Some quotes to make you think on this sunny afternoon…
Posted by MJ "revoltingpawn" on April 16, 2008
Some of my favorite collected quotes that have inspired me, made me think, and maybe some are thoughts to live by…
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton / Richelieu (act III, sc. 1, l. 49)
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Franklin
“It don’t mean a thing if you can’t get that Ping….”
Duke Ellington, 1932
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
historian Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-71)
“…we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.”
son of Kurt Vonnegut to him
“When fascism comes it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.”
Sinclair Lewis
“Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie… a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.”
George Orwell
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
George Orwell
“Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.”
J. R. R. Tolkien
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
J. R. R. Tolkien
“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932
The following are not notable quotes but just the asinine words of a failed President…
“…again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”
George Bush, referring to Osama bin Laden
“If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
George Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on –shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
George Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
I have made a permanent home for these on my favorite quotes page and will be adding more in the future.
April 25, 2008 at 11:42 am
MJ, It’s amazing how we would both pick a few of the exact same quotes, and interpret them in such different ways. Right now, this country is pretty evenly divided between conservative leaning people and liberal leaning people, do you think people are naturally inclined to lean one way or the other, or do you think it is mostly a product of a person’s environment?
April 26, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I didn’t state my interpretations of any of the given quotes… I do think dividing people between just conservative and liberal leaning is being overly simplified.
A person’s political philosophies are pretty much totally a product of their environment. Our parents, friends, relationships, church, eduction, and personal experiences shape us into what we are. People (sometimes) and institutions (government, church, marriage) even more so rob us of free thinking and creativity and tend to make us all conform (in someways ok). I think people need to be continually learning and growing and never accept anything as absolute truth.