Culby's Daily Quotebook

Quote #149: on the value of the study of history

2012-01-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false."

- Paul Johnson, The Quotable Paul Johnson: A Topical Compilation of His Wit, Wisdom and Satire, edited by George J. Marlin, et al (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994), p. 138.

Quote #148: the benefits of a good wife

2012-01-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

Happy is the husband of a good wife; the number of his days will be doubled. A loyal wife rejoices her husband, and he will complete his years in peace. A good wife is a great blessing; she will be granted among the blessings of the man who fears the Lord. Whether rich or poor, his heart is glad, and at all times his face is cheerful.

- Sirach 26:1-4 (Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition).

Quote #147: Jefferson on the Enlightenment

2012-01-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

[O]n the eighteen century. It certainly witnessed the sciences and arts, manners and morals, advanced to a higher degree than the world had ever before seen. And might we not go back to the ear of the Borgias, by which time the barbarous ages had reduced national morality to its lowest point of depravity, and observe that the arts and sciences, rising from that point, advanced gradually through all the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteen centuries, softening and correcting the manners and morals of man? I think, too, we may add to the great honor for science and the arts, that their natural effect is, by illuminating public opinion, to erect it into a sensor, before which the most exalted tremble for their future, as well as present fame.

- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams dated January 11, 1816, taken from In God We Trust: The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers, ed. by Norman Cousins (Harper & Bros.: 1958), pg. 266.

Quote #146: true and false equality

2012-01-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

"The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at levelling must lead, at best, to social stagnation."

- Russell Kirk (1918-1994), American writer and conservative theorist.

Quote #145: on block quotation

2011-09-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

Probably not a suitable quote for this blog, but worth reading if one plans on doing any original writing:

It is a good idea to avoid long quotations, especially quotations long enough to require indentation. Tehe are few such quotations in academic writing that could not better be paraphrased. Long quotations not only discourage the reader, they often serve as a substitute for thought on the part of the writer.

- Christopher Lasch (1932-1934), Plain Style: A Guide to Written English (University of Pennsylvania Press: 2002), pg. 65.

I assure our readers that the quotes posted on this blog serve not as substittues for, but rather encouragements to, rigorous thinking.

Quote #144: Archbishop Oscar Romero on hope

2011-09-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

The words of a great martyr for the faith and
for his people who spoke about hope in the
face of what appears to be insurmountable
problems:

"Hope is not resignation; it is a commitment
to continue to struggle even when things seem
to warrant surrender, when hope flares, it
allows human beings to overcome monstrous
difficulties. It allows people to defy common
sense and confound strategists. Hope
experienced in the extreme, like faith and love, is miraculous."

Servant of God Oscar Romero, martyr, ora pro nobis!

Quote #143: nostalgia is not substitute for tradition

2011-08-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

"A society that has made "nostalgia" a marketable commodity on the cultural exchange quickly repudiates the suggestion that life in the past was in any important way better than life today."

- Christopher Lasch (1932-1994), American social critic.

Quote #142: Natural law and the nature of government

2011-08-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

"Good and wise men, in all ages [...] have supposed that the Deity, from the relations we stand in to Himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever.This is what is called the law of nature, “which, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior in obligations to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.”—Blackstone.

Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind: the Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beautifying that existence. He endowed him with rational faculties, by the help of which to discern and pursue such things as were consistent with his duty and interest; and invested him with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety.
Hence, in a state of nature, no man had any moral power to deprive another of his life, limbs, property, or liberty; nor the least authority to command or exact obedience from him, except that which arose from the ties of consanguinity.

Hence, also, the origin of all civil government, justly established, must be a voluntary compact between the rulers and the ruled, and must be liable to such limitations as are necessary for the security of the absolute rights of the latter; for what original title can any man, or set of men, have to govern others, except their own consent? To usurp dominion over a people in their own despite, or to grasp at a more extensive power than they are willing to intrust, is to violate that law of nature which gives every man a right to his personal liberty, and can therefore confer no obligation to obedience.
“The principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature, but which could not be preserved in peace without that mutual assistance and intercourse which is gained by the institution of friendly and social communities. Hence it follows, that the first and primary end of human laws is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals.”—Blackstone."

- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), American founding father, The Farmer Refuted (1775).

Quote #141: epistle reading for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-08-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

The second reading assigned in the Catholic lectionary for this Sunday is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Romans 11.13-15, 29-32. That portion of scripture reads as follows in the venerable King James Version of the New Testament:

For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
If by any means I may provoke to emulation [them which are] my flesh, and might save some of them.
For if the casting away of them [be] the reconciling of the world, what [shall] the receiving [of them be], but life from the dead?
For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance.
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Wise words to ponder.

Quote #140: dissenting religion and the push for American Independence

2011-06-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

From the great English statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797) comes this analysis of the role that dissenting religion played in the American commitment to liberty at the time leading up to our Revolution:

Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn out or impaired; and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. The people are Protestants; and of that kind which is the most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built upon it. I do not think, Sir, that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting churches, from all that looks like absolute government, is so much to be sought in their religious tenets, as in their history. Every one knows that the Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the governments where it prevails; that it has generally gone hand in hand with them, and received great favour and every kind of support from authority. The Church of England too was formed from her cradle under the nursing care of regular government. But the dissenting interests have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the world; and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to natural liberty. Their very existence depended on the powerful and unremitted assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion. This religion, under a variety of denominations agreeing in nothing but in the communion of the spirit of liberty, is predominant in most of the northern provinces; where the Church of England, notwithstanding its legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort of private sect, not composing most probably the tenth of the people. The colonists left England when this spirit was high, and in the emigrants was the highest of all; and even that stream of foreigners, which has been constantly flowing into these colonies, has, for the greatest part, been composed of dissenters from the establishments of their several countries, and have brought with them a temper and character far from alien to that of the people with whom they mixed.

- Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, March 22, 1775.

Quote #139: Enduring freedom is embodied freedom

2011-06-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

"The only freedom which can last is a freedom embodied somewhere, rooted in a history, located in space, sanctioned by a genealogy, and blessed by a religious establishment. The only equality which abstract rights, insisted upon outside the context of politics, are likely to provide is the equality of universal slavery. It is a lesson which Western man is only now beginning to learn."

- M.E. Bradford, A Better Guide Than Reason: Federalists & Anti-Federalists (Transaction Publishers: 1994), pg. xviii.

[Cross-posted at my own blog, Ordered Liberty.]

Quote #138: on the duty of a Christian soldier

2011-05-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

For it was a mark of a Christian solider to combine the greatest fortitude with the greatest attention to military discipline, and to add to nobility of mind immovable fidelity towards his prince. But, if anything dishonorable was required of him, as, for instance, to break the law of God, or to turn his sword against innocent disciples of christ, then, indeed, he refused to execute the orders, yet in such wise that he would rather retire from the army and die for his religion than oppose the public authority by means of sedition and tumult.

- Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Diuturnum (On Civil Government) (1881), chapter 20.

[Cross-posted at my own blog Ordered Liberty.]

Quote #137: on constitutional interpretation

2011-04-04T08:43:00.001-07:00

From one of the most influential justices in the history of the Supreme Court:

In construing the constitution of the United States, we are, in the first instance, to consider, what are its nature and objects, its scope and design, as apparent from the structure of the instrument, viewed as a whole, and also viewed in its component parts. Where its words are plain, clear, and determinate, they require no interpretation; and it should, therefore, be admitted, if at all, with great caution, and only from necessity, either to escape some absurd consequence, or to guard against some fatal evil. Where the words admit of two senses, each of which is conformable to common usage, that sense is to be adopted, which, without departing from the literal import of the words, best harmonizes with the nature and objects, the scope and design of the instrument. Where the words are unambiguous, but the provision may cover more or less ground according to the intention, which is yet subject to conjecture; or where it may include in its general terms more or less, than might seem dictated by the general design, as that may be gathered from other parts of the instrument, there is much more room for controversy; and the argument from inconvenience will probably have different influences upon different minds. Whenever such questions arise, they will probably be settled, each upon its own peculiar grounds; and whenever it is a question of power, it should be approached with infinite caution, and affirmed only upon the most persuasive reasons. In examining the constitution, the antecedent situation of the country, and its institutions, the existence and operations of the state governments, the powers and operations of the confederation, in short all the circumstances, which had a tendency to produce, or to obstruct its formation and ratification, deserve a careful attention. Much, also, may be gathered from contemporary history, and contemporary interpretation, to aid us in just conclusions

