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Famous Quotes
 

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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

 
Charles SumnerGive me the centralism of liberty; give me the imperialism of equal rights. 
Patricia Michl SumnerIn “A jury’s duty” (11/8) by Mike Romano, John Junker asserts that juries have the right to nullify laws in principle but should not use this right in practice. Would he then be willing to give up the rights of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom to organize a labor union, abolition of slavery in the North, and the repeal of alcohol prohibition—all of which were given to us by juries who put the principle of nullification into practice? Without jury nullification no systematic veto exists for the people and tyranny ensues. 
William Graham SumnerCivil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare. 
William Graham SumnerEverywhere you go on the continent of Europe at this hour you see the conflict between militarism and industrialism. You see the expansion of industrial power pushed forward by the energy, hope, and thrift of men, and you see the development arrested, diverted, crippled, and defeated by measures which are dictated by military considerations. 
William Graham SumnerThe type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man. 
William Graham SumnerThe great foe of democracy now and in the near future is plutocracy. Every year that passes brings out this antagonism more distinctly. It is to be the social war of the twentieth century. In that war militarism, expansion and imperialism will all favor plutocracy. In the first place, war and expansion will favor jobbery, both in the dependencies and at home. In the second place, they will take away the attention of the people from what the plutocrats are doing. In the third place, they will cause large expenditures of the people’s money, the return for which will not go into the treasury, but into the hands of a few schemers. In the fourth place, they will call for a large public debt and taxes, and these things especially tend to make men unequal, because any social burdens bear more heavily on the weak than on the strong, and so make the weak weaker and the strong stronger. Therefore expansion and imperialism are a grand onslaught on democracy. 
William Graham SumnerIf I want to be free from any other man’s dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control. 
William Graham SumnerGentlemen, the time is coming when there will be two great classes, Socialists, and Anarchists. The Anarchists want the government to be nothing, and the Socialists want government to be everything. There can be no greater contrast. Well, the time will come when there will be only these two great parties, the Anarchists representing the laissez faire doctrine and the Socialists representing the extreme view on the other side, and when that time comes I am an Anarchist. 
William Graham SumnerIf I want to be free from any other man’s dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control. 
William Graham SumnerAll history is one long story to this effect: men have struggled for power over their fellow men in order that they might win the joys of earth at the expense of others, might shift the burdens of life from their own shoulders upon those of others. 
William Graham Sumner 
William Graham SumnerNo scheme which has ever been devised by them has ever made a collapsed boom go up again. 
Supreme Court of the United StatesConstitutional rights may not be infringed simply because the majority of the people choose that they be. 
Vin SuprynowiczWhat I do know is, in little more than 30 years, we have gone from a nation where the “quiet enjoyment” of one’s private property was a sacred right, to a day when the so-called property “owner” faces a hovering hoard of taxmen and regulators threatening to lien, foreclose, and “go to auction” at the first sign of private defiance of their collective will ... a relationship between government and private property rights which my dictionary defines as “fascism.” 
Vin Suprynowicz[T]his is why the tyrants are moving so quickly to take away our guns. Because they know in their hearts that if they continue the way they’ve been going, boxing Americans into smaller and smaller corners, leaving us no freedom to decide how to raise and school and discipline our kids, no freedom to purchase (or do without) the medical care we want on the open market, no freedom to withdraw $2,500 from our own bank accounts (let alone move it out of the country) without federal permission, no freedom even to arrange the dirt and trees on our own property to please ourselves ... if they keep going down this road, there are going to be a lot more Carl Dregas, hundreds of them, thousands of them, fed up and not taking it any more, a lot more pools of blood drawing flies in the municipal parking lots, a lot more self-righteous government weasels who were “only doing their jobs” twitching their death-dances in the warm afternoon sun ... and soon. 
Vin SuprynowiczNut cases only succeed in multiple killings when they can be confident their prospective victims are disarmed. 
George SutherlandA free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves. 
George SutherlandDo the people of this land…desire to preserve those [liberties] protected by the First Amendment… If so, let them withstand all beginnings of encroachment. For the saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanquished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch for a saving hand while yet there was time. 
Anthony Sutton[T]he power system continues only as long as individuals try to get something for nothing. The day when a majority of individuals declares or acts as if it wants nothing from the government, declares that it will look after its own welfare and interests, then on that day the power elites are doomed. 
Willie SuttonIt is a rather pleasent experience to be alone in a bank at night. 
Judge Robert SweetFinally, the fundamental flaw, which will ultimately destroy this prohibition as it did the last one, is that criminal sanctions cannot, and should not attempt to, prohibit personal conduct which does no harm to others. 
Madame Anne Sophie SwetchineLiberty must be a mighty thing; for by it God punishes and rewards nations. 
John Swett[T]he child should be taught to consider his instructor... superior to the parent in point of authority.... The vulgar impression that parents have a legal right to dictate to teachers is entirely erroneous.... Parents have no remedy as against the teacher. 
John SwettAs a general thing the only persons who have a legal right to give orders to the teacher are his employers, namely, the committee in some States, and in others the directors or trustees. If his conduct is approved by his employers the parents have no remedy as against him or them. 
John SwettThe vulgar impression that parents have a legal right to dictate to teachers is entirely erroneous. 
Jonathan SwiftIt is a maxim among lawyers that whatever hath been done before may be done again, and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities to justify the most iniquitous opinions, and the judges never fail of directing them accordingly. 
Jonathan SwiftWhoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together. 
Jonathan SwiftBy the laws of God, of nature, of nations, and of your country you are and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in England. 
Jonathan SwiftI would rather be a freeman among slaves than a slave among freemen. 
Jonathan SwiftLiberty of conscience is nowadays only understood to be the liberty of believing what men please, but also of endeavoring to propagate that belief as much as they can. 
