Cicero, 42 B.C. and other Quotes

[FlaGator]

However, those who whine about their prediction that some change in policy will prevent them from "choosing my own doctor" often have chosen their doctors for reasons no more relevant than looks or eloquence.

Years ago, Mobil did a survey and discovered that regardless of how well educated about gasoline the public is (and there are indeed sound reasons for quality differences) they still choose a station for convenience and price before considering brand.

I may have chosen a gas station for convenience but will not sit idly by and let someone tell me I have to choose another gas station.

It doesn't matter why someone made a choice; it was his/her choice to make and I don't think that America needs the government redefining for us a new list of choices that might not include the original choice.

[Zeus]

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville ~

[Novaheart]

I may have chosen a gas station for convenience but will not sit idly by and let someone tell me I have to choose another gas station.

It doesn't matter why someone made a choice; it was his/her choice to make and I don't think that America needs the government redefining for us a new list of choices that might not include the original choice.

I always buy my gasoline from Sunoco, Shell, BP, Hess, or if I must... Exxon. IT's been a long time since I worked for Mobil, but back then MObil said that the highest quality gasoline was Amoco then Mobil, Shell and Texaco.

For health insurance I switched from my "fantastic" plan which was a POS/PPO but you could go see any doctor without a referral, to the HMO I now have which limits my choices, requires referrals but (and this was important to me) has no lifetime maximum. The other plan had a lifetime maximum of 2 million and considering I had already had a $175,000 leg (fell off the dock and got a scratch on the canal bottom and some disgusting bacteria attacked my leg), I figured it was entirely possible to hit the max. Anyway, regardless of which company I was with, my selection of doctors honestly had more to do with convenience and then referrals than any critical evaluation. Geography and luck converged for me to have two of Georgetown's finest grajiats.

[Hawkgirl]

And now some quotes from Vladimir Lenin.



The goal of socialism is communism.

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. (bourgeouisie=middle class)

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.

Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism.

[Molon Labe]

Naturally the common people don't want war…but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship…all you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country
- Herman Goering

[Odysseus]

Naturally the common people don't want war…but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship…all you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country
- Herman Goering

“Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'.”
― George Orwell

“Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States …”
― George Orwell

“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 a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
― John Stuart Mill

[Rockntractor]

Humility is not constantly reminding others of your achievements but allowing others to notice them for themselves.

[linda22003]

"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." - Lily Tomlin

“No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source 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

[Rockntractor]

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai taught: “If you have a sapling in your hand and someone tells you the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go out to welcome the Messiah”

[Retread]

"When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered. " - Dorothy Thompson

Which strongly reinforces my view of the future of the country.