motherhood.
— Blessed Pope John Paul II
There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.
— Saint Teresa of Jesus
Be not intimidated…nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery[,] and cowardice.
— President John Adams (Federalist)
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.’
— Saint John the Evangelist, Revelation 18:4-5 (RSV)
Such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
— President James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.
— Jesus Christ, John 6:51 (RSV)
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— U.S. Declaration of Independence
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it….
— U.S. Declaration of Independence
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
— U.S. Declaration of Independence
Likewise, our churches should not be afraid to challenge the moral decay that surrounds them today—even if the righteous stance is unpopular or ‘offensive’ in some (or even all) circles.
— Scott Bradford
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Drive out the wicked person from among you.’
— Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (RSV)
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
— King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (RSV)
I know that there is nothing better for [men] than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.
— King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (RSV)
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work.
— King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 (RSV)
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only…. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:36,42 (RSV)
Then if any one says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:23-24 (RSV)
I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
— Jesus Christ, John 12:46 (RSV)
Too many of us believe that the local police or our military…will always be there to protect us, and will always be on our side. Too many of us believe we will never need to act individually—violently, if necessary—to protect ourselves, our families, our liberty, our communities, or our country.
— Scott Bradford
You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, they are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.
— Saint John Vianney
Everything is grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love. Everything is grace because everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events–to the heart that loves, all is well.
— Saint Therese of Lisieux
Oh, how precious time is! Blessed are those who know how to make good use of it. Oh, if only all could understand how precious time is, undoubtedly everyone would do his best to spend it in a praiseworthy manner!
— Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
— Jesus Christ, John 14:21 (RSV)
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
— King Solomon, Proverbs 9:8 (RSV)
They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me.
— Jesus Christ, John 16:2-3 (RSV)
We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation—to make a point—than to further the cause of truth. The latter end is only pursued when it seems coincident with the former.
— Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Roget
Modern liberty means that nobody is allowed to discuss [religion]. Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions, has succeeded in silencing us where all the rest have failed.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
There was far more courage to the square mile in the Middle Ages, when no king had a standing army, but every man had a bow or sword.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
Now, the psychological discovery is merely this, that whereas it had been supposed that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by extending our ego to infinity, the truth is that the fullest possible enjoyment is to be found by reducing our ego to zero.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
But if there really be anything of the nature of progress, it must mean, above all things, the careful study and assumption of the whole of the past.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end where Paganism ended. I do not mean that we shall end in destruction. I mean that we shall end in Christianity.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
With us the governing class is always saying to itself, ‘What laws shall we make?’ In a purely democratic state it would be always saying, ‘What laws can we obey?’
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
Being full of that kindliness which should come at the end of everything, even of a book, I apologize to the rationalists even for calling them rationalists. There are no rationalists. We all believe fairy-tales, and live in them.
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 12:36-37 (RSV)
Salvation, while personal, is not private. To be incorporated into Christ is to be incorporated into his Church. You cannot sunder the two: it is not two in any case. It is one thing.
— Thomas Howard, On Being Catholic
O God, Present in this Most Holy Sacrament, O Bread of Angels, O heavenly food, I love Thee; but Thou art not, neither am I, satisfied with my love. I love Thee; but I love Thee too little.
— Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament
Thou art an infinite God, and I am a miserable worm. It would be little, did I die for Thee, or wear myself out for Thee, Who didst die for me, and dost sacrifice Thy entire self for me every day on the Altar.
— Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
— Saint Paul, Romans 12:21 (RSV)
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.
— Saint Paul, Galatians 5:13 (RSV)
You ask me for a method of obtaining perfection. I know of Love and Love only! Our hearts are made for this alone.
— Saint Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.
— Saint Paul, 1 Timothy 6:20-21 (RSV)
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.
— Saint Paul, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (RSV)
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works…. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
— Saint James, James 2:21-22, 26 (RSV)
But the devotion which we have to the Saints of God, whether living or dead, does not stop at them, but passes on to God, since we venerate God in God’s ministers.
— Saint Thomas Aquinas, On Prayer and The Contemplative Life
It is not just an accident that in our age inflation has become the accepted method of monetary management. Inflation is the fiscal complement of statism and arbitrary government. It is a cog in the complex of policies and institutions which gradually lead toward totalitarianism.
— Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit
If God exists, then He must be outside the natural world, and therefore the tools of science are not the right ones to learn about Him. Instead…the evidence of God’s existence would have to come from other directions, and the ultimate decision would be based on faith, not proof.
