Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes
 

 Click on the name to open the full quote and the details about the quote's origin. Quotes are also grouped by Category and Author.  
 


The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

A classic since 1953 with over 20,000 quotes from over 3,000 authors.


Famous Last Words

Apt Observations, Pleas, Curses, Benedictions, Sour Notes, Bons Mots, and Insights from People on the Brink of Departure


Stretch Your Wings

Famous Black Quotations for the Young


American Quotations

An exhaustive collection of profound quotes from the founding fathers, presidents, statesmen, scientists, constitutions, court decisions


The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations


Last Words of Saints and Sinners

700 Final Quotes from the Famous, the Infamous, and the Inspiring Figures of History


America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations

Contains over 2,100 profound quotations from founding fathers, presidents, constitutions, court decisions and more


The Law

This 1850 classic is an absolute must read for anyone interested in law, justice, truth, or liberty. A most compelling and revolutionary look at The Law.


Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (17th Edition)


The Stupidest Things Ever Said by Politicians

Rise up, America -- and laugh out loud at the greatest gaffes that no spin doctor could possibly fix!


The 776 Even Stupider Things Ever Said

Another great collection of stupidity


Quotable Quotes

Wit and Wisdom for All Occasions from America's Most Popular Magazine


The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time

You don't have to be a genius to sound like one. Here's a collection of the most profound and provocative wit and wisdom in the English language in two lines or less.


2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs

Invaluable sampler of witticisms, epigrams, sayings, bon mots, platitudes and insights chosen for their brevity and pithiness.


Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts Funny Sayings

A stupendous collection of quotes, quips, epigrams, witticisms, and humorous comments for personal enjoyment and ready reference.


Quick Quips and Quotes; 532 Things I Wish I Had Said

Quick Quips and Quotes is the Ultimate Collection of one liners.


Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes

The ultimate anthology of anecdotes, now revised with over 700 new entries.


Quotations for Public Speakers

A Historical, Literary, and Political Anthology


Liberty - The American Revolution

This compelling series traces the events leading up to the war and America's fight for freedom.


Founding Fathers

The story of how these disparate characters fomented rebellion in the colonies, formed the Continental Congress, fought the Revolutionary War, and wrote the Constitution


Libertarianism: A Primer

David Boaz, director of the Cato Institute, has written a simple introduction to Libertarianism inteneded to appeal to disgruntled Democrats and Republicans everywhere.


