Signature Quotes: Politics, Chapter 2

These are from my collection of sig quotes, collected from years of crawling about the Internet. Share and Enjoy...


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"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams.
"The very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind. ... In this field every person must be his own watchman for the truth, because the forefathers did not trust any government to separate the truth from the false for us." ...Thomas v Collins, 323 U.S. 516 (1945)
There are "three absolute rights [sic] the right of personal security, personal liberty and personal property," Sir William Blackstone. "The protection of these faculties is the first object of government." -- Madison, Federalist 10.
Speaking of the October 1984 bomb attack on Prime Minister Thatcher, Gerry Adams [of Sinn Fein] said, "the attack was a boost to the morale of those who suffer every day from British repression." -- Source: Reuters (October 1984)
"They were spraying fire extinguishers, yelling, singing, screaming and taking their clothes off, until they were told to stop and put their shirts back on - juvenile stiff, like what happens when we have 14-year olds." Emily Vetter, President of the Hotel Association in Washington, on New York City Police Officers who went on a drunken rampage while visiting Washington for a service honoring fallen comrades. Source: Boston Globe 5/20/95
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." -- Winston Churchill
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer too much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. -- Teddy Roosevelt.
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it." -- Winston Churchill
"We want individual freedoms. We want the government to stay out of our lives *except* that we want the government to prohibit acts of wickedness." -- RANDALL TERRY, FOUNDER OF "OPERATION RESCUE"
"...recent history suggests that the people in charge of this country's system of law, order and justice had better get their acts together pretty darn quick." -- Wall Street Journal in an editorial Tuesday, May 2, 1995
"Allowing for the dilemmas of the real world, we seem to have a double standard today: It says that law enforcement officials can do what they want with unpopular defendants like religious fanatics and white supremacists. But in dealing with suspects who might charge racial prejudice, they have to be careful indeed. Even in the wake of Oklahoma City, we are about to have the release of a Mario Van Peebles film making the Black Panthers into entertainment, guns and all." -- The Wall Street Journal editorial of May 2, 1995,
The standard FBI rules of engagement are:
"Agents are not to use deadly force against any person except as necessary in self-defense or the defense of another, when they have reason to believe they or another are in danger of death or grievous bodily harm. Whenever feasible, verbal warnings should be given before deadly force is applied."
"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." -- Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", 1921
They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here?" -- Paul Harvey 8/31/94
"....You can hear the sound of our chains being forged on the plains of Boston..." -- eternally angry dead white male, Patrick Henry....
39% of Americans think the Federal Government "poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans." - April 1995 Gallup Poll; US News & World Report; June 5, 1995; page 24
HR 896 (Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995) Sec. 101(b)(1) refers to whoever: "kills, kidnaps, maims, commits an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, or assaults with a dangerous weapon any individual within the United States; or ... destroys or damages any structure, conveyance or other real or personal property within the United States...."
"I think that some restriction on speech is appropriate." -Sen. Dianne Feinstein, on C-span2, Monday, June 5th, 1995
"The paranoid fear of government is an extremist position, and every one of us ought to say that" -- Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo.
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." -- Thomas Jefferson 1824
"Neither this nation nor this party can afford a candidate so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a president of the incompetent left." -- Sen. Arlen Specter
"The most dangerous place in Washington DC is between Charles Schumer and a camera." -- Dan Cassaro (dcass@freenet.fsu.edu)
"I'm not a member of an organized party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers
"Although I understand that it will be easy for my defense of Randy Weaver to be confused with an endorsement of the politics of the Aryan Nation, my challenge will be to demonstrate that we can still be a nation where the rights of the individual, despite his race, color, religion, remain supreme. If this be not so, then we are all lost. If this is not so, it is because we have forgotten the lessons of our histories--the history of the American Revolution as well as the history of the Holocaust." - Randy Weaver's Lawyer, Gerry Spence, in a letter to Alan Hirschfield who asked him not to defend Weaver.
"Jesse ain't running nothin' but his mouth." -- Marion Barry responding to rumors that the Rev. Jesse Jackson would run for Mayor of Washington, DC.
It's easy to look back at Hitler and realize that his regime was not a very nice one. But, as our own political destiny unfolds, it is important to recall that at the time, Hitler made sense to the German People. He was voted into the government prior to seizing total power, and even TIME Magazine declared Hitler their "man of the year" for the positive changes he was making in Germany.
".......the truth is, while the FBI is hiding behind the 5th Amendment, the Unabomer is qualifying for Social Security as a terrorist. Beam me up, Mr. Speaker." -- Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio) from House floor, Sep 19, 1995
"Do what you can, where you are, with what you have, and don't worry about the rest" -- President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY): "In the 70's the Republicans became the party of ideas. The Democrats had pretty much stopped thinking."