— Francis S. Collins, The Language of God
The church is made up of fallen people. The pure, clean water of spiritual truth is placed in rusty containers, and the subsequent failings of the church down through the centuries should not be projected onto the faith itself, as if the water had been the problem.
— Francis S. Collins, The Language of God
But do we not sometimes hear the thief contend that he is not guilty of sin, because he steals from the rich and the wealthy, who, in his mind, not only suffer no injury, but do not even feel the loss? Such an excuse is as wretched as it is baneful.
— The Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent
Nothing is so efficacious in appeasing God, when His wrath is kindled; nothing so effectually delays or averts the punishments prepared for the wicked as the prayers of men.
— The Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent
Who does not perceive how much we stand in need of the goodness and beneficence of God, if he but consider the extreme destitution and misery of man?
— The Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent
We are to pray for all mankind, without exception of enemies, nation or religion; for every man, be he enemy, stranger or infidel, is our neighbour, whom God commands us to love, and for whom, therefore, we should discharge a duty of love, which is prayer.
— The Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Council of Trent
The confusing in-fighting, doctrinal disunity, and ‘a-la-carte’ nature of the greater church in the world today is what made it possible for atheism, moral relativism, and disbelief to wedge in and become the norm in western society. This ongoing fracture provides ammunition for those who seek to dismiss Christianity as outmoded superstition.
— Scott Bradford
Non-believers have a difficult (if not impossible) time coming to the truth because there are now so many variants of ‘truth’ to choose from. Believers have an easy time abandoning their faith for the same reason.
— Scott Bradford
You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:43-45 (RSV)
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
— George Santayana
Each person matters; no human life is redundant.
— Basil Hume
But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
— Prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 20:11 (RSV)
Christianity doesn’t begin by telling people what they must do, but what God has done for them. Gift comes before duty.
— Father Raneiro Cantalamessa
The Church does not derive from human will, from reflection, from man’s ability and organizational capacity…if that were so it would have become extinct a long time ago, like all human things.
— Pope Benedict XVI
America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force…. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.
— President Calvin Coolidge (R), 1925 Inaugural Address
Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
— William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England
We concede—as we must—that so much of what [the Catholic Church says] is true: that the papacy has God’s word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received holy scriptures, baptism, the sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?
— Father Martin Luther
The more project management you do the less likely your project is to succeed.
— Douglas Merrill, Google
Reason itself is a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
In truth, the idea that there is a fundamental right to life is a liberal idea…. It is an idea that compassionately sees humanity in people who might seem un-human. It is an idea that won’t let you forget or ignore somebody just because they are hidden from view, or imperfect.
— Scott Bradford
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Those who don’t love you will tell you what you want to hear; those who love you will lead you to the truth.
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.
— Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
If God can work through me, He can work through anyone.
— Saint Francis of Assisi
Our government is still clothed in the garb of a republic, but more and more our representatives behave as if they are the American sovereigns and are un-bound by any limits on their authority. Many have forgotten that we are the sovereigns, we make the republic, and it is our job to keep it.
— Scott Bradford
Now anything the people demand that is right it is most clearly and most emphatically the duty of this Legislature to do; but we should never yield to what they demand if it is wrong.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
I would rather go out of politics having the feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing in my heart that I have acted as I ought not to.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
— Abba Eban
Have you been calumniated, my friends? Have you been loaded with insults? Have you been wronged? So much the better! That is a good sign; do not worry; you are on the road that leads to Heaven.
— Saint John Vianney, The Beloved Crosses
There can never be a contradiction between faith and science because both originate in God. It is God who gives us both the light of reason and of faith.
— Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.
— Tom Peters
By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
— John Maynard Keynes
Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?
— Governor Patrick Henry (VA)
Art is not freedom from discipline, but a disciplined freedom.
— Father Edward Catich
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply.
— Saint Francis de Sales
When circumstances change, I change my opinion.
— John Maynard Keynes
There are some people who seem to want to ask favors from God as a right. A pretty kind of humility that is! He Who knows us all does well in seldom giving things to such persons, He sees clearly that they are unable to drink of His chalice.
— Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection
I am an American by choice and conviction. I was born in Europe, but I came to America because this was the country based on my moral premises and the only country where one could be fully free to write.
— Ayn Rand
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
— Ayn Rand
If a man has a very decided character, has a strongly accentuated career, it is normally the case of course that he makes ardent friends and bitter enemies.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
[My father] gave me a piece of advice that I have always remembered, namely, that, if I was not going to earn money, I must even things up by not spending it. As he expressed it, I had to keep the fraction constant, and if I was not able to increase the numerator, then I must reduce the denominator.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
Pay no heed, then, to anyone who tries to frighten you or depicts to you the perils of the way. What a strange idea that one could ever expect to travel on a road infested by thieves, for the purpose of gaining some great treasure, without running into danger!
