Whatever happened to Classical liberalism, committed to the ideal of limited government and based upon individual liberty, including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets? "No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in t
heir Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." -Samuel Adams, to James Warren, 1775
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
~Thomas Jefferson~
“Urge immediate abolition as earnestly as we may, it will alas! We have never said that slavery would be overthrown by a single blow; that it ought to be we shall always contend”
- William Lloyd Garrison, 1831
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington
"There's nothing so permanent,as a temporary government program." Milton Friedman
"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
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -- Professor Alexander Tytler over 200 years ago
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron." Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun,
July 26, 1920
