Thomas Jefferson

To preserve their independence, we must not let our rules load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

In matters of style, swim with the current;In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Never spend your money before you have it.

French intellectual life has, in my opinion, been turned into something cheap and meretricious by the ‘star’ system. It is like Hollywood. Thus we go from one absurdity to another – Stalinism, existentialism. Lacan, Derrida – some of them obscene ( Stalinism), some simply infantile and ridiculous ( Lacan, Derrida). What is striking, however, is the pomposity and self-importance, at each stage.

I myself know some people who are gay. We’re on friendly terms. I’m not prejudiced in any way.

If the nation is not capable of preserving itself and reproducing, if it loses it vital bearings and ideals, then it doesn’t need foreign enemies – it will fall apart on its own.

It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.

A consistent anarchist must oppose private ownership of the means of production and the wage slavery which is a component of this system, as incompatible with the principle that labor must be freely undertaken and under the control of the producer.

Few people understand the magnitude of the catastrophe that happened late in the 1980s when the Communist Party had failed to modernize the Soviet Union.

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.

A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

The difference between a good govt. system and its poor administration is easily explained; the chief administrators are not Bosses in the best sense.

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.

But the issue has to do with land, which is our land.

Barack didn’t just talk about hope because he thought it was just a nice slogan to get votes. I mean, he and I and so many believe that if you – what else do you have if you don’t have hope?