Top Quotes

"Men married earley-usually by twenty; not through romantic love but for the sound puropses of having a helpmate, useful children, and a healthy sexual life. In the words of the Roman wedding ceremony, marrage was liberum quaerendorum causa-for the sake of getting children; on the farm, children, like wives, were economic assets, not biological toys." -- Will Durant "Caesar and Christ"

"You can never really own more than you can carry with two hands while running at full speed." -- Robert A. Heinlein 

"Think of it as evolution in action." -- Jerry Pournelle

"Life is hard. Life is harder when you're stupid". - John Wayne

"Nothing is said that has not been said before" -- Terence, Roman Dramatist (185 - 159 B.C.)

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and 
degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing 
is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill

"That rifle on the wall of the laborer's cottage or working class flat is 
the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there!" -- George Orwell 

"I've seen the future, baby, it is murder." -- Leonard Cohen. 

"The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."
-- Wavy Gravy.

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce 

If you sit by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by. -- Taoist saying

Goodie-goodies are the thieves of virtue. -- Lao-tzu

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.---- H. L. Mencken

"Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. 
But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops." -- H. L. 
Mencken

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a
cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup. -- H. L. 
Mencken

A general rule: if enough people predict something, it wonąt happen.
-- J. G. Ballard

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom! -- J. G. Ballard

"How many pessimists end up by desiring the things they fear, in order to prove that they are right?" ~ Robert Mallett

We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." -- George Orwell

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier. -- Samuel Johnson 

"Reality is what doesn't go away when you stop believing in it."  -- Phillip K. Dick

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. -- Kurt Vonnegut (1961)

"The simple truth - born of experience - is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people." -- Judge Alex Kozinsk

"What kind of society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social
organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of system." - Milton Friedman

"When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is." -- Ayn Rand

"All models are wrong, but some are useful". -- George E. P. Box 

A policeman pulls Werner Heisenberg over on the autobahn for speeding.
Policeman: Sir, do you know how fast you were going ?
Heisenberg: No, but I know exactly where I am. -- Unk

"Entropy isn't what it used to be."

"Enough research will tend to support your theory." -- Murphy's Law of Research 

The Science Graduate asks "How does it work ?"
The Economics Graduate asks "How much does it cost ?"
The Engineering Graduate asks "How can we make it ?"
The Liberal Arts Graduate asks "Do you want fries with that ?"
-- Jesse N. Schell. 

"The 2 most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." -- Unk

"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve". -- Karl Popper 

"No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude. -- Karl Popper 

"When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." 
-- Socrates

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." -- Thomas Edison

"Compassion comes from the heart, not the government." -- Edward Britton

You may not like rich people, but when was the last time a poor person gave you a job?" -- Gene Simmons

On the Internet, people on the tails of the bell curve can find one 
another." -- Virginia Postrel

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." 
-- Ben Franklin 

"Jesus would never use government surrogates to force the people to 
'help others'." -- Philip Freneau 

"In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car." 
-- Lawrence Summers 

"Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism." 
-- Ayn Rand

"Civilizaton is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it. -- Voltaire 

"An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert A. Heinlein

Stupidity is the only universal capital crime." -- Heinlein

"The greatest productive force is human selfishness" -- Heinlein

"The more impediments to legislation, the better." -- Heinlein

"In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'" -- Dosteovsky

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better 
than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." --Samuel Adams

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man? (Henry David Thoreau)

'Fair' is one of the most dangerous concepts in politics. Since no two 
people are likely to agree on what is 'fair,' this means that there must
be some third party with power -- the government -- to impose its will. The road to despotism is paved with 'fairness' -- Thomas Sowell

Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it. -- Dave Barry

Never raise your hands to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.
-- Red Buttons

"If you can't eat their food, drink their liquor, fuck their whores and
take their money and STILL vote AGAINST them, you don't belong in this business." -- Jess Unruh.

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. -- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 

One man with a gun can control 100 without one. -- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 

"No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man There can be no such thing as the right to enslave." Ayn Rand -- "Man's Rights," The Virtue of Selfishness 

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. -- Ayn Rand

The word "We" is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of 
the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which 
the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. -- Ayn Rand "Anthem"

I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet -- Ayn Rand "Anthem"

When "the common good" of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals -- Ayn Rand, "What is Capitalism?" Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal 

"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical 
safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." -- Hayek

When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the marjority 
of men live content. -- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Before all else, be armed. -- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. 
-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince 

Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed. -- Niccolo Machiavelli

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." -- Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged

"The universe is eight billion years old, the last two billion of which have produced intelligent life. During this time not one hour of absolute equity has prevailed." -- Jack Vance "The Houses of Iszm"

"We are what we repeatedly do." -- Aristotle

Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS

"Madmen reason rightly from the wrong premisis" -- Locke

"Government has no other end than the preservation of property." -- Locke

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race." -- Margaret Sanger.

"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is impossible." -- Jack Vance

"By the Atheist I understand the man who not only holds off, like the 
sceptic, from the affirmative, but who drives himself, or is driven, to the negative assertion in regard to the whole unseen, or to the existence of God." -- Gladstone 

"Freedom and equality are naturan born enemies." -- Will Durant

"Life must breed" -- Will Durant

"As long as there is poverty there will be gods." -- Will Durant

"Communism is the opiate of the people." -- Will Durant

"Money is the last thing a wise man will hoard." -- Will Durant

"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life. --Will Durant

"The system isn't stupid, but the people in it are." -- Thomas S. Szasz

"All drugs of any interest to any moderately intelligent person in America are now illegal." -- Thomas Szasz

"Punishment is now unfashionable... because it creates moral distinctions among men, which, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility." -- Thomas Szasz

"Oderint dum metuent" - Domitian 

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. -- Ayn Rand

"The earth swarms with people who are not worth talking to." -- Voltaire

A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends." -- Charles de Gaulle