Jonathan SwiftLaws are like cobwebs which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. 
John SwintonThere is no such thing ... in America as an independent press. 
Herbert B. SwopeThe first duty of a newspaper is to be accurate. If it is accurate, it follows that it is fair. 
Charlie SykesThe public expects too much from teachers because educationists have led it to believe teachers could be substitute parents, psychotherapists, cops, social workers, dieticians, nursemaids, babysitters, and nose wipers and still do a decent job teaching kids to read, write, and do math. Instead of saying no, educationists have added courses in environmental education, death education, personal hygiene, self-esteem, driver's ed, job readiness, sexual harassment, radon studies, yoga, yogurt awareness, and god-knows-what-else. 
Judge Diane Schwerm SykesThe Illinois eavesdropping statute restricts a medium of expression commonly used for the preservation and communication of information and ideas, thus triggering First Amendment scrutiny. Illinois has criminalized the nonconsensual recording of most any oral communication, including recordings of public officials doing the public’s business in public and regardless of whether the recording is open or surreptitious. Defending the broad sweep of this statute, the State’s Attorney relies on the government’s interest in protecting conversational privacy, but that interest is not implicated when police officers are performing their duties in public places and engaging in public communications audible to persons who witness the events. Even under the more lenient intermediate standard of scrutiny applicable to content-neutral burdens on speech, this application of the statute very likely flunks. The Illinois eavesdropping statute restricts far more speech than necessary to protect legitimate privacy interests; as applied to the facts alleged here, it likely violates the First Amendment’s free-speech and free-press guarantees. 
Judge Diane Schwerm SykesAudio and audiovisual recording are communication technologies, and as such, they enable speech. Criminalizing all nonconsensual audio recording necessarily limits the information that might later be published or broadcast -- whether to the general public or to a single family member or friend -- and thus burdens First Amendment rights. If, as the State’s Attorney would have it, the eavesdropping statute does not implicate the First Amendment at all, the State could effectively control or suppress speech by the simple expedient of restricting an early step in the speech process rather than the end result. We have no trouble rejecting that premise. Audio recording is entitled to First Amendment protection. 
Arthur SylvesterI think the inherent right of the government to lie to save itself when faced with nuclear disaster is basic -- basic. 
Judge John Foster SymesI consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics, far worse than the use of morphine or cocaine. Under its influence men become beasts... Marijuana destroys life itself. I have no sympathy with those who sell this weed. The government is going to enforce this new law to the letter. 
Steve SymmsThose who cannot afford to sue currently have no protection of their property rights if they come in conflict with a regulation. 
Publilius SyrusTake care that no one hates you justly. 
Publilius SyrusKeep the golden mean between saying too much and too little. 
Thomas SzaszThe battle for the world is the battle for definitions. 
Thomas SzaszThe proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But maybe you should if it prevents you from feeding yourself. 
Thomas SzaszMen love liberty because it protects them from control and humiliation by others, thus affording them the possibility of dignity; they loathe liberty because it throws them back on their own abilities and resources, thus confronting them with the possibility of insignificance. 
Thomas SzaszFormerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic. 
Thomas SzaszPunishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility. 
Thomas SzaszMen are rewarded and punished not for what they do, but rather for how their acts are defined. This is why men are more interested in better justifying themselves than in behaving themselves. 
Albert Szent-GyorgiDiscovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought. 
Cornelius TacitusThe more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. 
Cornelius TacitusThe lust for power in dominating others inflames the heart more than any other passion. 
Cornelius TacitusFormerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws. 
Cornelius TacitusSuch being the happiness of the times, that you may think as you wish, and speak as you think. [Lat., Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet.] 
Cornelius TacitusCorruptissima re publica plurimae leges. (The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.) 
Cornelius TacitusSo, as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants. 
Cornelius TacitusIn the struggle between those seeking power there is no middle course. 
Cornelius TacitusThe lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion. 
Cornelius Tacitus[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty. [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.] 
Cornelius TacitusLiberty is given by nature even to mute animals. [Lat., Liberatem natura etiam mutis animalibus datam.] 
Cornelius TacitusIt is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks. 
Publius Cornelius TacitusWe are corrupted by prosperity. And when the state is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied. 
Robert A. TaftWhen I say liberty…I mean liberty of the individual to think his own thoughts and live his own life as he desires to think and live; the liberty of the family to decide how they wish to live, what they wanted to eat for breakfast and for dinner, and how they wish to spend their time; liberty of a man to develop his ideas and get other people to teach those ideas, if he can convince them that they have some value to the world… 
Robert A. TaftEvery Republican candidate for President since 1936 has been nominated by the Chase National Bank. 
William Howard TaftConstitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority. 
William Howard TaftNext to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race. 
William Howard TaftSocialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity. 
Rabindrnath TagoreIf you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out. 
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-PérigordAn important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public. 
TalleyrandAn important art of politcians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public. 
The TalmudWho can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act. 
Amy TanYou see what power is -- holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them! 
Amy TanIn America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances you were born with. 
Roger L. Tarbutton[A]s recent advances in genetic and molecular science increasingly challenge the tenets of Neo-Darwinism, the teaching of non-random, intelligence-based alternatives should be permitted under the Establishment Clause provided such alternatives are supported by scientific evidence and are presented in a secular manner. 
Rebazar TarzsIllusions are like mistresses. We can have many of them without tying ourselves down to responsibility. But truth insists on marriage. Once a person embraces truth, he is in its ruthless, but gentle, grasp. 
Rep. Ellen TauscherThe Constitution is like my old blue dress ... it doesn't fit anymore. 
R. H. TawneyBankruptcies of governments have, on the whole, done less harm to mankind than their ability to raise loans. 


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