Quotes Worth Thinking About Right Now

Here's another good load of quotes from Patriot Post.  All of these, I think, speak to our current situation.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
-- Ronald Reagan --

"But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years."
-- Thomas Jefferson --

"There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable. Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence."
-- James Madison --

"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys."
-- Thomas Jefferson --

If our current Congress and White House had any real grasp of these concepts, we would not be in the mess we're in.  It is the failure of our leaders over the past few (ahem...or many...) years that has led us to this point.  The American people now face a crossroads: do we continue to allow our elected leaders to wander further and further from fiscal responsibility, or do we force them -- through our calls, e-mails, and votes -- to return to the core principles of conservatism and the Founders?

But it's not just finances.  It's a general view of life that has become skewed.  To that end, here are some additional quotes from commentators in American history:

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."
-- Herbert Spencer --

"Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer."
-- Norman Mailer --

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
-- Mark Twain --

These really sum up all this hysteria about the bailouts.  In my little rant a couple days ago, I talked about how it was much better to teach a man to fish than to just give him a fish, even though it meant that man had to get off his butt and go do some work.  Well, Spencer's quote above illustrates what happens if we just keep handing out fish.

The other two quotes simply speak for themselves, and should be considered on a daily basis when we look at what our elected leaders are doing and how those actions are communicated to us.

There's my two cents.