QUOTES by AUTHOR - A to C | Revised : March 22, 2004
[RGD note: Please suggest additions as you see fit. Thx.]
ADAM, President John:
On Secrecy:
"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."
"Power must never be trusted without a check."
"Democracies die behind closed doors."
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ARENDT, Hannah:
On Tyranny: "Although tyranny, because it needs no consent may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people." -- Hannah Arendt
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ARMEY, Rep. Dick (R. TX)
On Diplomacy: "I learned real early on that if you're having a discussion about foreign policy, just say something disparaging about the French, and everybody will think you know what you're talking about."
nytimes.com
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ANGER:
"The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough."
-Bede Jarrett, "The House of Gold".
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ARISTOTLE:
"Thus, it is manifest that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and that those states are likeley to be well-administered in which the middle-class is larger, and stronger, if possible, than those of both other classes."
--Aristotle, "Politics" Book IV, Chapter 11
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AURELIUS, Marcus (121-180 A.D.)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
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BEARD, Charles Austin:
On Declaring Independence: "You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
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BEGALA, PAUL:
"I love when Republicans pretend that they're for prescription drug entitlement, they're for Medicare, they're for Social Security. This year's election is the greatest right-wing cross dressing since J. Edgar Hoover hung up his brassiere."
--Paul Begala, Crossfire, 09/03/02
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BIDDLE:
FDR's Atty. Gen. Francis Biddle noted, "The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime president."
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BISMARCK, Otto von
"Never believe anything in politics, until it has been officially denied."
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BRADLEY, General Omar -
"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."
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BRANDEIS, Louis
"Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for the law. --Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." --Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928
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BURKE, Edmund:
‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’
That quote from Edmund Burke in ‘Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents’ has, in general use, come to be delivered as, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’
Which ever version you prefer, the message is the same: evil will, therefore good must.
davidsisler.com
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BUSH, G.H.W. on Truth:
"Don't get enamored of the truth. There's no money in it."
-- George Herbert Walker Bush
Source: almartinraw.com
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BUSH, G.W.:
"verbosity leads to unclear, unarticulatable things."
"There ought to be limits to freedom."
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
George W. Bush, 12/18/00
"We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty."
George W Bush speaking before the UN General Assembly 11/10/2001
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The Big Lie Technique:
"Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber – a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed."- President George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001 -(No Irony Intended, obviously.)
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BUZZFLASH - SOUTHERN STYLE - Quotes for Labor Day
buzzflash.com
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CAESAR, Julius: (100-44 B.C.) [[Apocryphal. This one is an urban legend, Julius Caesar never said this.]]
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
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BYRD, Senator Robert:
"Shrouded in ambiguity and cloaked in deep secrecy, this administration continues to…drop its decisions upon the public and Congress, and expect obedient approval, without question, without debate, without opposition." —June 29, 2002
"I have often felt, in recent days, as if this 84-year-old man is the only thing standing between a White House hungry for power and the safeguards in the Constitution. That is not bragging—that is lamenting." —September 18, 2002
"We do not need obfuscation and denial. The American People need the truth." --Senator Robert Byrd, Sept. 20, 2002
"The people are being offered a bureaucratic behemoth [the Department of Homeland Security], complete with fancy, top-heavy directorates, officious new titles, and noble-sounding missions instead of real tools to help protect them from death and destruction. How utterly irresponsible. How callous. How cavalier.… Politics in Washington has reached the apogee of utter cynicism and the perigee of candor." —November 21, 2002
"This is no small conflagration we contemplate. This is no simple attempt to defang a villain. No. This coming battle, if it materializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possibly a turning point in the recent history of the world.… The doctrine of pre-emption…is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self-defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the U.N. Charter. And it is being tested at a time of worldwide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our—or some other nation's—hit list....
"To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any president who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50 percent children is 'in the highest moral traditions of our country.'" —February 12, 2003
"We cannot treat the citizens of this nation as if they are children who must be fed a fairy tale about fighting a glorious war of 'liberation' which will be cheap, short, and bloodless." —February 26, 2003
"Today I weep for my country…. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent, peacekeeper.… We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat U.N. Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet…. This administration has directed all of the anger, fear, and grief which emerged from the ashes of the twin towers and the twisted metal of the Pentagon towards a tangible villain, one we can see and hate and attack. And villain he is. But, he is the wrong villain. And this is the wrong war." —March 19, 2003
"This is not some made-for-TV backdrop for a campaign commercial. This is real life, and real lives have been lost. To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech. I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln, for they have performed bravely and skillfully…but I do question the motives of a desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech." —May 6, 2003
"What amazes me is that the president himself is not clamoring for an investigation. It is his integrity that is on the line.… And yet he has raised no questions…expressed no anger at the possibility that he might have been misled." —June 5, 2003
"The president has now stated that the war in Iraq is the central front on the war against terrorism. But it was our invasion of Iraq which has turned that nation into a staging ground for daily terrorist attacks against our occupation forces. If we are serious about protecting our country from terrorism, shouldn't the central front be the war on Al Qaeda? But at the White House…the president waves the bloody shirt of 9/11 and then subtly shifts the conversation to Iraq."
—September 10, 2003
motherjones.com
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CARVILLE, James
"My next thing is to drive mealy-mouthism from the Democratic Party. The American people are not going to elect somebody to defend America who cannot defend themselves.
Republicans have learned that they can say anything they want to. When you answer it, a lot of Democrats are horrified. They say you can't do that, that it's negativism. No, it's not. It's deciding that you aren't going to let thuggery work.
We are the party that knows what works. We are the party for fiscal discipline. We are the party for an economic policy that works. We are the party who had the respect of the world when our President went abroad."
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CHENEY, Dick:
"In a[n]… interview, Cheney told USA Today he was not worried about his image as the administration's Machiavelli, skilled in the quiet arts of persuading his 'Prince' to pursue questionable policies, adding, surprisingly unselfconsciously, 'Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually.'"
progressivetrail.org
See also: Message 19784110
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CHOMSKY, Noam
On Propaganada: "In every society, there will emerge a caste of propagandists who labour to disguise the obvious, to conceal the actual workings of power, and to spin a web of mythical goals and purposes, utterly benign, that allegedly guide national policy. "
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CHURCHILL, WINSTON:
The Truth: "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." -- Sir Winston Churchill
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CLINTON, HILLARY: "All I know is 18 months ago we had a surplus." |