- Jospeh Story (1799-1845), Commentaries on the Constitution, Chapter V, § 405. II (1833).

Quote #136: On protecting our democratic republic

2011-04-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.

- John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States,
Inaugural Address (1797).

Quote #135: on virtue, happiness and the foundation of good government

2011-01-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

"All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue. Confucius, Zo-roaster, Socrates, Mahomet, not to mention authorities really sacred, have agreed in this.

If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?"

- John Adams (1735-1826), Thoughts on Government (April 1776).

CXXXIV

2010-12-09T07:07:00.001-08:00

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere."

-G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

CXXXIII

2010-12-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

"No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

-James Madison (4th President of the United States and critical member of the Constitutional Convention)

CXXXII

2010-12-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

"China is a sleeping giant. Let it sleep, for when it awakes, it will shake the world."

-Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Quote #131: God's aid and the rise of America

2010-12-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God Governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Speech to the Constitutional Convention, 1787, quoted in The Essential Wisdom of the Founding Fathers, edited by Carol Kelly-Grange (Fall River Press: 2009), pg. 33.

Quote #130: on the link between faith and works

2010-11-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

"In one thing we agree that he who feareth God, and worketh righteousness shall be accepted of him and his Faith cannot be wrong whose life is in the right."

- Abigail Adams (1744-1818), American founder, Letter to Catherine Adams, April 15, 1818, quoted in The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations, edited by James H. Hutson (Princeton: 2005), pg. 90.

Quote #129: the problem with the religious right

2010-11-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

"Adherents of the new religious right reject the separation of politics and religion, but they bring no spiritual insights to politics."

- Christopher Lasch (1931-1994), American historian and social critic.

Quote #128: on the need for religion in society

2010-11-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

"The principle of liberty and equality, if coupled with mere selfishness, will make men only devils, each trying to be independent that he may fight only for his own interest. And here is the need of religion and its power, to bring in the principle of benevolence and love to men."

- John Randolph of Roanoke (1733-1833), Congressman and leader of the National Republicans Party.

Quote #127: on democracy

2010-11-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

- Abraham Lincoln (1808-1865), lawyer, politician, and first Republican president of the United States.

Quote #126: on the sanctity of private property

2010-11-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

"So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community."

- Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), Commentary on the Laws of England.

Quote #125: on fighting for justice

2010-11-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

"Power never concedes anything without a demand. It never has and it never will."

- Frederick Douglass (1808-1895), former slave, African-American civil rights activist, abolitionist and American political philosopher.

Quote #124: on justice

2010-11-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

"The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give every man his due. The study of law consists of two branches, law public and law private. The former relates to the welfare of the Roman State; the latter to the advantage of the individual citizen. Of private law then we may say that it is of threefold origin, being collected from the precepts of nature, from those of the law of nations, or from those of the civil law of Rome."

- Justinian (483-565), emperor of Rome, in his Institutes of Roman Law.

Quote #123: on virtue

2010-11-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

"The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American writer and philosopher.

Quote #122: on ideas

2010-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

- Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), ancient Greek philosopher and tutor to Alexander the Great.

Mother Teresa on abortion

2010-11-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

"I always say one thing: If a mother can kill her own child, then what is left of the West to be destroyed? It is difficult to explain , but it is just that."

Mother Teresa

CXX

2010-09-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than 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

Quote CXIX

2010-09-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

"The truth is this: the march of Providence is so slow and our desires are so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long and that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us hope."

-General Robert E. Lee

(pictured as a young lieutenant in 1831)

Quote CXVIII

2010-09-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

"A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that a fine is generally much lighter."

