Quotes...

(Disclaimer: I wasn't there when these were said or written, so I can't verify or guarantee each and every one of them. However, I trust the site(s) where I got many of them.)

These are just SOME of the quotes that I like to read over from time to time. Enjoy!

Quotes on taxes:
'When men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others, they cannot easily be cured of it.' - The New York Times, in a 1909 editorial opposing the very first income tax

'I live in Alexandria, Virginia. Near the Supreme Court chamber is a toll bridge across the Potomac. When in a rush I pay the dollar toll and get home early. However, I usually drive a free bridge outside the down-town section of the city, and cross the Potomac on a free bridge. The bridge was placed outside the downtown Washington D.C. area to serve a useful social service: getting drivers to drive the extra mile to help alleviate congestion during rush hour. If I went over the toll bridge and through the barrier without paying the toll, I would be committing tax evasion. If, however, I drive the extra mile and drive outside the city of Washington, I am using a legitimate, logical and suitable method of tax avoidance, and I am performing a useful social service by doing so. For my tax evasion, I should be punished. For my tax avoidance, I should be commended. The tragedy of life today is that so few people know that the free bridge even exists.' -Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis on tax evasion & tax avoidance

'Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.' - Calvin Coolidge

'A [tax loophole is] something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.' – Russell B. Long

'"Need" now means wanting someone else's money. "Greed" means wanting to keep your own. "Compassion" is when a politician arranges the transfer.' – Joseph Sobran, columnist.

'Liberals love to say things like, "We're just asking everyone to pay their fair share." But government is not about asking. It is about telling. The difference is fundamental. It is the difference between making love and being raped, between working for a living and being a slave. The Internal Revenue service is not asking anybody to do anything. It confiscates your assets and puts you behind bars if you don't pay.' – Thomas Sowell, Forbes, July 1994

'Taxation with representation ain't so hot either.' – Gerald Barzan

'Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.' – Robert A. Heinlein

Quotes on government, freedom & liberty:
'The king has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent Swarms of Officers to harass our People and eat out their substance.' – U.S. Declaration of Independence

'In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.' – Charles de Gaulle

'My freedom is more important than your great idea.' – Anonymous

'Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee.' – F. Lee Bailey

'The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.' – David Friedman

'A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless.' – Justice Atonin Scalia

'Live free or die.' – New Hampshire State Motto

'If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.' – George Orwell, 1984

'To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying.' – Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), Member of Continental Congress, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Senator

'It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.' – Ayn Rand

'Many law professors, and others who hold contempt for our Constitution, preach that the Constitution is a living document. Saying that the Constitution is a living document is the same as saying we don't have a Constitution. For rules to mean anything, they must be fixed. How many people would like to play me poker and have the rules be "living"? Depending on "evolving standards," maybe my two pair could beat your flush.' - Walter Williams

'Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles.' – Gerry Spence

'Immigrants used to come to America seeking freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from government. Now they come looking for free health care, free education, and a free lunch.' – Harry Browne

'Painful as it may be to hear it, there's nothing special about the people of this country that sets them apart from the other people of the world. It is the Bill of Rights, and only the Bill of Rights, that keeps us from becoming the world's biggest banana republic. The moment we forget that, the American Dream is over.' – Alexander Hope, "Looking Forward"

'It is no more the function of government to impose a moral code than to impose a religious code. And for the same reason.' [1947] – Robert M. MacIver (1882-1970), Scottish Sociologist

'Government allocation of resources raises the potential for human conflict. Since government can't give what it doesn't first take, in order for government to be benevolent towards one person it has to be malevolent towards another.' - Walter Williams

'No nation was ever ruined by trade.' – Benjamin Franklin

'In crafting the Bill of Rights, the framers were careful to acknowledge implicitly and explicitly two key truths: The first is that government does not grant rights, it acknowledges them. They exist independently of government. They're part of who and what we are. And, as Jefferson noted in the Declaration of Independence, the only legitimate function of government is to secure them.' - Michael Badnarik

A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot because the first leads inevitably to the second.' - Harry Browne

'Giving a politician access to your wallet is like giving a dog access to your refrigerator.' – Tim Barber

'One evening, when I was yet in my nurse's arms, I wanted to touch the tea urn, which was boiling merrily … My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, but my mother said "Let him touch it." So I touched it – and that was my first lesson in the meaning of liberty.' – John Ruskin (1819-1900), The Story of Arachne, 1870

'As long as people believe that we can commit crimes against ourselves and that we ARE NOT FREE to do with ourselves as we please, even if we aren't violating or interfering with someone else's rights or property, then there will always be victims for all sorts of newly invented 'crimes.'- Anonymous

'It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.' – Calvin Coolidge

'There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.' – Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), The Ordeal of Change, 1964

'If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic problem of human nature is – and why government keeps growing larger and ever more intrusive.' – Thomas Sowell

'The gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side.' – Theodore J. Forstmann, American Business Executive and Philanthropist

'If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all.' – Jacob Hornberger

'Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?'- Thomas Jefferson, in his 1801 inaugural address

'Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.' – George Bernard Shaw

'Rights and privileges are polar opposites. A right is something that I can do without asking. A privilege is something that a higher authority allows me to do. It is utter nonsense for us to accept government permits in order to exercise an inalienable right.' - Michael Badnarik, Libertarian Presidential Candidate, 2004

'It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself.' – Justice Casey Percell

'"Solve" and "Problems" are not in the constitution.' – Doug Newman

'If you create enough laws, everyone will be a criminal.' - Thomas Sowell

'Our Constitution is not a body of law to govern the people; it was formulated to govern the government, to make government the servant and not the master of the people.' – William F. Jasper

'It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights – the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery – hay and a barn for human cattle.' – Alexis De Tocquiville

