"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them"

... Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We live, alas, in a time of lies. If we stay silent, they build up like mud piling in front of a door. The deeper the mud, the harder it is to dig out from it"

... Paul Rogat Loeb (American Ethicist and Journalist)

"A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness" ... Joseph Conrad, novelist (1857-1924)

This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God had given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.

— Benjamin Franklin




Please post any quotations you find that appeal to you. It's fun to share wisdom from the past, and to realize how little, if at all, our challenges and human nature have changed.

Karl

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

Dale Carnegie




Instead of accepting prior emotional associations and interpretations of experience, and allowing those associations to stand in their way when no longer appropriate, many of the best leaders consciously revisit, reinterpret and reevaluate their experiences and their memories to align them and make them supportive of new goals.

Karl

"A people's memory is history; and as a man without a memory, so a people without a history cannot grow wiser, better."

- Isaac Leib Peretz




This, in a very real way, also describes the challenge we face in rebirthing America.

TV, news, talk radio - all are immediate. They consume mental space with sound bites. They come from outside, and intrude, making it difficult to think and reference those few benchmarks we still have - principles, an understanding of the past. Notice that Ron Paul has been thinking about money, foreign policy and how best to live one's life for over 30 years. His writings do offer us benchmarks.

Karl

"No matter how well intentioned, an authoritarian government always abuses its powers"

-Ron Paul

He who loves brings God and the World together.

- Martin Buber, "At the Turning"

It amazes me how little Americans respect our past by simply assuming events one or two hundred years ago are not applicable to today.

Two for today -


He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it. …Ecclesiastes 10:8


and


...Politics then reigned in Rome. She had her two sisters, Deceit and Greed, as ministers. Under their command, Ignorance, Fanaticism and Fury were seen to prevail in Europe. They brought wretchedness everywhere they went. Reason hid in the bottom of a well, along with her daughter, Truth. No one knew where this well was. If anyone had guessed, he would have gone down into it to cut the throats of mother and daughter.

-Voltaire, Eloge historique de la Raison, 1775

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." - Nikolayevich Tolstoy, 1828 – 1910

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

- Anne Frank