— Saint Teresa of Avila
…the more I see the better satisfied I am that I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
You must practice simplicity and humility, for those are the virtues which achieve everything. You must say: ‘Fiat voluntas tua.’
— Saint Teresa of Avila
…perfect souls are in no way repelled by trials, but rather desire them and pray for them and love them.
— Saint Teresa of Avila
But I advise you once more, even if you think you possess it, to suspect that you may be mistaken; for the person who is truly humble is always doubtful about his own virtues; very often they seem more genuine and of greater worth when he sees them in his neighbors.
— Saint Teresa of Avila
I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.
— Saint Paul, Romans 16:17-18 (RSV)
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
— Saint Paul, 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (RSV)
Better a thousand times err on the side of over-readiness to fight, than to err on the side of tame submission to injury, or cold-blooded indifference to the misery of the oppressed.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
Diplomacy is utterly useless when there is no force behind it; the diplomat is the servant, not the master of the soldier.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that a nation must win greatness.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
We are not making a revolution, we are merely recognizing and giving shape to an evolution.
— President Theodore Roosevelt (R)
Few people deny the existence of heaven (though, oddly, some do), but there are many who deny the existence of hell. And their motivation for doing so is understandable, if not correct. The only doctrine of the Church I wish weren’t true is the doctrine that hell exists.
— Patrick Madrid
For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.
— Saint Paul, Romans 2:6-8 (RSV)
[You] shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.
— Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. 100AD)
Whosoever, therefore, comes and teaches you all these things that have been said before, receive him. But if the teacher himself turns and teaches another doctrine to the destruction of this, hear him not.
— Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. 100AD)
If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.
— Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. 100AD)
And every prophet who teaches the truth, but does not do what he teaches, is a false prophet.
— Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. 100AD)
If he who comes is a wayfarer, assist him as far as you are able…. But if he has no trade, according to your understanding, see to it that, as a Christian, he shall not live with you idle. But if he wills not to do, he is a Christ-monger. Watch that you keep away from such.
— Early Church Fathers, The Didache (ca. 100AD)
Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.
— Steve Jobs
Interpretation of Scripture can never be a purely academic affair, and it cannot be relegated to the purely historical. Scripture is full of potential for the future, a potential that can only be opened up when someone ‘lives through’ and ‘suffers through’ the sacred text.
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth
The prevailing view today is that everyone should live by the religion—or perhaps by the atheism—in which he happens to find himself already. This, it is said, is the path of salvation for him. Such a view presupposes a strange picture of God and a strange idea of man and of the right way for man to live.
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth
In a word, the true morality of Christianity is love. And love does admittedly run counter to self-seeking—it is an exodus out of oneself, and yet this is precisely the way in which man comes to himself.
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth
Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
— Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:19 (RSV)
Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.
— Steve Jobs
Normally, thought precedes word; it seeks and formulates the word. But praying the Psalms and liturgical prayer in general is exactly the other way round: The word, the voice, goes ahead of us, and our mind must adapt to it.
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth
I love you, not because you have the power to give heaven or hell, but simply because you are you—my king and my God.
— Saint Francis Xavier
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Saint Paul, Romans 8:38-39 (RSV)
…[The] ancient world did in fact experience the birth of Christianity as a liberation from the fear of demons that, in spite of skepticism and enlightenment, was all-pervasive at the time. The same thing also happens today wherever Christianity replaces old tribal religions, transforming and integrating their positive elements into itself.
— Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth
The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune…. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.
— President Grover Cleveland (D)
The most neglected fact in business is that we’re all human.
— Chip Conley
The feminists hate me, don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison.
— Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)
Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.
— Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.
— Chuck Swindoll
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
— Alvin Toffle
I can’t help but laugh when I am condemned for believing in Heaven, Hell, and an invisible God by people who believe in invisible matter and hidden dimensions. We’re saying almost the same thing…. If we could stop getting distracted by our different phraseology, we’d find that we’re basically on the same page.
— Scott Bradford
The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.
— Gov. Samuel Adams (Democratic-Republican-MA)
The great masses will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.
— Adolf Hitler
If you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target.
— Unknown
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom–go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
— Gov. Samuel Adams (MA-Democratic-Republican)
…whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence.
— John Locke, Second Treatise on Government
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
— Sir Winston Churchill
It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason.
— Voltaire
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.
— President Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid.
— Carl Sagan
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
— Carl Sagan
