 I want them to feel that they are somebody and their congressman is somebody. And when they say, 'This is nice,' it feels good.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
US News & World Report (http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/05/02/out-loud-may-2-2008.html)
Here at home, our State Department is advising its officials to avoid perfectly descriptive terms for our enemies like "jihadist" and "Islamo-fascist" in favor of vague terms like "violent extremist" or "terrorist" -- as if we could just as easily be fighting Basque separatists.
Victor Davis Hanson
The Half-Won, Half-Lost War
Republicans who vote for tax increases are rat's heads in coke bottles.
Grover Norquist
Leave Us Alone
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the current beneficiary of a tsunami of drool.
Christopher Hitchens
http://www.slate.com/id/2181460/
For optimal well-being, folks need to be made to feel uncoerced, capable, and somehow connected to others.
Edward D. Thompson
[my summary of “self-determination theory”]
Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.
William (Bill) H. Gates
In the case of murder, the death penalty - issued by way of putting the culprit to sleep to then apply the lethal injection - is the time delayed procedure of self-defense as carried out by the representatives of the victim(s) who, at the time of the incident and due to the then existing circumstance, was/were unable to defend itself/themselves from the wilful murderous attack.
Manfred F. Schieder (1937 - )
From Chapter 6 of "Ayn Rand, I and the Universe" (http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Schieder/The_Logically_Resulting_Type_of_Society.shtml)
Those who trust in themselves and in their own merits are, as it were, blinded by their own ‘I’ and their hearts harden in sin. On the other hand, those who recognize themselves as weak and sinful entrust themselves to God and from him obtain grace and forgiveness.
Pope Benedict XVI
(Address to participants in a course organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary, Friday, Mar 7)
But we are social persons, not social animals. Hence we cannot be satisfied, as the gregarious animals are, simply by herding together, simply by being useful to another, or simply by the pleasures of bodily contact. We want to share one another's lives. How can this be done? Only by conversation -- which is indispensable to love. Love without conversation is impossible. Conversation without love is quite possible, but then it is only abstract discussion, not the heart-to-heart talk which is the conversation of lovers. Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely. Unless we enjoy the community of love -- the communication or conversation of love, we cannot get out of ourselves, and we are shut out from all others, as animals are, even when they herd closely together.
Mortimer J. Adler
http://radicalacademy.com/adleronloveintv2.htm
Never let man imagine that he can pursue a good end by evil means, without sinning against his own soul! Any other issue is doubtful; the evil effect on himself is certain.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/evil_t007.htm
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
Thomas Jefferson
The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist knows it
J. Robert Oppenheimer
I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
Jack London
The idea of God was not a lie but a device of the unconscious which needed to be decoded by psychology. A personal god was nothing more than an exalted father-figure: desire for such a deity sprang from infantile yearnings for a powerful, protective father, for justice and fairness and for life to go on forever. God is simply a projection of these desires, feared and worshipped by human beings out of an abiding sense of helplessness. Religion belonged to the infancy of the human race; it had been a necessary stage in the transition from childhood to maturity. It had promoted ethical values which were essential to society. Now that humanity had come of age, however, it should be left behind.
Sigmund Freud
If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth which might be manifesting itself around them. The fact that religionists do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction.
H.P. Lovecraft
"Philosophy saves us one mind at a time/Or not at all, and only by our choice."
Walter Donway
"Ayn Rand: A Centennial"
That fact of the matter is I am smarter than most O'ists. That is what makes me human.
Robert J. Kolker
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/Dissent/0166_1.shtml#29
Trust that still, small voice that says, "This might work and I'll try it."
Diane Mariechild
http://www.cybernation.com/quotationcenter/quoteshow.php?type=author&id=5741
If, on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.
Quentin Tarantino
Kill Bill: Volume 1
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Abraham Maslow
I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London and Antwerp
Werner von Braun
Werner v. Braun
We are all entitled to our own opinions. None of us are entitled to our own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Sen. Daniel Moynihan
The world exists for us human beings. It is not we who exist for the world, as the enemies of mankind would have it, for a world without humans lacks every sense of existence.
Manfred F. Schieder (1937 - )
From Manfred's own mind, a product and non-dualistic part of matter
"Public relations was invented in the United States, yet we are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture, about freedom and democracy, about our policies and our goals,"
Robert Gates (US Sec'y Def)
CNN: "... enemies 'eating our lunch' online"
Big government is a national security threat: it increases your vulnerability to threats like Islamism, and makes it less likely you'll be able to summon the will to rebuff it. We should have learned that lesson on Sept. 11, 2001, when big government flopped big-time and the only good news of the day came from the ad hoc citizen militia of Flight 93.
Mark Steyn
"The Future Belongs to Islam," MacCleans, Oct. 20, 2006
The only leverage a philosopher has is the principle of noncontradiction.
Keith Burgess-Jackson
"The Logic of Torture" -- TCS Daily -- http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=112707C
Christ appears and splits the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. And then, over a thousand years of the millennium, that the world is reigned in two places, Jerusalem and Missouri. The law will come from Missouri, and the other will be from Jerusalem...
