Quotes and Conundrums


"I am so old that I can remember when other people's achievements were considered to be an inspiration, rather than a grievance."

Thomas Sowell


"The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself, but when he plays the role destiny has for him."

Vaclav Havel


"Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity."

Sydney J. Harris


"I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art."

Kahlil Gibran


"Just because you're on their side doesn't mean they're on your side."

Teresa Nielsen Hayden


"You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are."

Adolphus Busch


"Imagination without logic is worthless. It conceives uncritically; pursued for its own sake, it but deforms the mind. Logic by itself is only futile; without imagination it can only reprove the proven and so discover nothing. The integrated person needs to develop both and to use both, equally and constantly."

Philip Wylie


"A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea."

Justice William O. Douglas


"A society committed to the search for truth must give protection to, and set a high value upon, the independent and original mind, however angular, however rasping, however socially unpleasant it may be; for it is upon such minds, in large measure, that the effective search for truth depends."

Caryl P. Haskins


"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd."

James Crook


"And do not think that thee usurpations, intimidations, and impositions are being done to us through inadvertence or mistake; The whole course is deliberately planned and carried out; its purpose is to destroy the Constitution and our constitutional government; then to bring chaos, out of which the new Statism with its slavery is to arise, with a cruel, relentless, selfish, ambitious crew in the saddle, riding hard with whip and spur, a red-shrouded band of night riders for despotism. If we do not vigorously fight for our liberties, we shall go clear through to the end of the road and become another Russia, or worse."

J Reuben Clark


"Wars will never cease until babies come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands."

H.L. Mencken



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