Talk:Main Page/Quotes
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The page titled Main Page/Quotes contains a specially formatted list of quotes related to Constitutional concepts and values. Quotes are periodically selected for inclusion on the Main Page.
Add quotes here to be considered for inclusion in the list of quotes that are randomly selected for inclusion in the main page. Admin (talk) 17:06, 24 June 2014 (EDT)
"I know the American people want <insert here whatever the politician's top campaign donors want>."
- Every US politician who has ever lived
Ronald Reagan Quotes
I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at the point of a bayonet, if necessary. Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1965
Lord Acton said power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power.
On the farm, on the street corner, in the factory and in the kitchen, millions of us ask nothing more, but certainly nothing less than to live our own lives according to our values — at peace with ourselves, our neighbors and the world.
I don't agree that our nation must resign itself to inevitable decline, yielding its proud position to other hands. I am totally unwilling to see this country fail in its obligation to itself and to the other free peoples of the world.
This is not the time for political fun and games. This is the time for a new beginning.
We can be so thankful that Dr. King raised his mighty eloquence for love and hope rather than for hostility and bitterness. He took the tension he found in our nation, a tension of injustice, and channeled it for the good of America and all her people.
The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor.
Recognizing the equality of all men and women, we are willing and able to lift the weak, cradle those who hurt, and nurture the bonds that tie us together as one nation under God.
We in the United States, above all, must remember that lesson of the Holocaust, for we were founded as a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. And so we must remain. Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism. We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief.
It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.
We will never recognize the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of others.
"We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free.
America's best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead.
But something strange has happened. Instead of just talking about new spending programs and debating them in Washington, as they have for years and years and decades, today there's a whole different argument. The fight is over, ``How much can we cut? And, yes, they have their way sometimes, and we don't get all that we ask for. But I've always figured I'll settle for 75 percent or 80 percent, if I can get that much of the cuts. And we can do it as long as we maintain that Senate. – Remarks at a Dinner Honoring Senator Rudy Boschwitz in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 9, 1983
During our visit, I was impressed with the sincere desire of the Chinese people to strengthen our cooperation for the mutual benefit of both our peoples. And I expressed to them on your behalf and on behalf of all the people of the United States our commitment to a more peaceful and prosperous world. And I told them that we're anxious to live and trade together as friends. I found that same sentiment true with the Chinese people everywhere we traveled. Instead of the points of difference that some might suspect in the meetings, that this kept us at edge -- no. We frankly recognized and from both sides we said and they said, ``But let's talk about the things that we have in common and where we can agree. – Remarks at a Luncheon With Community Leaders in Fairbanks, Alaska, May 1, 1984
Justice Samuel Alito
October 27, 2014 - Justice Samuel Alito referring to comments made by George H. W. Bush on December 12, 1991: "For a long time what our Constitution gave us, a declaration of rights that actually had teeth -- and that is what is unique about our Bill of Rights, it actually has teeth, it is actually put into operation, it is actually enforced -- for a long time, that concept was an oddity. For more than 150 years, the idea that a legislative act is void if it infringes the right of the people, found very few adherents anywhere else in the world. But World War II, where President George H. W. Bush fought with great distinction as a pilot, changed that. The enormity of the evil that was perpetrated by the Third Reich, often under the veneer of legality, prompted people throughout the world to rethink the whole question of rights. And the American idea of an enforcable bill of rights began to catch on. All of the former Axis powers after World War II adopted new democratic constitutions that protect human rights and provide for judicial review of the constitutionality of government acts. And then after the collapse of the Soviet Union and of the Warsaw Pact during President Bush's term in office, the newly liberated nations of Eastern Europe followed suit."
F. A. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom)
The following quote is from Hayek's The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents: The Definitive Edition. It's from Chapter 9, "Security and Freedom" and it (partially) explains some of his ideas on a "safety net" in an advanced free market economy:
| "...can be provided for all outside of and supplementary to the market system and the security which can be provided only for some and only by controlling or abolishing the market. There is no reason why in a society which has reached the general level of wealth which ours has attained the first kind ol‘security should not be guaranteed to all without endangering general freedom. There are difficult questions about the precise standard which should thus be assured; there is particularly the important question whether those who thus rely on the community should indefinitely enjoy all the same liberties as the rest.“ An incautious handling of these questions might well cause serious and perhaps even dangerous political problems; but there can be no doubt that some minimum offood, shelter, and clothing, sufficient to preserve health and the capacity to work, can be assured to everybody Indeed, for a considerable part of the population of England this sort of security has long been achieved. Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals ill providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the eflbrts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistanceiwhere, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risksithe case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. There are many points ol'detail where those wishing to preserve the competitive system and those wishing to supercede it by something different will disagree on the details of such schemes; and it is possible under the name of social insurance to introduce measures which tend to make competition more or less ineflective. But there is no incompatibility in principle between the state’s providing greater sectuity in this way and the preservation of individual freedom. To the same category belongs also the increase ofsecun'ty through the state ’5 rendering assistance to the victims of such “acts of God” as earthquakes and floods. Wherever communal action can mitigate disasters against which the individual can neither attempt to guard himself nor make prmdsion for the consequences, such communal action should undoubtedly be taken. There is, finally, the supremely important problem ol‘combating general fluctuations ol‘economic activity and the recurrent waves ol‘large-scale unemployment..." |
This quote might be useful in discussing the Basic Assistance Fund. (see Basic assistance). Ronald Smith (talk) 20:51, 23 February 2015 (EST)
Charlie Rose
"The challenge is: how do we maximize what is great about America what has put it in a place in a remarkable time since the founding of this country, what's remarkable about it at the same time, what parts of it enable too many people to be in poverty, too many people to be in prison, too many people not to have medical care and too many people not be be able to see that their kids have a better opportunity than they had to buy into, to engage in, the American dream." - On his show while interviewing Bernie Sanders, Oct. 27, 2015
