Going Forth For America’s Fourth, 2006

What Else Can I Say, That Hasn’t Already Been Said More Eloquently?


Unless I change my mind and get inspired by something, this morning, on the anniversary of our great nation’s independence, I’m just going to point out some recommended reading, and offer some famous quotes for your enjoyment….

First, there is a collection of essays out here that have been published on the internet called The Federalist Papers. I don’t mean to be condescending in mentioning them because many people over the age of thirty or forty probably know about them already.

As to the young “whipper-snappers” out there, I have no idea what you’ve been taught…but…the Federalist Papers were written by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton and published in New York City Newspapers after the US Constitution was written and awaiting ratification by the individual states.

I can’t make you click on the link and take the time to read these writings, but I wish that everyone would, because they provide an excellent context as to where our country has come from and possibly where we are going—if we don’t further lose our way due to the insanity of crappy public education, partisanship, and various other forces of dubious intents and capabilities.

Next I’d like to present a few of my favorite historical quotations. (If you’re a regular reader, please excuse any redundancy found in this offering):

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

--C.S. Lewis

"A republic will avoid war unless the avoidance might create conditions that are worse than warfare itself. Sometimes, the dispositions of those who choose to make themselves our enemies leaves us no choice. In any case, declarations of war rest with the legislature alone; the President is authorized to take defensive actions only."

"When, in spite of all efforts to avoid it, a republic must go to war, the focus of the nation is temporarily changed. The President, as Commander-In-Chief, assumes the extraordinary powers necessary to conduct the all-out effort. Citizens and legislators must then put aside differences and unite against the common enemy. Undesirable conduct may be forced on the republic in dealing with an unscrupulous enemy."

"The right to procure property and to use it for one's own enjoyment is essential to the freedom of every person, and our other rights would mean little without these rights of property ownership. It is also for these reasons that the government's power to tax property is placed in those representatives most frequently and directly responsible to the people, since it is the people themselves who must pay those taxes out of their holdings of property."

—Thomas Jefferson


"I am in the prime of my senility"

"If you would persuade, you should appeal to interest rather than intellect..."

"Never leave that till tomorrow what you can do today."

"Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices."

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at a tempting moment"

--Benjamin Franklin

And finally, a few short stabs from my idol Samuel Clemmons:

"Clothes make the man... Naked people have little or no influence on society."

"Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge."

"Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable."

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't."

"It is easier to stay out than get out."

"Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."

"I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened."

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

--Mark Twain

OK, now go out there and enjoy your Independence Day, cook some hot dogs, visit with your family, and even take the time to READ something serious besides MY internet rantings…