Quotes and Wisdoms

[Ocean Breeze]

"I saw in the whole Christian world a license of fighting at which even
barbarous nations might blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or none
at all, and carried on without any reference of law, Divine or human."

-- Hugo Grotius, Prolegomena to the Law of War and Peace [1625]

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

=

“Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage-----torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians-----which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side. … The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” : George Orwell

 

[Ocean Breeze]

When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do." : William Blake

=

"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.": Howard Zinn, historian and author

=

"The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about.": Noam Chomsky

 

[Reverend Blair]

"I lost my pants someplace."
--One of the teenagers drinking beer and smoking dope in my neighbour's backyard. I take it summer vacation has started. ;-)

 

[Ocean Breeze]

The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service: Albert Einstein

=

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason: Ernest Hemmingway

=

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism: Martin Luther King, Jr.

like the "pioneers for a warless world". Hmm. So this is what the young people that "leave" the military or refuse to join can be called. Much more constructive than what they are being called now.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

wouldn't call it fascism exactly, but a political system nominally controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment can hardly be described as democracy either: Edward Zehr

=

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

=

The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country -- when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.": Carl Schurz:

=

Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles: Ralph Waldo Emerson:

===

 

[Ocean Breeze]

"There's no such thing as a stupid question,
but they're the easiest to answer!"

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

=

"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)." (Ayn Rand)

=

"Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper." (Larry Flynt)

=

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." (Albert Einstein)

===

(kinda partial to the last one :wink:

 

[GreenGreta]

Happiness is a warm puppy - Charles Schultz

 

[GreenGreta]

Sorry - couldn't resist

 

[GreenGreta]

How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.
Adolf Hitler

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: Quotes and Wisdoms

Happiness is a warm puppy - Charles Schultz

:thumbleft:

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life.

We were taught under the old ethic that man's business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's keeper?'' That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.

Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death: Eugene V. Debs: 1908 speech

=

.... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. Alex Carey:

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends. "-- J.R.R. Tolkien

=

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." : Edmund Burke

=

"Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together." : Daniel Webster

 

[Ocean Breeze]

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth." : Adolf Hitler

=

"Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let me label you as they may." : Mark Twain

=

A good conscience is a continual Christmas." : - Benjamin Franklin

 

[Ocean Breeze]

"The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool." : Stephen King

=

There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange." : Daniel Webster

=

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.": Josh Billings

=

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." : Socrates

 

[Twila]

I lost my pants someplace."
--One of the teenagers drinking beer and smoking dope in my neighbour's backyard. I take it summer vacation has started.

ah....those were the days......

 

[Ocean Breeze]

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear: Cicero Marcus Tullius - Born on January 3, 106 BC and was murdered on December 7, 43 BC.

considering the date of this quote.......mankind has learned zilch in the interim.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

. . I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. . .

“. . . For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. . . . “

“ . . . What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival . . .” : Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

 

[Ocean Breeze]

What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise: Barbara Jordan

=

We Americans have no commission from God to police the world: Benjamin Harrison, address to Congress, 1888

=

We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us. We must get away from the idea that America is to be the leader of the world in everything. She can lead in some things. The old "manifest destiny" idea ought to be modified so that each nation has the manifest destiny to do the best it can - and that without cant, without the assumption of self- righteousness and with a desire to learn to the uttermost from other nations: Francis John McConnell

===



===

Charge Him or Release Him

Jose Padilla : U.S. Citizen Imprisoned Without Trial or Charges for 3 Years and 62 Days

===

"The time of revenge has come"

Blowback from Bush and Blair's incompetently pursued war on terror has hit London. When will the U.S. figure out how to fight smart?