David Brinkley: "You're a Democrat. Your party has stopped thinking, you say. What are they doing if they've not thinking?"
Moynihan: "They're repeating what somebody thought three generations ago."
This Week With David Brinkley, 12/25/94
"The intellectual energy over the last 10 to 15 years has shifted from the left to the right." - Gary Hart, This Week with David Brinkley, 10/15/95
"Our constituency aren't the type of people to be on the Internet." -Jesse Helms
"The moment a mere numerical superiority by either states or voters in this country proceeds to ignore the needs and desires of the minority, and for their own selfish purpose or advancement, hamper or oppress that minority, or debar them in any way from equal privileges and equal rights--that moment will mark the failure of our constitutional system." - Franklin D. Roosevelt Radio Broadcast: Oct 26, 1939
"It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of society against the injustice of the other part." - James Madison, The Federalist, Number 51
"Even though there is no evidence, the allogations are so strong that we must investigate it." --Thomas Folley (D) Ex-House Speaker
"We in the press like to say we're honest brokers of information, and it's just not true. The press does have an agenda."
-- Bernard Goldberg, CBS, "48 Hours"
"Capitalism is a dog eat dog system. However with most other alternatives, the dog starves."
A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist. -- Ronald Reagan, February 11, 1988.
"Remember, Proposition 187 was the last gasp of white America in California." -- Former CA State Senator, Now Chairman of the CA Democratic Nat'l Committee
'Eternal Vigilance Is The Price of Liberty' used to mean we watched the government - not the other way around.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and then applying the wrong remedies." -- Groucho Marx
"To its committed members (the Democratic Party) was still the party of heart, humanity, and justice, but to those removed a few paces it looked like Captain Hook's crew--ambulance-chasing lawyers, rapacious public policy grants persons, civil rights gamesmen, ditzy-brained movie stars, fat-assed civil servant desk squatters, recovering alcoholics, recovering wife-beaters, recovering child-buggers, and so forth and so on, a grotesque line-up of ill-mannered, self-pitying, caterwauling freeloaders banging their tin cups on the pavement demanding handouts."--columnist Nicholas von Hoffman (The Washington Post, 11/12-94)
"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." -- Winston Spencer Churchill
"Information is the currency of democracy." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"  - Diderot
"My father never killed anyone. He only made speeches. He was wicked, I suppose,but he was not as evil as some." -- Heather Iandolo, the daughter of William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw Haw," who taunted Britain with Nazi propaganda broadcasts during World War II.
"To require the police to warn citizens of (constitutional) privilege in all encounters and all circumstances would severely hamper their ability to serve public safety." -- S. Jane Haggerty, Assistant DA, Essex County, MA
"These tanks were like a good rent-a-car." -Janet Reno 8-1-95 (CNN)
"Know your rights, all three of'em!... You have the right not to kill: murder is a crime!/Unless it was done by a policeman, or an aristocrat... You have the right to food money, so long as you don't mind/ a little investigation, humiliation, and if you cross your fingers/ rehabilitation!... You have the right to free speech, so long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it!" -- The Clash
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves." -- Thomas Jefferson
"...is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? ...the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless." -- Thomas Jefferson
PRESIDENT.SYS Corrupted: Re-boot Washington D.C. (Y/n)?
'[t]he Federal Government undertakes activities today that would have been unimaginable to the Framers.'" Supreme Court Justice O'Connor - New York v. U.S. (1992)
"A wise man's heart directs him toward the right, but a foolish man's heart directs him toward the left." - Ecclesiastes 10:2
The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words. -- from the October 24, 1994 National Review
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We WANT them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one MAKES them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Not that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." - From "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand
"Democracy can survive anything except Democrats" -- Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walked Through Walls
"It's time to speak up for the farmers! Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I've hoed it; I've suckered it; I've sprayed it; I've cut it and spliced it, put it in the barn, stripped it and sold it." -- Vice-President Al Gore during his 1988 Presidental campaign.
Harry the Horse (in Guys and Dolls) defended his honor by stating "I stand on my record -- 33 arrests and no convictions."
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." --Ayn Rand
Avoid the legal nets
That entangled Bernie Goetz,
Just shout "Help! Help! Police!"
Like Kitty Genovese...
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word "crisis." One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. -- President Richard Nixon
If my "assault rifle" makes me a criminal
And my encryption program makes me a terrorist
Does Diane Feinstein's vagina make her a prostitute?