-G. K. Chesterton

Quote No. CXVII

2010-06-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

"When you need to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

-Tuco Ramirez

(The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

Quote #116: on persuasion

2010-06-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

"If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see"

- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American writer.

Quote #115: De Profundis by Christina Rossetti

2010-04-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

Oh why is heaven built so far,
Oh why is earth set so remote?
I cannot reach the nearest star
That hangs afloat.

I would not care to reach the moon,
On round monotonous of change;
Yet even she repeats her tune
Beyond my range.

I never watch the scatter'd fire
Of stars or sun's far-trailing train,
But all my heart is one desire,
And all in vain:

For I am bound with fleshly bands,
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope.

Quote #114: on excessive taxation

2010-04-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." -- Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States.

Quote #113: on the nature of education

2010-04-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

“Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed” -- St. Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and martyr.

Why do we quote?

2010-04-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

A good question. What is it about quotations that captivate those of us who like them? I have books of quotations -- by the Founding Fathers, by Abraham Lincoln, by various theological authors, etc. Why? What is it about the words of others that is so appealing? Partly it is authority -- the use of words by notable authors to support my own contentions. It allows me to speak without using my own voice. But that, I think, isn't the main reason. The main reason is joy in the phrasing and wisdom of others. What I like about quotations is the ability to reference a particularly well-put point or insight, and to share that literary or verbal excellence with others. That to me is why quotations are so interesting.

As Lincoln once quipped, "For those who like that kind of thing, it's the kind of thing they like."

Quote #112: don't act in a hurry

2010-04-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

"Here is a very wise rule: never act in a hurry, and always be ready to alter your preconceived ideas. And here is another principle that goes with it; don't be too ready to accept the first story that is told you, or hand on to others the rumours you hear, and the secrets entrusted to you. Find out some wise counsellor to advise you, a man of enlightened conscience, and be prepared to go by his better judgement, instead of trusting your own calculations. Believe me, a holy life gives a man the wisdom that reflects God's will, and a wide range of experience. The humbler he is, the more submissive in God's service, the more wise and calm will be his judgements on every question." - The Imitation of Christ, Bk. 1, Ch. 4, Para. 2 (Ronald Knox translation).

Worshipping the Intellect

2010-04-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

"There seems to be an inverse corrolary between those who worship the intellect and those who use it. [Sam] Harris, like so many atheists, is a devout worshipper of the intellect."

Mark P. Shea, Catholic blogger

Quote CX

2010-03-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

"There are no good laws but such as repeal other laws."

President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), our last Independent executive, who martyred his presidency in order that he not be guilty of destroying our Constitution or have a part in the post-bellum alienization of the American South.

Quote #109: on love

2010-03-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

From one of the great English poets of the Romantic period:

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame."

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

On Intellectuals

2010-03-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

“Scratch an intellectual and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound, and the smell of common folk.”

Eric Hoffer

On Appetite

2010-03-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

"The ideal is for us not to control our appetites at all, but to allow them full rein in the wake of an uncontrolled appetite for God.

It is important to take seriously the implication of our beatitude that there really is an appetite for God, and for his righteousness. We too easily speak and think as if righteousness resulted chiefly from the curbing of our appetites, as if our appetites were only for sin. But strictly speaking we have no appetite for sin. What we experience as an appetite for sin is a sick appetite which has mistaken its object. In moments of despondency we may perhaps look around and think that we should be much happier if we gave up trying to be good, if we could enjoy all the vices of the world around us. But that is only a fantasy. The desire for goodness is really a much more robust desire than any alleged desire for evil. . . ."

Father Simon Tugwell, O.P.

Quote #106

2010-03-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

“Because of our traditions we have kept our balance for many, many years … Because of our traditions, everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” -- from Fiddler on the Roof.

Quote CV

2010-03-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

"True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions."

-Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.-43 B.C.)

Quote CIV

2010-03-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

"A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

-Sir Francis Bacon

Quote No. 103

2010-03-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction that is not matured and ripened by it and made fit for God by that affliction."

