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57 Quotations

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Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few." ~James Madison    By James Madison    [fullquote]

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I hearing get, who had but ears, And sight, who had but eyes before; I moments live, who lived but years, And truth discern, who knew but learning's lore." "Now chiefly is my native hour, And only now my prime of life; I will not doubt the love untold, Which not my worth or want has bought, Which wooed me young, and wooes me old, And to this evening hath me brought.    By Henry David Thoreau    [fullquote]

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Article VII. Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.    By John Adams    [fullquote]

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Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal.' We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.    By Abraham Lincoln    [fullquote]

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What is at stake," he said, "is nothing less than the legitimacy of our justice system," adding that the rule of law "loses its meaning when the protection of our laws is available only to those who can afford it.    By Judge Jonathan Lippman    [fullquote]

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It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858]    By Abraham Lincoln    [fullquote]

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A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections." -- Abraham Lincoln    By Abraham Lincoln    [fullquote]

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Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." - Ronald Reagan    By Ronald Reagan    [fullquote]

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Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson    By Thomas Jefferson    [fullquote]

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It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it." George Washington    By George Washington    [fullquote]

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It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all," she said. "I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together.    By Queen Elizabeth    [fullquote]

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I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be." - Thomas Jefferson    By Thomas Jefferson    [fullquote]

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In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.    By Anne Rice    [fullquote]

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..all empires are built on slavery..    By David Griffith    [fullquote]

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the cheapest form of energy is slavery    By Carl Safina    [fullquote]

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When you listen to the otherwordly voice of Robert Johnson hitting those words "Blues Falling Down Like Hail" or Howlin' Wolf riding the rhythm of "Spoonful" with such amazing ease and more than living up to his name at the same time, or Skip James lamenting love, the worst of all human afflictions, in "Devil Got My Woman" or Son House hugging the memory of his dead lover for dear life in the tightly coiled "Death Letter Blues" you're hearing something from way, way back something eternal, elemental, something that defies rational thought, just like all the greatest art." - Martin Scorsese, preface of Martin Scorsese presents the Blues    By Martin Scorsese    [fullquote]

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The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; (1) So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, (2) Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus (3) rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton (4) blow his wreathed horn. (1) Brought up in an outdated religion. (2) Meadow. (3) Greek sea god capable of taking many shapes.    By William Wordsworth    [fullquote]

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The World As I See It" by Einstein Einstein at his home in Princeton, New Jersey "How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving... "I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible. "My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..." "My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling. "This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them! "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature." Albert Einstein (signature) See also Einstein's Third Paradise, an essay by Gerald Holton The text of Albert Einstein's copyrighted essay, "The World As I See It," was shortened for our Web exhibit. The essay was originally published in "Forum and Century," vol. 84, pp. 193-194, the thirteenth in the Forum series, Living Philosophies. It is also included in Living Philosophies (pp. 3-7) New York: Simon Schuster, 1931. For a more recent source, you can also find a copy of it in A. Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, New York: Bonzana Books, 1954 (pp. 8-11). How you can support our work Previous: Science and Philosophy II Next: Einstein's Third Paradise by G. Holton Also: More Essays Exhibit Info | Exhibit Home Brought to you by The Center for History of Physics Copyright 1996 - 2010 American Institute of Physics    By Albert Einstein    [fullquote]

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In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.    By Albert Einstein    [fullquote]

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Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.    By Albert Einstein    [fullquote]

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