Being liberal means never having to accept responsibility
"It takes an idiot to proclaim Ken Starr is 'out of control.' Duh. He is supposed to be an independent counsel. Would he be independent if he were 'under control'?"
"They gave me a book of checks.  They didn't ask for any deposits." -- Former Congressman Joe Early (D-Mass) at a press conference to answer questions about the House Bank Scandal
As the Soviet Union began to collapse, it was noted that the optomists were studing English; the pessimists were studing Chineese; and the realists were studying marksmanship.
"Abracadabra, thus we learn
The more you create, the less you earn.
The less you earn, the more you're given,
The less you lead, the more you're driven,
The more destroyed, the more they feed,
The more you pay, the more they need,
The more you earn, the less you keep,
And now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to take
If the tax-collector hasn't got it before I wake."
-- Ogden Nash, 1935

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." -- Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 
"For those who say I can't impose my morality on others, I say just watch me." -- Joseph Scheidler, Executive Director, Pro-Life Action League 
"Dictators free themselves by enslaving others. They work not for your benefit, but their own." -- Charlie Chaplin, "The Little Dictator" 
What Congress means by ethics is best explained by the tailor's story:
"Suppose I sell a suit to a young man for $200. He tells me that his family is footing the bill and that if I give him a receipt for $400 to give to his parents, he will pay me $100 on the side. The question of ethics is: Do I keep the extra $100 myself, or do I tell my partner and split it with him?" 
"I think they should go back to where they belong so we can have our community back." -- Black LA resident on CNN referring to Korean merchants.
Wonder what would happen if David Duke had said that? 
"The unemployed should be paid MORE than those in employment as they have more leisure time in which to spend their money." -- Michael Traub, socialist 
Q: How many socialists does it take to screw in a proletarian lightbulb?
A: None. A proletarian lightbulb already contains the seeds of its own revolution. 
"It is commonly agreed that the inventor of a weapon used to kill and maim must share in large measure the guilt for its thousands of victims. By the way, who DID invent the bicycle chain?" -- Kelvin Throop 
"Welcome to the Politically Correct States of America. Please turn your mind in to the nearest oppressed minority pressure group. It will be returned to you once we've decided what you can think" 
"The healthy gum tissue of our liberties are being eaten away by the periodontal disease of government regulation." - D.Barry 
"At college my three main interests were - in descending order of importance - a steady supply of recreational drugs, a 2-S draft deferment, and overthrowing the Nixon administration." -- Gary Trudeau as quoted in `The Preppy Handbook by Lisa Birnbach 
"Say what you want about the Nazis, no woman has ever had a fantasy about being tied up and beaten by a man dressed as a liberal." -- P.J. O'Rourke
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson 
"Keep in mind that I am speaking from Cambridge Massachusetts, which is about as far out as you can get." Robert Reich, economic advisor to Bill Clinton, on "This Week with David Brinkley" 11/08/92 
Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock. 
"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someonw puts a hand on you, send him to the cemetery." -- Malcolm X 
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." -- Malcolm X 
"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it." -- Malcolm X 
"The state is a means to an end. Its end lies in the preservation and advancement of a community of physically and psychically homogenous creatures." --Adolf Hitler 
"When someone sticks a knife six inches into your back, and then pulls it out two inches and claims he's doing you a favor, don't believe him." -- Malcolm X 
"Well, I did say we'll put it out and we'll put it out when we can. But I don't know what we can put out or when we can put it out." -- George Stephanopolous. 
I'm a human being first and foremost, and as such I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole." - Malcolm X 
ENTERING TAXACHUSETTS: Prepare to surrender all your fireworks, firearms, ammunition, cash and other assets. Fasten seatbelts and put on helmet. "We know what is best for you" 
Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem -- By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty - Motto of the Massachusetts Commonweath 
For most criminals, crime pays...
Fewer than 3 out of every 10 convicted felons are sent to prison and for those who go, the price is minimal, even for repeat violent criminals: Average time served:
murder 5.5 years
rape 3 years
robbery 2.25 years
aggravated assault 1.25 years
(sources: U.S. Bureau of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics)
"I'm a politician, and as a politician I have the prerogative to lie whenever I want." -- Charles Peacock, ex-director of Madison Guaranty, explaining why he had lied about writing a check to help cover a Clinton campaign debt. 
OCTOBER 21 -- In Los Angeles, the jury in the Reginald Denny beating trial, after much thinking, concludes that Person A is not necessarily trying to kill Person B just because Person A happens to very deliberately bash Person B's skull in with a brick. The verdict is applauded by scientists at the Tobacco Institute. -- From Dave Barry's 1993 year in review 
We cannot abolish the death penalty.
We can only decide whether our society will apply it to violent criminals -- or to their innocent victims. 
