Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Aaron Miller ·
June 17, 2012 at 5:00pm
"... let him so temper all things, that the strong may have something to strive after, and the weak nothing at which to take alarm." —St. Benedict
Your turn.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
The problem (for me) with quoting Chesterton is knowing when to stop:
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Jun '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Mel Foil: The problem (for me) with quoting Chesterton is knowing when to stop:
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6 minutes ago
Please, M. Foil, don't hesitate. These quotes are priceless.
Jul '10
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
"Cut taxes"
Jimmy Carter
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
H. L. Mencken
Jun '10
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Irish proverb: "That which hurts teaches." At least it should.
I'm unconvinced that the Democrats have learned a single thing about the perils of debt.
Jun '10
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Re: Chesterton. He often would have a Q & A session as part of his lectures. He was once asked what book he would want to have with him if tossed up alone on a desert island. I assume the questioner thought it would be the Bible, the writings of Aquinas or the like.
Chesterton's response: "Thomas's Guide to Practical Shipbuilding." [I paraphrase]
Very funny, but very practical. Politicians could learn something about doing what can be done well, and nothing more.
Jun '12
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Something for this political cycle
"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it."
Niccolo Machiavelli
Mar '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
May '10
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
"Suck it, non-representative taxers" - Thomas Jefferson
Nov '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself. - John Locke
"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption." --Thomas Jefferson
It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds. - Fred Bastiat
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. -Some peasant
Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. - Fred Bastiat
Nov '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth. – Mohandas Gandhi
It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. – Calvin Coolidge
The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime. – Max Stirner
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. – P. J. O'Rourke
Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression. – Dick Feagler
The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, "See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk". – Harry Browne
"Clear alcohols are for rich women on diets." -Ron Swanson
Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. - Fred Bastiat
Edited on June 17, 2012 at 5:19pmNov '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Those who would give up Essential Liberty, to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. – Benjamin Franklin
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. – Robert A. Heinlein
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.
– H.L. Mencken
We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.
-Fred Bastiat
Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the name of children and of fighting poverty, while right-wing politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs. Either way, government gets bigger and you become less free. – Harry Browne
Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more. – Allan H. Meltzer
Mar '12
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Of course, you quoted a saint (and to great effect). You will excuse me, please, that I have no knowledge of an original source beyond what I note. About 15 years ago now, an active woman of the church told us that she was no saint, turned, and walked away. Another woman, looking sad, watching the woman depart said, "She either does not believe that God has the power to make her a saint, or she does not want to be one."
Mar '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
More Aristotle --
May '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. Render unto God what is God's."
The problem is Caesar doesn't seem to know what is not his...and Caesar has the guns.
May '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
Some from Milton Friedman:
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand"
"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program"
"Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink, and make the combination worthless"
Mar '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
For all politicians (especially ones named Bloomberg).
Jun '10
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
"For all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony."
-Sri Aurobindo (Indian Nationalist and Philosopher)
Nov '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. – Thomas Jefferson
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. - John Locke
A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them. – P. J. O'Rourke
The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community. – David D. Boaz
"Society exists for the benefit of its members; not the members for the benefit of society." --Herbert Spence
"The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security." --Thomas Paine
"Mine is better than ours." --Benjamin Franklin
"How can a rational being be ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own exertions?" --Mary Wollstonecraft
"It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy." --ThomasJefferson
Nov '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
"The State invariably has its origins in conquest and confiscation." --Albert Jay Nock
"All Liberty consists only in being subject to no man's will, and nothing denotes a slave but a dependence on the will of another." --Algernon Sidney
"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is of right, absolute." --John Stuart Mill
"Each person is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental, or spiritual." --John Stuart Mill
"Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed." --Herbert Spencer
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors. – John Stuart Mill
"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called." --JohnStuartMill
Nov '11
Re: Classical Advice For Modern Politicians
It’s never too early to learn that the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayer’s teet until they have sore, chapped nipples. -Ron Swanson