Thoughts
From Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials after World War II
Why of course the people do not want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people do not want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
2014-05-18 at 18:09:56
From Jacob G. Hornberger
Consider the Racist aspects of the drug war-how it has been enforced in a vicious and arbitrary way against people of color. Bigoted cops have had a field day with the drug war because it has enabled them to continue beating up, abusing, stopping, searching, and humiliating black people in a perfectly legal way. What arguments are left for continuing the war on drugs? The only argument left is an illegitimate one: that law enforcement has grown dependent on the drug war and does not want to let go of the Bribes, Drug Deals, Asset Forfeitures, and Totalitarian-type Powers that come with the drug war. It is time for the American people to say, "Enough Is Enough," just as Americans did with the corruption that came with the Prohibition of Booze.
2014-04-28 at 16:20:49
From Amasa Delano
The more enlarged a mind becomes in its views of men and the world, the less it will be disposed to denounce the varieties of opinion and pursuit, and the more it will enjoy the benevolent results to which wisdom and philosophy point. A narrow mind chafes itself by its own prejudices; but a man, who is accustomed to generalize his observations, principles, and feelings, and to subdue his prejudices by a practical philanthropy, acquires an habitual superiority to the inequalities and provocations of society, and has learned the divine art of extracting good from evil.
2014-04-21 at 13:29:51
More From Paul Craig Roberts
A government that relies on propaganda cannot be believed about anything. Americans misinformed by a prostitute media are in no position to protect the United States Constitution and their Liberty. Misinformed, they become allies of tyranny and Their Own Worst Enemy.
2014-04-18 at 13:56:01
From Hannah Arendt
Although tyranny, because it needs no consent, may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people.
2014-04-18 at 13:52:38
From Paul Craig Roberts
Democracy and freedom require an independent and aggressive media, an independent and aggressive judiciary, and an independent and aggressive Congress. The United States has none of the above.
2014-04-13 at 19:26:59
More From Leonard E. Read
When integrity is the rule, fallacies and errors are brought honestly into the open, where they can be seen and discarded.
2014-04-13 at 08:15:53
From George Orwell
Do you not see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
2014-04-13 at 08:13:23
From Al Capone
This American system of ours, call it Capitalism, call it what you like - gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.
2014-04-12 at 09:11:44
From Paul Craig Roberts
Americans live in a matrix of total lies. What can Americans do? Elections are pointless. Presidents, Senators, and US Representatives represent the interest groups that provide their campaign funds, Not the voters. In two decisions, the Republican Supreme Court has made it legal for corporations to purchase the government. Those who own the government will decide what it does, not those who vote. All Americans can do is to accept the serfdom imposed on them or take to the streets and stay in the streets despite being clubbed, tasered, arrested, and shot by the Police, who protect the power structure, not the public. In America, nothing is done for the public. But everything is done to the public.
2014-04-06 at 10:14:18
From Slyvestro Petro
The most drastic deprivation which any person can suffer is that of the freedom to utilize and enjoy the faculties which nature has given him and which his will and desire have developed. Keep a man from exercising his mind, his body, his faculties in the pursuit of his own wishes and delights, keep him from enjoying the fruits of his efforts -- and you have done everything evil to him that you can. The greatest desire of each person, in short, is to be free to get the most he can out of life. There is no other way objectively to define social goals than to call them the sum of those individual goals which can be harmonized in society.
2014-04-04 at 13:44:59
More From A. Barton Hinkle
The Constitution guarantees everyone a right to speak his or her mind. It guarantees nobody the right to go through life cocooned away from anything he or she would rather not hear. Those principles apply to everyone-from the lowest college freshman to the president of the United States.
2014-03-29 at 09:56:29
From Francois Fenelon
Despondency is not a state of humility. On the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride; nothing is worse. Whether we stumble or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course.
2014-03-28 at 12:03:08
From Daniel Webster
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.
2014-03-26 at 19:19:27
From Eric Hoffer
The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion - it is an evil government.
2014-03-26 at 19:18:31