Political Pearls of Wisdom

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Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.

— Ronald Reagan

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

— Thomas Sowell

Most people who read "The Communist Manifesto" probably have no idea that it was written by a couple of young men who had never worked a day in their lives, and who nevertheless spoke boldly in the name of "the workers".

— Thomas Sowell

If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves

— Thomas Sowell

No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would you replace it with?" When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?

— Thomas Sowell

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

— Thomas Sowell

One of the consequences of such notions as "entitlements" is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.

— Thomas Sowell

Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.

— Richard John Neuhaus

Socialism is workable only in heaven where it isn't needed, and in hell where they've got it.

— Cecil Palmer

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

— Winston Churchill

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

— Winston Churchill

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

— Winston Churchill

No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.

— Winston Churchill

For socialists, not just the wealth, but the guilt, must be redistributed.

— Andrew Sandlin

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

— Norman Mailer

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul.

— George Bernard Shaw

Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good.

— Ayn Rand

To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.

— Thomas Jefferson

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

— G. Gordon Liddy

Collectivism doesn't work because it's based on a faulty economic premise. There is no such thing as a person's 'fair share' of wealth. The gross national product is not a pizza that must be carefully divided because if I get too many slices, you have to eat the box. The economy is expandable and, in any practical sense, limitless.

— P. J. O'Rourke

The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

— Margaret Thatcher

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

— Margaret Thatcher

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

— Margaret Thatcher

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

— Margaret Thatcher

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.

— Margaret Thatcher

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

— Margaret Thatcher

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

— Margaret Thatcher

We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.

— Margaret Thatcher

As God once said, and I think rightly...

— Margaret Thatcher

If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

— Margaret Thatcher

And what a prize we have to fight for: no less than the chance to banish from our land the dark divisive clouds of Marxist socialism.

— Margaret Thatcher

Hope is no basis for a defense policy.

— Margaret Thatcher

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

— Margaret Thatcher

Many of our troubles are due to the fact that our people turn to politicians for everything.

— Margaret Thatcher

Marxists get up early to further their cause. We must get up even earlier to defend our freedom.

— Margaret Thatcher

The Labour (Democrat) Party believes in turning workers against owners; we believe in turning workers into owners.

— Margaret Thatcher (Modified by LJ)

Good Conservatives always pay their bills. And on time. Not like the Socialists who run up other people's bills.

— Margaret Thatcher

When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality - other than equality before the law - that government poses a threat to liberty.

— Margaret Thatcher

Socialists have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs, because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited.

— Margaret Thatcher

In the Conservative Party we have no truck with outmoded Marxist doctrine about class warfare. For us it is not who you are, who your family is or where you come from that matters, but what you are and what you can do for your country that counts.

— Margaret Thatcher

Communist regimes were not some unfortunate aberration, some historical deviation from a socialist ideal. They were the ultimate expression, unconstrained by democratic and electoral pressures, of what socialism is all about. ... In short, the state [is] everything and the individual nothing.

— Margaret Thatcher

Freedom is not synonymous with an easy life. ... There are many difficult things about freedom: It does not give you safety, it creates moral dilemmas for you; it requires self-discipline; it imposes great responsibilities; but such is the nature of Man and in such consists his glory and salvation.

— Margaret Thatcher

...the unconditional supply of social benefits to those who were thought incapable of coping undermined the incentive to work and undercut the family unit. It promoted habits of idleness and delinquency. It permitted single-parenthood to become a financially sustainable, alternative way of life. By undermining the self-respect of so many of the most vulnerable members of society -- the respectable poor struggling for decency against the odds -- the dependency culture weakened society as a whole.

— Margaret Thatcher

I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.

— Margaret Thatcher

When others spoke of the fear of war, you spoke of the need for warriors and peace through strength. When others bewailed the failure of big government to provide for the collective good, you spoke of self-reliance, of personal responsibility, of individual pride and integrity. When others demanded compromise — when others demanded compromise, you, Ronald Reagan, preached conviction.

— Margaret Thatcher

To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the [American] system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by influence of its patronage, will supersede the laws ...

— John C. Calhoun (1782-1850)

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it [GOVERNMENT] come to dominate our lives and interests.

— Patrick Henry

In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the CHAINS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

— Thomas Jefferson

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That "all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.

— Thomas Jefferson

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

— Thomas Jefferson

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.

— James Madison

Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at its worst, an intolerant one.

— Thomas Paine

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

— Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government that is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

— James Madison

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 (1801)

“I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag”
— Craig Washington

"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men."
— Samuel Adams

“The Constitution does not grant rights, it recognizes them”
— Jason Laumark

“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
— Benjamin Franklin

“The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
— James Madison

“I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation”
— Dr. Carl Sagan

“If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.”
— Thurgood Marshall

“The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.”
— William Orville Douglas

“Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.”
— Hugo Black

“The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
— Samuel Adams

“The Framers [of the Constitution] knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.”
— Hugo Black

“If the Constitution is to be construed to mean what the majority at any given period in history wish the Constitution to mean, why a written Constitution?"
— Frank J

“To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race”

— Calvin Coolidge

“[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”

— Daniel Webster

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

— Winston Churchill