-John Donne (1572-1631)

Quote #102

2010-03-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

"The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands."

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), English statesman and member of Parliament, generally acknowledged founder of modern conservatism.

The 100 quote milestone!

2010-03-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jakeman for getting us across the 100 quote milestone. Great work by all the contributors here at Culby's Daily Quotebook! Quote-on!

Quote No. 101

2010-03-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."

-Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

Quote Number 100

2010-03-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Bringin' it back...

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether; more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in jeeping them there is great reward."

Psalm 19:7-11 (New King James Version)

Well, are we going to make it to 100 quotes?

2010-03-06T15:14:00.001-08:00

I was going to post the 100th quote this afternoon, but I thought I would leave it up to this blog's founder, Jakeman, to do the honors if he would like. So, Jakeman, will you post a quote to get us across the 100th quote mark, or should I do the honors?

Quote #99: law and ideology

2010-03-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

"It is admittedly somewhat ironic that legal certainty increases precisely in virtue of an element that, although moderating the ideal demands on legal theory, is the most susceptible to ideological distortions." - Jurgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms (transl. by William Rehg, MIT Press: 1998), pg. 221.

Quote #98: on living in the end times

2010-02-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

"Although the early church say the end of the world as imminent, why should we reenter that frame of mind, now that we know that the world was not about to end? Well, the New Testament invites us to see eternity as continually intersecting -- literally, cutting across -- time. This is a synchronic, not a diachronic, faith. We are created now, at every now. Christ comes now; the Incarnation is now. The great judgment is now. 'The accomplishment of everything impends' (1 Peter 4.7). Christ brought his reign with him. It is both present and to come."
--Garry Wills, The Rosary (Viking: 2005), pg. 20.

Danger to Liberty

2010-01-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

"There is something so far-fetched and so extravagant in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or with raillery; whether to consider it as a mere trial of skill, like the paradoxes of rhetoricians; as a disingenuous artifice to instill prejudices at any price; or as the serious."

- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 29

Advantage of being Armed

2010-01-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."
- James Madison, Federalist No. 46

Quote #95: on the powers of government

2010-01-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

"A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the people."
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31 (January 1, 1788).

Unalienable Rights

2010-01-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

"The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... [It] establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of."

- Albert Gallatin, letter to Alexander Addison, 1789

Quote #93: on the purpose of government

2010-01-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful."
- Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), American founding father.

To Guard Liberty

2010-01-01T12:08:00.000-08:00

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."

- Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1778

The Right of Citizens to Be Armed

2009-12-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

"Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it."
- Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, No. 18

Quote #90: St. Stephen

2009-12-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

Since today is St. Stephen's Day, I thought it might be fitting to have a quote dedicated to the first believer to give up his life rather than renounce the Christian faith. Here's the story of his martyrdom, as found in the Acts of the Apostles:

But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 7.54-60 (New King James Version).

Quote #89: "Love Came Down at Christmas"

2009-12-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

- Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), English poet.

4 short quotes

2009-12-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Quote #85: "Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity." - T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), Anglo-American poet.

Quote #86: "Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar." - William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet.

Quote #87: "A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), American author and linguist.

Quote #88: "Man is a mixture of good and evil, and he can never be perfected in this life. The notion of his natural goodness is a delusive theory which will blow up any social order that is predicated upon it." - Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963), scholar and rhetorical theorist.

Why George Washington was Great

2009-12-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

"The great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm."

- George Washington

Quote #83: on schadenfreude

2009-11-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

"Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy;
do not gloat when he is brought down,
or the Lord will be displeased at the sight,
and will cease to be angry with him."
- Proverbs 24.17-18 (Revised English Bible translation).

Quote #82: on the difficulty of discerning God's will

2009-11-20T23:03:00.000-08:00

"Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases." - Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), 16th president of the United States.