The Libertarian Reader

Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman


Thomas Paine: Collected Writings

All the classics: Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters

 
George W. BushWe need an energy bill that encourages consumption. 
George W. BushI want him [Saddam Hussein]. I want -- I want justice. There is an old poster seen out west. As I recall, it said, Wanted Dead or Alive. 
George W. BushThe liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda. 
George W. BushThere is no telling how many wars it will take to secure freedom in the homeland. 
George W. BushThe choice is his [Saddam Hussein's], and if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him in the name of Peace. 
George W. BushI'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office and foreign policy matters with war on my mind. 
George W. BushAnd our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for pre-emptive action. 
George W. BushIf this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator. 
George W. BushThere will be no going back to the era before September 11th, 2001, to false comfort in a dangerous world. 
George W. BushThere are some who feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there [in Iraq]. My answer is, 'Bring 'em on.'  
George W. BushWe've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th. 
George W. BushEither you are with us or you are with the terrorists. 
George W. BushDuring my senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society, so secret I can’t say anything more. 
George W. BushOur enemies are a radical network of terrorists -- and every government that supports them. 
George W. BushThey misunderestimated me. 
George W. BushWe're too great a nation to allow the evildoers to affect our soul. 
Vannevar BushPresumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. 
Edward BushellMy liberty is not for sale. 
Bishop Joseph ButlerThe love of liberty that is not a real principle of dutiful behavior to authority is as hypocritical as the religion that is not productive of a good life. 
Nicholas Murray ButlerThe one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. 
Nicholas Murray ButlerThe old world order died with the setting of that day’s sun and a new world order is being born while I speak, with birth-pangs so terrible that it seems almost incredible that life could come out of such fearful suffering and such overwhelming sorrow. 
R. A. ButlerPolitics is the art of the possible. 
Samuel ButlerHe that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still. 
Samuel ButlerThe more unpopular an opinion is, the more necessary it is that the holder should be somewhat punctilious in his observance of conventionalities generally. 
Samuel ButlerThe most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust. 
Samuel ButlerAuthority intoxicates,\\ And makes mere sots of magistrates;\\ The fumes of it invade the brain,\\ And make men giddy, proud and vain. 
Samuel ButlerThere should be some schools called deformatories to which people are sent if they are too good to be practical. 
Samuel ButlerI don't mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy. 
Major General Smedley Darlington ButlerI spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street... 
Major General Smedley Darlington ButlerI believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. 
Major General Smedley Darlington ButlerMy mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military. 
Major General Smedley Darlington ButlerWar is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. 
Major General Smedley Darlington ButlerI wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. 
Stephen T. ByingtonNo legal tender law is ever needed to make men take good money; its only use is to make them take bad money. 
Richard Evelyn Byrd, Sr.A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man’s business; the eye of the Federal inspector will be in every man’s counting house. The law will of necessity have inquisitorial features, it will provide penalties. It will create a complicated machinery. Under it businessmen will be hauled into courts distant from their homes. Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the taxpayer. An army of Federal inspectors, spies and detectives will descend upon the state. They will compel men of business to show their books and disclose the secrets of their affairs. They will dictate forms of bookkeeping. They will require statements and affidavits. On the one hand the inspector can blackmail the taxpayer and on the other, he can profit by selling his secret to his competitor. 
Richard Evelyn Byrd, Sr.A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man's business; the eye of the federal inspector will be in every man's counting house.... The law will of necessity have inquisical features, it will provide penalties, it will create complicated machinery. Under it, men will be hauled into courts distant from their homes. Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the taxpayer. An army of federal inspectors, spies, and detectives will descend upon the state. 
Sen. Robert C. ByrdIs it any wonder, why the approval ratings of the Congress go up every time we go into recess? 
Robert ByrneThe purpose of life is to live a life of purpose. 
Lord ByronSound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah hath triumphed--his people are free. 
Lord ByronHereditary bondsmen! Know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? 
Lord ByronFor Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft is ever won. 
Lord ByronYet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Streams like the thunder-storm against the wind. 
Lord ByronThe wish, which ages have not yet subdued In man, to have no master save his mood. 
Lord ByronKnow ye not who would be free themselves must strike the blow? by their right arms the conquest must be wrought? 
Lord ByronHe makes a solitude, and calls it - peace. 
Lord ByronWho would be free themselves must strike the blow. 
Lord ByronMy time has been passed viciously and agreeably; at thirty-one so few years months days hours or minutes remain that "Carpe Diem" is not enough. I have been obliged to crop even the seconds -- for who can trust to tomorrow? 
Lord ByronI wish men to be free, as much from mobs as kings,—from you as me. 
James C. CacherisThe statute mandating recitation of the pledge [of allegiance] is secular because it aims to foster democracy, which is both necessary to the survival of the concept and entirely independent of religion. [...] It is clear in the 2001 [Virginia] state law that no student is forced to accept the beliefs the pledge espouses. 
Gaius Julius CaesarWhen the swords flash let no idea of love, piety, or even the face of your fathers move you. 
Gaius Julius CaesarAll bad precedents began as justifiable measures. 
Gaius Julius CaesarMen willingly believe what they wish. 
Gaius Julius Caesar (False)Beware of the leader, who strikes the war drum in order to transfer the citizens into patriotic glow, patriotism is indeed a double-sided sword. It makes the blood so boldly, like it constricts the intellect. And if the striking of the war drum reached a fiebrige height and the blood is cooking and hating, and the intellect is dismissed, the leader doesn't need to reject the citizens rights. The citizens, cought by anxiety and blinded through patriotism, will subordinate all their rights to the leader and this even with happy courage. Why do I know that? I know it, because this is, what I did. And I am Gajus Julius Cäsar. 
John CageI can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. 
Edmond CahnThe people’s right to obtain information does not, of course, depend on any assured ability to understand its significance or use it wisely. Facts belong to the people simply because they relate to interests that are theirs, government that is theirs, and votes that they may desire to cast, for they are entitled to an active role in shaping every fundamental decision of state. 
Edmond Cahn“Due process,” a standard that arose in our system of law and stemmed from the desire to provide rational procedure and fair play, is equally indispensable in every other kind of social or political enterprise. 
Justice Millard Fillmore CaldwellDo not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious. 
John C. CalhounTo maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the [American] system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by influence of its patronage, will supersede the laws ... 
John C. CalhounA power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks. 
John C. CalhounThe government of the absolute majority is but the government of the strongest interests; and when not effectively checked, is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised... [To read the Constitution is to realize that] no free system was ever farther removed from the principle that the absolute majority, without check or limitation, ought to govern. 
John C. CalhounIt is federal, because it is the government of States united in a political union, in contradistinction to a government of individuals, that is, by what is usually called, a social compact. To express it more concisely, it is federal and not national because it is the government of a community of States, and not the government of a single State or Nation. 
John C. CalhounGovernment has within it a tendency to abuse its powers. 
John C. CalhounStripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail. 
Oscar CallawayIn March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interest, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press. … They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers. 
Oscar CallawayI regret to say it, but we are gradually turning over the business of Congress, turning over all our constitutional rights, turning over our powers delegated by the people to a lot of editors, theorists, and college professors who are not capable of conducting our affairs and to whom we should not abdicate. 
Sir Roy Yorke CalneIt would not be unreasonable, by analogy with a motor vehicle licence, that a permit to reproduce should also be needed with a minimum age of, for example, twenty-five, and a proof required that the parents are of sufficient maturity and financial resource to take proper care of the child. Young, sexually active, but emotionally immature teenagers would need help. 
Italo CalvinoNobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do... 
Simon CameronAn honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought. 
Dalton CampPolitics is made up largely of irrelevancies. 
C. Arthur CampbellWhen we regard a man as morally responsible for an act, we regard him as a legitimate object of moral praise or blame in respect of it. But it seems plain that a man cannot be a legitimate object of moral praise or blame for an act unless in willing the act he is in some important sense a ‘free’ agent. Evidently free will in some sense, therefore, is a precondition of moral responsibility. 
Thomas CampbellHope for a season bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell! . . . . O'er Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow. 
William J. CampbellToday the grand jury is the total captive of the prosecutor who, if he is candid, will concede that he can indict anybody, at any time, for almost anything, before any grand jury. 
Albert CamusFreedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with champagne...Oh no! It's a...long distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting. 
Albert CamusThe welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants. 
Albert CamusThe gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. 


Daily Quotes
Ready to be inspired?
Sign up for a daily dose of Liberty Quotes!
Leave us your email address to subscribe.
Email:

Here's the Daily Quote history.

Quotes
Here's our full collection of famous quotations.

Categories
Browse quotes by category.

Authors
Browse quotes by Author or Speaker.








(c) Copyright 1999-2024