Mitt Romney
Hitchens in Slate
"... principles shouldn't fly out the window when on the battlefield. Moreover, that might be where we need them most, where our actions will bring severe consequences one way or other. "
RoR Member 216 Jordan
"What is an Objective Justice System?" RoR Law
Human life is not equivalent to 'death prevention'
Edward D. Thompson
A Question Regarding the Objectivist Ethics
Reality does not require believing - it demands knowledge, which comes from your reasoning faculty [which is why you have it, and what it is for].... only the non-real demands believing..
Unknown Author
When you try to explain the inexplicable, then you are about to forgive the unforgivable.
Nicolas Sarkozy
The New York Sun
Education is too important to be left to government. The freer parents and entrepreneurs are, the more innovative American schooling will be — and the more children will learn.
John Stossel
Effectively packaged, nearly any idea, no matter how vile, can attract the loyalty of some.
Tibor R. Machan
Life & Property
The big mystery is why so many otherwise sensible people have faith in the wondrous influence of governments. Whatever has lead them to this myth that people with guns -- such as those in the vice squads, the IRS, the government regulators and the rest -- will bring peace and justice to us all?
Tibor R. Machan
Problems with Egalitarianism
I am in favor of fearmongering. As much, as and as fast as we can monger it.
Jeff Perren
Giuliani versus Paul
Groups can never define the individual, although the individual can define the group (and often does so).
Bridget Armozel
http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=17132.msg316471#msg316471
"If he advocates the right political principles for the wrong metaphysical reasons, the contradiction is his problem, not ours."
Ayn Rand
Common law is good in the way witchdoctors were once good: some of their discoveries were a primitive form of medicine, and to that extent achieved something. But once a science of medicine is established, you don't return to witchdoctors. Similarly, common law established--by tradition or inertia-- some proper principles (and some dreadful ones). But once a civilization grasps the concept of law, and particularly of a constitution, common law becomes unnecessary and should not be regarded as law. In a free society, anyone can have customs; but that's not law.
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand Answers
When thinkers accept those who deny the existence of thinking, as fellow thinkers of a different school of thought - it is they who achieve the destruction of the mind. They grant the enemy's basic premise, thus granting the sanction of reason to formal dementia. A basic premise is an absolute that permits no co-operation with its antithesis and tolerates no tolerance.
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged - Hugh Akston speaking to Dagny
No, justice has not ceased to exist. How could it? It is possible for men to abandon their sight of it, and then it is justice that destroys them. But it is not possible for justice to go out of existence, because one is an attribute of the other, because justice is the act of acknowledging that which exists...
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged - Judge Narragansett speaking to Dagny
Every form of happiness is one, every desire is driven by the same motor - by our love for a single value, for the highest potentiality of our own existence - and every achievement is an expression of it.
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged - Francisco speaking to Dagny in Galt's Gulch
When you think how fantastically successful the Jewish lobby has been...they more or less monopolize American foreign policy, as far as many people can see."
Richard Dawkins
Daniel, Johnson, NY Sun, 4 October 2007
Slacker: One who has developed a method of operation that requires less than half the effort of the average person's, while achieving comparable results, thereby freeing up time to pursue more enjoyable activities.
Brady Lessard
Your Guide to Slide: The Slacker's Guide to College
You have a life. It’s a precious thing, and it’s yours. Make the most of it. Don’t give it up, don’t waste it on things you don’t value, regardless of what others demand from you. Work with others when you can, love and give yourself to them as they deserve—but always by the standard of what is best for your own life. The purpose of ethics is to help you find and enjoy what is best, not to sacrifice it. Pursuing your happiness, taking full responsibility for it, is a worthy and challenging task. It will take thought and effort, it will take ambition and courage, it will take everything you have, and if you succeed you will have the right to be proud, morally proud, of what you have accomplished.
David Kelley
"A Philosophy for the 21st Century." The New Individualist. Oct. 2007: 49
Fuel that allows fire may define what a fire entails, but it doesn't stop it from spreading to other kinds of fuel
Bridget Armozel
Does a life force or 'soul' exist?
He who asserts that everything happens by necessity can hardly find fault with one who denies that everything happens by necessity; by his own theory this very argument is voiced by necessity.
Epicurus
The Vatican Sayings
Making someone's life "public" isn't a set up for discrimination, but for fascism
Teresa Summerlee Isanhart
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/GeneralForum/1112.shtml#12
You are the true dreamers, and dreams accomplish wonderful things.
Jaime Escalante
Stand and Deliver
But, after all, what is a scholar? One who may not break bounds under pain of expulsion from the academy of which he is a member.
Robert Graves
The White Goddess, p 25
You need to study ten years of primary sources and textbooks for every one year of studying philosophy actually to understand reality beyond a floating abstraction.
Ted Keer
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/Banter/0220_4.shtml#84
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