Quote #81: on revenge

2009-11-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

"Giving up our desire to take revenge is a hard sacrifice, perhaps the hardest, which Christ requires of us. For our whole human nature cries out for vengence against our enemies. The desire for revenge is stronger in our human blood than any other desire. But - and we know it - we can no longer take revenge. If my enemy stands there before my eyes, and I am overcome by the obsession to finally be able to take revenge, then Jesus Christ stands at once behind my enemy and entreats me: do not lift up your hand, but leave vengence to me; I will take it."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Christ's Love and Our Enemies (1938).

Quote #80: on beauty

2009-11-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked." - St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.).

The Cost of Freedom

2009-11-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Quote #78: most people have their price

2009-10-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." - George Washington (1732-1799), American founding father and first president of the United States.

2009-10-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

"If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them."

- Candidus in The Boston Gazette, 1772

Quote #76: on happiness

2009-10-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

From an early Christian letter dating from the second century A.D.:

And once you love Him, you will be an imitator of His kindness. And you must not be surprised that man can become an imitator of God. He can, since He so wills. Certainly, to be happy does not mean to tyrannize over one's neighbors, or to wish to have an advantage ove rthe weaker ones, or to be rich and therefore able to use force against one's inferiors. It is not in such matters that one can imitate God; no, such amtters are foreign to His majesty. On the other hand, he who takes his neighbor's burden upon himself, who is willing to benefit his inferior in a matter in which he is his superior, who provides the needy with what he himself has received from God and thus becomes the god of the recipients -- he, I say, is an imitator of God!

- Epistle to Diognetus 10.4-6 (Ancient Christian Writers translation).

Quote #75: a marriage blessing

2009-10-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite passages from one of my favorite plays:

Honor, riches, marriage blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be stil upon you!
June sings her blessings on you.
Earth's increase, foison plenty,
Barns and garners never empty,
Vines with clust'ring bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you at the farthest
In the very end of harvest.
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you.

- William Shakespeare, from The Tempest, IV, i.

Quote #74: the meaning of Jesus' birth

2009-10-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

"The birth of Jesus provides our entrance into the reality and meaning of creation: this is the world of the Father revealed by Jesus. Jesus shows us that the creation is something to be lived, not just looked at, and the way he did it becomes the way we do it."

- Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Eerdmans: 2005), pg. 137

2009-10-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, 1776

Quote #72: "the sacred had finally overspread the world."

2009-10-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

A great Jewish scholar meditates on what the destruction of the Second Temple meant for Jewish practice in the world:

If we appreciate the force of powerful emotions aroused by the Temple cult, we may understand how grand a revolution was effected in the simple declaration, so long in coming, that with the destruction of the Temple the realm of the sacred had finally overspread the world. We must now see in ourselves, in our selfish motives to be immolated, the noblest sacrifice of all. So Rabban Gamaliel son of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch said, "Do His will as if it was your will, so that He may do your will as if it ws His will. Make your will of no effect before His will, that He may make the will of others of no effect before your will." His will is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Just was willingly as we would contribute bricks and mortar for the building of a sanctuary, so willingly we ought to contribute love, renunciation, self-sacrifice, for the building of a sacred community. If one wants to do something for God in a time when the Temple is no more, the offering must be the gift of selfless compassion. The holy altar must be the streets and marketplaces of the world.

- Jacob Neuser, Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity (Fortress Press: 1984), pgs. 98-99.

Quote LXXI: On Education, The Consumation Of

2009-09-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

"The start of learning, thus, lies in reading, but its consummation lies in meditation."

Hugh of St. Victor

Quote #70: on controling one's emotions

2009-09-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

"Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth."

- Goethe (1749-1832), German philosopher and writer.

Quote #69: on human improvement

2009-09-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

"Beavers build houses; but they build them in nowise differently, or better now, than they did, five thousand years ago. Ants, and honey-bees, provide food for winter; but just in the same way they did, when Solomon referred the sluggard to them as patterns of prudence. Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship."

- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), American statesman and president.

2009-09-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

"No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was ever more clouded than the present! Wisdom and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm."

- George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1786

Quote #67: on the importance of tomorrow

2009-09-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

- John Wayne (1907-1979), American actor and cultural icon.

