"In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is to never let them find out."
Robert A. Heinlein
"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place."
H. L. Mencken
"It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated...it is finished when it surrenders."
Ben Stein
"An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it."
Ayn Rand
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
Sir Winston Churchill
"If God doesn't destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology."
Jay Leno
"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat."
Mark Twain
Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime.
It don't prohibit worth a dime.
It's filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we're for it.
Franklin P. Adams
"One of the best models of good government is the Umpire Model. Government is here not to play the game of life for us, nor coach us on how to play best. It's here to help us play the game peaceably by deciding a few tough calls. It adjudicates conflicts. Of course, the model isn't perfect. Today's government does way too much coaching and managing as well as actual playing...and even cutting the grass on the field; government's not just for umpires any more."
Paul Jacob
"Thus are the young condemned to live in an eternal present, a present that merely exists, without connection to a past that might explain it or to a future that might develop from it. Theirs is truly a life of one damned thing after another."
Theodore Dalrymple
"Tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day, man."
Janis Joplin
"There is no disguise which can hide love long where it exists, or stimulate it where it does not!"
"The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind."
"Our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise."
"If we had no faults, we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others."
"When prompted by vanity, we say little."
"The refusal of praise is actually the wish to be praised twice."
"Those who know their minds do not necessarily know their hearts."
"We are never so happy or unhappy as we imagine."
"The Passions are the most effective orators for persuading. They are a natural art that have infallible rules; and the simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without it."
Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Currently the road most Americans seem to want to take is the road to government control in the belief than government can give them more security without diminishing their liberty.
"Of course, that is not true.
"If Americans turn to government to secure their freedom at the expense of the constitution they will lose it.
"The Constitution and the first ten amendments - the Bill of Rights - make it plain that the Founding Fathers had no faith that government could be trusted to guard the rights of individuals.
"It is well to remember that under the Constitution government does not give us our rights; they are our birthright. It is government's job to protect those rights. Unfortunately government too often moves instead to limit them.
"Today a soft generation that in recent years has willingly accepted government limitations on freedom in exchange for laws enacted in the name of the common good now appears willing to give up even more of its fundamental liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. Thus we see a new push for a mandatory national identify card masquerading as a national drivers license, except that we'd all have to carry one.
"With the new technologies now available these would be so-called 'smart-cards' and they could be used to track our movements, activities and purchases. All such information would go into a centralized -- read federal government -- computer. And if you think such a system would not be abused by every segment and every level of government you are living in a dream world.
"The push for such a card is being led by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators which says its purpose is to make us all safer.
"Also less free, but it doesn't say that. Every American who values his freedom should protest this proposal, even if it eventually means taking up arms in defense of liberty."
Lyn Nofziger