Famous Quotes & Sayings

Carol Moseley Braun

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

Carlos Castaneda

The third point of reference is freedom of perception; it is intent; it is spirit; the somersault of thought into the miraculous; the act of reaching beyond our boundaries and touching the inconceivable.

Thomas Paine

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Alan K. Simpson

There is no 'slippery slope' toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.

Alan Kay

The tree of research must be fed from time to time with the blood of bean-counters, for it is its natural manure.

Charlotte Bronte

I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.

Charles Sumner

Without security, civilization is cramped and dwarfed. Without security, there can be no freedom. Nor shall I say too much, when I declare that security, guarded of course by its offspring, freedom, is the true end and aim of government.

Charles de Gaulle

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads.

Charles de Gaulle

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

Charles Peguy

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

Abraham Lincoln

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

Alexis de Tocqueville

It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights - the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery - hay and a barn for human cattle.

Calvin Coolidge

It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Joseph Sobran

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

Harry Browne

You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.

Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I'm not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I'm not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I'm not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.

Felix Frankfurter

The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.

Carl Clinton Van Doren

Familiar life, tending to sordidness, had been succeeded by remote life, generally idealized; historical detail had been brought in to teach readers who were being entertained.

Marissa Moss

When I'm working on historical books, I'm much more organized. I usually read about 100 books to get the depth of knowledge I need.

Thomas Mallon

I often tell people who want to write historical fiction: don't read all that much about the period you're writing about; read things from the period that you're writing about. There's a tendency to stoke up on a lot of biography and a lot of history, and not to actually get back to the original sources.

Tom Hulce

Teachers don't tell us the truth about historical people. If we knew the truth, parents couldn't hold their lives up as examples.

Brian Eno

I've got nothing against records - I've spent my life making them - but they are a kind of historical blip.

David Mitchell

All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.

David Korten

An active propaganda machinery controlled bv the world's largest corporations constantly reassures us that consumerism is the path to happiness, governmental restraint of market excess is the cause our distress, and economic globalization is both a historical inevitability and a boon to the human species.

Dave Barry

The Sixties are now considered a historical period, just like the Roman Empire.

Kara Walker

I'm a sponge for historical images of black people and black history on film.