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Pearls of wisdom on: The Nature of Government

My father-in-law just sent this - I don't know who compiled the list but it is a wonderful list.  Lot's of Twain.  Are you going to read his recently published autobiography (posthumously published 100 years)?  And that Anonymous guy is witty.

I found it funny that Amazon was advertising "The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics)." How did the book get into that category so quickly?

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. 
-- John Adams
 
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
-- Mark Twain
 
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But, then, I repeat myself. 
  -- Mark Twain 
 
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle.
  -- Winston Churchill
 
 5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw
 
 
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man;  which he proposes to pay off with your money.
  -- G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
  -- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
 
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
  -- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
 
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
 
 
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. 
 -- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
 
11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:  If it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And, if it stops moving, subsidize it.
 -- Ronald Reagan (1986)
 
 
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
 -- Will Rogers

 
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke

 
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
 - Voltaire (1764)
 

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
 -- Pericles (430 B.C.)

 
16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
 -- Mark Twain (1866)

 
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
 -- Anonymous 
 
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan
 
 
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-- Winston Churchill

 
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
  -- Mark Twain

 
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
 
 
22. There is no distinctly native American criminal class ... save, Congress.
--  Anonymous

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
  -- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995) 
 
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
  -- Thomas Jefferson


Interesting how the nature of goverenment hasn't changed much in 3000 years from the perspective  of social commentaries.

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