Quote #66: on justice and leadership

2009-09-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

Sage advice from the pre-Christian Jewish tradition on the need for those charged with leadership in the community to seek both justice and holiness:

Love justice, you rulers of the earth; set your mind upon the Lord in the right way, and seek him in singleness of heart; for he is to be found by those who trust him without question, and he makes himself known to those who never doubt him. Dishonest thinking cuts people off from God, and if fools like liberties with his power he shows them up for what they are. Wisdom will not enter a shifty soul, nor make her home in a body that is mortgaged to sin. This holy spirit of discipline will shun falsehood; she cannot stay in the presence of unreason, and will withdraw at the approach of injustice.

- Wisdom of Solomon 1.1-5 (circa 2nd century B.C.) (Revised English Bible translation).

The Love of Law and Liberty

2009-09-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

"Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they become the objects of our knowledge."
- James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, 1790

Quote #64: on standing armies

2009-09-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

I've cross posted this quote over at my own blog:

Keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics - that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe.

- James Madison (1751-1836), American Founding Father and 4th President of the United States.

Quote #63: on emotions

2009-09-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own."

- Goethe (1749-1832), German philosopher and writer.

Quote #62: on good government

2009-09-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

"A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained."

- Jospeh Story (1779-1845), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Quote #61: on Christian citizenship in the face of a hostile secular regime

2009-09-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

A little bit of rhetorical overkill, but the sentiment is sound and in the tradition of St. Paul:

A Christian in an enemy to no one, much less to the emperor; he knows the emperor was raised up by God; therefore, a Christian honors him, reveres him, favors him, and hope for his preservation along with all the empire as long as the world lasts. In fact, the world will last only as long as the empire. We honor the emperor to the degree permitted to us and necessary for him, as a man who is second only to God, who is protected by God, and who is therefore inferior only to God.

- Tertullian (160-220 A.D.), early Christian apologist, Ad Scapulaum 2.

Quote LX

2009-09-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

"People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it."

-Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

Quote LIX

2009-09-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

"A precedent embalms a principle."

-Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Quote LVIII: The Pursuit of Truth

2009-09-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

"The life of study is austere and imposes grave obligations. It pays, it pays richly; but it exacts an initial outlay that few are capable of. The athletes of the mind, like those of the playing field, must be prepared for privations, long training, a sometimes superhuman tenacity. We must give ourselves from the heart, if truth is to give itself to us. Truth serves only its slaves."

- A. G. Sertillanges from The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

Quote #57: on goodness and beauty

2009-09-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked."

- St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Christian bishop and Church Father.

Quote LVI

2009-09-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

-Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Quote #55: Loss of Liberty

2009-09-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

"No people will tamely surrender their liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the contrary, when people are universally ignorant, and debauched in their manners, they will sink under their own weight without the aid of foreign invaders."

- Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775

Quote #54: on the flawed nature of human decision-making

2009-09-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

"Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C. - 7 A.D.), Roman statesman and philosopher.

Quote #53: The Purpose of Education

2009-09-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

"Education is for the purpose of teaching men to know their true condition, to understand what freedom is and at what price it is bought, and to comprehend the meaning of civilization."

- Calvin Coolidge

Quote #52

2009-09-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

"The American Republic will endure until the day congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

-Alexis de Toucqueville (1805-1859) from Democracy in America (Vol.II)

Quote #51: why a republic is greater than an empire

2009-09-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

Building on Jake's theme of exploring the nature of republics, here's a great quote by one of the great orators of the American political tradition:

"Behold a republic standing erect while empires all around are bowed beneath the weight of their own armaments -- a republic whose flag is loved while other flags are only feared."

- William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), American statesman and three-time Democratic Party nominee for the presidency.

Quote #50

2009-09-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here it is. The Fiftieth Quote. I thought this one was an appropriate reminder of what we still have in America despite everything that is going wrong today.

"Republic. I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling. Republic is one of those words that makes me tight in the throat - the same tightness a man gets when his baby takes his first step or his first baby shaves and makes his first sound as a man. Some words can give you a feeling that makes your heart warm. Republic is one of those words."

-John Wayne as Davy Crockett in The Alamo (1960)