Words of Wisdom

Words of Wisdom
 A Collection of My Favorite Quotations
A Collection of My Favorite Quotations


"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." - Edward Abbey

"It's easier to prepare and prevent, than to repair and repent." ~ Anonymous

"Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain

"Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice." - John Adams

"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle." ~ Kahlil Gibran

"There is nothing more terrifying than ignorance in action." ~ Goethe - (engraved on a plaque at the Naval War College)

"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 your 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

If Samuel Adams were alive today, he would be the editor for Republic Magazine!

"Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth."
- John Wesley

Some words to heed from Thomas Paine:
“That government is best which governs least.”
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
"Lead, follow, or get out of the way."
"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of." ~ Charles Richards

"Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." ~ Anais Nin

"Real and genuine love is not a matter of choosing to see and recollect only the good in others; it is the choice to accept and cherish them, by the grace and power of God, just as they truly are--sinners in need of a Savior..... as are we." ~ Dawn Asper

Here are my favorites from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."
"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." [Hmm.... what does this say about evolutionists?]
"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet."
"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer."
"Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit."
"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."
"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
"As we grow old…the beauty steals inward."
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
"The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss."
[and my all time favorites from Emerson]:
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
[Here's his opinion on gun control]:
"No law ever written has stopped any robber, rapist or killer, like cold blue steel in the hands of their last intended victim."

On to Henry David Thoreau:
"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."
"Be true to your work, your word, and your friend."
"Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet."
"Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something."
"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
"When a dog runs at you, whistle for him."
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify."

The following are attributed to Ben Franklin ~
"There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one�s self."
"If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles."
"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
"All mankind is divided into three classes: those who are immovable; those who are movable; and those who move."

The wit and irony of WInston Churchill:
"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
"It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required."
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."
“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it."
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour."
"To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!"
[Our president would do well to heed these bits of Churchill wisdom]:
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy."

VERSE OF THE DAY
(Amplified Version)