Interesting Quotations

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather the wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't.

... the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but that's the way to bet.

It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions, real or pretended ... There are men in all ages who mean to exercise power usefully - - but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern; they promise to be kind masters, but they mean to be masters.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn.

The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the mind.

It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Censorship is more depraving and corrupting than anything pornography can produce.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if only words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.

The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

Politicians, like diapers, should be changed regularly, and for the same reason.