Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Quotes: Guns, Government, And Money

Read these quotes and see if you can guess who spoke them:

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted on, would save one-half of the wars of the world.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

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.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

Got a guess?  No, it's not Rush Limbaugh, although I think he would agree with pretty much all of these.  It's not Ronald Reagan, though Reagan believed most of these things, too.

These quotes all came from Thomas Jefferson.

As you can see, the Founders understood human nature, as well as the nature of government.  They deliberately designed the Constitution in such a way as to protect individual citizens from government as much as possible.  Sadly, our elected leaders have fallen away from that concept and philosophy over the years, especially recently.  That last quote, in particular, was from 1802, but it is eerily applicable to our current situation.

In regard to bailouts, I leave you with two more quotes:

"If you reward bad behavior, you get more of it."
-- Mark Steyn --

"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."
-- Ronald Reagan --

Amen!  Now, we have some bailout-slaying to do.

There's my two cents.

No comments: