Inherited wealth deadens talents and energies.
             -- Andrew Carnegie
 
There's no doubt there is an inherent contradiction between conservatism and unfettered capitalism.  Conservatives ought to be worshipping at a higher altar than the bottom line on a balance sheet.  What in heaven's name is it that we conservatives want to conserve, if not social stability and family unity?"
            -- Pat Buchanan

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the treasury.  From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
     The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.  These na-tions have progressed through this sequence:

  • From bondage to spiritual faith
  • From spiritual faith to great courage
  • From great courage to liberty
  • From liberty to abundance
  • From abundance to selfishness
  • From selfishness to complacency
  • From complacency to apathy
  • From apathy to dependency
  • From dependency to bondage once again

Alexander Tyler, writing ca. 1750, about the fall of the Athenian Republic.

FDR took America off the gold standard on Patriot's Day, 1933 (April 19th). How ironic!

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with public money" — Alexis de Tocqueville, French Historian

"Modern  art is when you buy a picture to cover a hole in the wall, then decide the hole looked better."  .... anon

"Waste not, want not; willful waste makes woeful want."  ... Ben Franklin, statesman

  "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring oneanother, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned ... this is the sum of good government." ... Thomas Jefferson, first inaugural address

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