Pertinent Quotes

Watchdog Indiana Home Page Watchdog Lebanon Home Page

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, ... who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent." Abraham Lincoln (1809–65), U.S. president. Speech, 16 Oct. 1854, Peoria, Ill., in the first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

"When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It’s a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it." John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908), U.S. economist. The Age of Uncertainty, ch. 12 (1977)

"We live in an anti-thinking era that denigrates 'pointy-headed intellectuals' (as George Wallace famously dismissed opponents of segregation) and refuses to accept nuance, subtleties, compromise and doubt. It often seems better to tap the mindless rage of the vexed than to examine reality; better to turn the downtrodden into swarming mobs than to address their legitimate needs; better to paint critical political issues as good vs. evil than to balance competing self-interests in solutions a majority can live with. Rather than be troubled by a candidate's lack of knowledge, partisans exalt inadequacy as an asset promising a 'common touch.' We surrender prime time to the shouters, not the thoughtful." Tom Ehrich, 2010

"No government can long be secure without a formidable opposition." Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby

"Political elections are a good deal like marriages - there's no accounting for anyone's taste." Will Rogers

"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

"The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form." Calvin Coolidge (Inaugural Address on March 4, 1925)

"The problems we face cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them." Albert Einstein

"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go." William Feather 

"Never underestimate the power of misinformed people in large groups."

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance." (Found inside a Fortune Cookie, 2012)

"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

"Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen." John F. Kennedy, speech, October 20, 1960

Included in an essay written by an 8th Grade student for the 2002 Indiana ISTEP+ Exams:

"You can't change the wind, but you can adjust the sails."

August 28, 2002, from a T-shirt:

"Never doubt... that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

March 29, 2002, from a gweedo E-mail:

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." Samuel Adams in a speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

"Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found the exact amount of injustice and wrongdoing which will be imposed on them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglas, 1857

January 5, 2001, from gcfl-info@gcfl.net:

"Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason."

"There is always death and taxes; however death doesn't get worse every year."

1997 Apple ad by TBWA\Chiat\Day:

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

January/February 1997 Quotes in The Beacon from the Salem (VA) Taxpayers Association: 

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

"The greatest success is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall." Vince Lombardi

"All glory comes from daring to begin." Eugene F. Ware

"Government is not a substitute for people, but simply the instrument through which they act." Bernard M. Baruch

"The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry." William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Let no man imagine that he has no influence." Henry George

"Apathy is a luxury that no citizen of a democracy can afford." Aaron Smith

Watchdog Indiana Home Page Watchdog Lebanon Home Page 

This page was last updated on 10/08/16.