'In a democracy, two wolves and a sheep take a majority vote on what's for supper. In a constitutional republic, the wolves are forbidden on voting on what's for supper, and the sheep are well armed.' – Anonymous

'A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.' – Jeane J. Kirkpatrick

'When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.' – Dorothy Thompson, newspaper columnist

Quotes on character:
'The worst day of a man's life is when he sits down and begins thinking about how he can get something for nothing.' - Thomas Jefferson

'Self-pity and gratitude are mortal enemies. Where one exists the other cannot. Since both are highly contagious, individuals must choose gratitude before becoming too thankless to do otherwise.' - Mike Adams

Quotes on guns, gun control and the 2nd amendment:
'I say that the Second Amendment doesn't allow for exceptions – or else it would have read that the right "to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, unless Congress chooses otherwise." And because there are no exceptions, I disagree with my fellow panelists who say the existing gun laws should be enforced. Those laws are unconstitutional [and] wrong – because they put you at a disadvantage to armed criminals, to whom the laws are no inconvenience.' – Harry Browne, meetings with NRA's EVP, Wayne LaPierre and other panelists at a gun rights rally in Hot Springs, AR, 8/8/2000

'To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.' – George Mason

'It is impossible for the Second Amendment to confer a "community right", because communities HAVE no rights. Individuals are real. Communities are abstract concepts. You can have individuals without communities, but you cannot have communities without individuals. Ergo, individuals must come first, and only the individuals that make up a community can have rights.' - Michael Badnarik

'"A well-crafted pepperoni pizza, being necessary to the preservation of a diverse menu, the right of the people to keep and cook tomatoes, shall not be infringed."
I would ask you to try to argue that this statement says that only pepperoni pizzas can keep and cook tomatoes, and only well-crafted ones at that. This is basically what the so-called states rights people argue with respect to the well-regulated militia, vs. the right to keep and bear arms.' – Bruce Tiemann

Quotes on charity:
'If you feel driven to feed the poor, get your checkbook out and keep your tyrannical mouth shut about it.' – Lew Goldberg

Quotes on laws:
'If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.' – Thomas Jefferson

'Jury: Twelve people who determine which client has the better lawyer.' – Robert Frost

Other random quotes:
'If workers struggle for higher wages, this is hailed as "social gains", if businessmen struggle for higher profits, this is damned as "selfish greed".' – Ayn Rand

'A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.' – Ramsey Clark, U.S. Attorney General, New York Times, 10/02/77

'We're told cars are wasteful. Wasteful of what? Oil did a lot of good sitting in the ground for millions of years. We're told cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it's hard to reach the drive through window at McDonald's from a speeding train. And we're told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do you want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?' – P.J. O'Rourke

'The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly, and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.' – Thomas Sowell

The Demonization Of Profits

As the decision looms closer as to which hospital is going to receive the state's blessing to operate in Madison, the debate is no longer which will provide better, cheaper care for patients. The issue is money.

Specifically, PROFIT: Who's making it, and who isn't. One of the hospitals, Huntsville, is non-profit. The other, Crestwood, isn't.

A recent letter to the editor in The Huntsville Times shows the absolute disgust of profits held by many in this country.

'Not-for-profit hospitals across America exist to provide the best health care possible for their patients. Conversely, for-profit hospitals (like Crestwood) exist primarily to provide profits for owners and stockholders.'

Get it? One hospital is out there to help everyone and save the world, doing everything it possibly can (and then some) for anyone who is in their care. The other hospital? It must exist only to satisfy the greed of anyone who owns a share in it.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that's true. Just how would a 'for-profit' hospital manage to provide profits for the owners and stockholders? Would they do it by stealing? Would they force people to use their hospital and then bleed them dry (bad pun, sorry) for every last nickel?
Of course not. They'd have to work to earn your business and work even harder to keep it. That means service. That service includes having the best doctors, surgeons and nurses. If you knew a certain hospital had sub-par service would your risk YOUR health or your family's health there or go elsewhere?

The same writer continued:

'The profits generated by for-profit hospitals are divided among owners, corporate executives and shareholders, who generally consider providing unprofitable services to be contrary to their best interests.'

This means if you invest your money into a hospital that turns a profit, you are not only greedy and selfish, you're also cold hearted. (Note the sarcasm.)

It's easy to demonize anybody making a dollar off someone's misfortune, especially when they aren't there in front of you to take the criticism. But thank God someone IS going to make money off someone's misfortune!

I'd hate to have to rely only on a doctor's conscious and heart to give me the best care possible. Instead, I hope the doctor has 3 beach homes along the Florida coast and plans on playing at Pebble Beach next weekend.

A Quick Follow Up...

'It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.' – Voltaire

In my last column I touched on issues of credibility and motives. Namely, the hype and words of ignorant politicians versus the opinions of actual experts. One example I used was the debate of global warming. On that issue, would you be more inclined to believe a politician who stands to gain something or an actual climatologist who stands to gain nothing from their view of the matter?

It's actually happening right now.

George Taylor is Oregon's State Climatologist and has been for more than 17 years. It's also his belief that humans are NOT the main cause of the Earth's climate change.

Enter politics.

Oregon's Governor, Ted Kulongoski, now wants to strip Taylor of that title and make the position one that he will personally appoint. His reasoning is that Taylor's beliefs on global warming don't coincide with the state's goals to reduce greenhouse gases. (You can read more about it here.)

Notice that the state government already has a predetermined view on how to fight global warming and that man is the root cause of it. Anyone who thinks or says otherwise stands to LOSE in this debate and will be removed from the equation.

The State Climatologist of almost 20 years, George Taylor, stands to gain little or nothing on his expert opinion on the issue of global warming.

Not so for Oregon's politicians.

Is there any mystery as to what will happen to Taylor or the position he holds?