"It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master." -- Ayn Rand
"Democratic National Committee officials channeled millions of dollars in campaign donations to state Democratic parties last year, effectively hiding big contributions from tobacco, gambling and other special interests.
Contributors' checks routinely were sent to DNC headquarters before being passed on to the state parties, but documents show that DNC officials kept meticulous records of the donations so that donors and fund-raisers received credit." -- The Washington Post, 4/13/97 page A01, Final Edition
"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." -- Sir Winston Churchill
"I say a vote for the Democrats or Republicans is the ONLY wasted vote....By buying into the rhetoric that there are only two parties worth voting for...you increase their power. And with it, you promote the watered-down freedoms and endless government growth that these two parties consisently vote for." -- Carla Howell, Chair, Libertarian Party of Massachusetts
"Never turn your back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -- Winston Churchill
"In most Socialist Societies, the workers are fooled into thinking that they are getting something for nothing, by our bribing them with their own money.  A case in point is health care, where we tax the workers at a staggering marginal rate of 90%, and then we make life or death situations for them by rationing health care as we deem fit.  Of course, to prevent any...uh...'problems' arising from this plan, we actively seek to disarm the fools...err, taxpayers. What is pleasing for us self-appointed philosopher-kings is that the sheople generally go along with this idiotic scheme, insofar as we wrap their disarmament in the language of 'crime fighting' and the clincher, 'saving the hildren.'  You would be surprised at the gullibility of people if you just keep repeating the same lie over and over, such as gun control stops criminals from getting guns."
"While democracy must have its organizations and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty." -- Charles Evans Hughes, May 1908 - U.S. Supreme Court Member
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." -- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)
"Liberty has never come from government.
Liberty has always come from the subjects of government.
The history of liberty is the history of resistance."
-- Woodrow Wilson, May 9, 1912, Address at the New York Press Club.
WBBM-TV reported that the IRS wanted to know whether Sentor Moseley-Braun (D-Illinois) and her campaign manager and fiancé, Kgosie Matthews, used $281,000 in campaign funds to pay for Giorgio Armani fashions, jewelry, a stereo and overseas vacations.
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. -- Will Rodgers
"All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all." (Vladimir Lenin, as quoted in "Not by Politics Alone.)
We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society." -- Hillary Clinton, 1993)
"Americans don't expect an apostle in the White House. But they do expect an adult." -- Newsweek, 2/2/98 p.29
"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended." -- Nelson Mandela
"The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum.
Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: By the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles."
Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Brent Baker of the Media Research Center notes that the History Channel has been rerunning the 1974 House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings.
"So far I haven't seen the often recalled 'bipartisanship' of the era. The majority party wins and the minority party loses every vote. Just like now, but the parties are reversed," Mr. Baker says.
"The president is not a privileged citizen; he must be the model citizen. The presidency is not under attack as some would have us believe. It is rather the conduct of that office within a specific time frame that we are undertaking to examine on behalf of the American people. That the presidency is held in low repute today is not the fault of the Congress, the press, or the public." -- Rep. Herman Badillo (D-NY) 1974
"I think it might be important to point out that this country is a one-party country. Half of that party is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the Libertarians." -- Hugh Downs,  April 1997 on Politically Incorrect
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1774, Rights of British America. Papers, 1:134
"...Nixon's subversion [of the consititution] consisted of: One presidental lie; one invocation of presidental privilege, and zero criminal offences." - High Crimess and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton by Ann Coulter
"... Liberals are some of the best politicians because they don't let scruples or ethics get in the way of their scramble for power."
"A conservative is a liberal that's been mugged.
A libertarian is a conservative that's been mugged by his government."
"Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it." -- Albert Einstein
"Nobody told me when I became a Democrat that that involved opposition to lower taxes." -- Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, New Jersey Democrat
"If all Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government." -- Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower - December 9, 1949
"Madeleine's [Albright] War [is] the latest example of an incoherent foreign policy driven by moral impulses and mushy sentiments," -- Walter Issacson in Time magazine May 1999
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler
"Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few." -- George Bernard Shaw
"Audiences in Iowa and New Hampshire are responding to George W. Bush like he's Ricky Martin and Al Gore like he's Art Garfunkel." - GOP consultant Pete Snyder (MSNBC).
"I quote the late Ed Murow. ... He said: 'Look, people listen to me when they want an eyewitness account. 'They think I'm a pretty good reporter. But when it comes to my opinions, mine are not worth anymore than the guy at the end of the bar.' And I believe that about myself." -- CBS news anchor Dan Rather, on opinions in writing and broadcasting.
"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.
"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."-- U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (Dem-CA)
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