Quotes

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Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960
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If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
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George Orwell George Orwell
-"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."+*"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
-"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."+*"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
-"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."+*"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."
-"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."+*"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
-"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever."+*"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever."
http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2786 http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2786
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==Theodore Roosevelt== ==Theodore Roosevelt==

Revision as of 22:05, 22 January 2008

Contents

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters". His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values. His style is at times droll, satirical, yet sympathetic.

"I love America, but I don't like it."

"This is America - a town of a few thousand, in a region of wheat and corn and dairies and little groves. The town is, in our tale, called 'Gopher Prairie, Minnesota'. But its Main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere."

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

"Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis

"Freedom, Brotherhood, and Justice…”

Sixty-five years ago, in that tense passage after the worst of the Great Depression began to ease but before the bombings at Pearl Harbor drew this country into the wars of Europe and Asia, Franklin Roosevelt penned the most remarkable of Thanksgiving Proclamations.

Unlike most of his predecessors and successors, including the current occupant of the Oval Office, Roosevelt saw the writing of the annual statement as something more than a perfunctory task. Each of the 32nd president's dozen Thanksgiving Proclamations was unique, and as his tenure progressed, Roosevelt used them to express the values of the New Deal and the internationalist struggle against fascism.

Though Roosevelt's proclamations retained a spiritual character, he deemphasized explicitly Christian references in favor of a more universalist approach, which recognized the contributions of different religious groupings within the United States and abroad. He also added inclusive language, which he and his aides hoped would be read as an encouragement to overcome racial and ethnic divisions.

Roosevelt's finest proclamation, that of Thanksgiving Day, 1941, was an appeal for "the establishment on earth of freedom, brotherhood, and justice…"

It read:

THANKSGIVING DAY - 1941 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PROCLAMATION
I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate and set aside Thursday, the twentieth day of November 1941, as a day to be observed in giving thanks to the Heavenly Source of our earthly blessings.
Our beloved country is free and strong. Our moral and physical defenses against the forces of threatened aggression are mounting daily in magnitude and effectiveness.
In the interest of our own future, we are sending succor at increasing pace to those peoples abroad who are bravely defending their homes and their precious liberties against annihilation.
We have not lost our faith in the spiritual dignity of man, our proud belief in the right of all people to live out their lives in freedom and with equal treatment. The love of democracy still burns brightly in our hearts.
We are grateful to the Father of us all for the innumerable daily manifestations of His beneficent mercy in affairs both public and private, for the bounties of the harvest, for opportunities to labor and to serve, and for the continuation of those homely joys and satisfactions which enrich our lives.
Let us ask the Divine Blessing on our decision and determination to protect our way of life against the forces of evil and slavery which seek in these days to encompass us.
On the day appointed for this purpose, let us reflect at our homes or places of worship on the goodness of God and, in giving thanks, let us ray for a speedy end to strife and the establishment on earth of freedom, brotherhood, and justice for enduring time.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
DONE at the City of Washington this 8th day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-sixth.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

As we take up the homely joys and satisfactions of this Thanksgiving, there is much to celebrate. Americans have used their franchise to temper a regal presidency, and the prospect of a more realistic and humane future appears to be in the offering. But the favorable result of one election ought not blind us to the reality that this nation has for too long deferred the essential work of "the establishment on earth of freedom, brotherhood, and justice." Even a chastened President Bush will not be inclined to guide us toward that task. Thankfully, President Roosevelt prods us still, across the expanse of history, to embrace the better angels of our nature and to seek the America -- and the world -- that should be.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=142946

The Gettysburg Address

Considerable scholarly debate continues about whether the Nicolay copy is the "reading" copy. In 1894 Nicolay wrote that Lincoln had brought with him the first part of the speech, written in ink on Executive Mansion stationery, and that he had written the second page in pencil on lined paper before the dedication on November 19, 1863. Matching folds are still evident on the two pages shown here, suggesting it could be the copy that eyewitnesses say Lincoln took from his coat pocket and read at the ceremony.

INTRO3.GIF
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gadrft.html

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.

Patrick Henry

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."

"If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!"

"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."

"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom."

http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2532

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men." - Edward R. Murrow

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” –Edward R. Morrow

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

Benjamin Franklin

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade."

http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/982

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell

  • "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
  • "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
  • "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."
  • "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
  • "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever."

http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2786

Theodore Roosevelt

“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.” Theodore Roosevelt

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960

  • A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
  • Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
  • Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
  • This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
  • In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
  • We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

[Raymond Shaw] is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

From the movie "The Manchurian Candidate". The squad members are brainwashed by the North Koreans, Russians and Chiness. When asked about Raymond Shaw, whom none of them respected, they all answer mechanically with this same statment.

Viewers of FOX NEWS, HATE WING RADIO and other pundits often sound like they have been brainwashed; this quote is used to make fun of them.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0056218/quotes

Shut up! You're and idiot! Nobody cares what you think!

This is a quote from pundit Bill O'Riely

Grantland Rice

For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks —not that you won or lost—
But how you played the game.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

The phrase is used to indicate that someone has blindly embraced a particular philosophy or perspective, usually espoused by some FOX NEWS freak like Bill O'Rielly or Chickenhawk Sean Hanity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid#.22Drinking_the_Kool-Aid.22

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

George Santayana

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

So what if the president has undermined the integrity of his office?

So what if the president has undermined the integrity of his office? Has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President. Has acted in a manner subversive to the rule of law and justice to the manifest injury to the people of the united States. That's an awful lot to dismiss with a brush off, to ignore with a mere "So what."

Harry Hyde http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17621438

Howard Zinn

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people"

We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress. http://www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0507

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn

http://howardzinn.org/default/