Grandfather Economic Report series
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Famous Quotes |
A tribute is paid to
WISE WORDS FROM FOUNDING FATHERS OF OUR GREAT NATION
- Many agree
it foolish to ignore great wisdom of the past -
- Many also agree we depart from this wisdom at our nation's peril -
This page is a part of the Grandfather Economic Report series, a review of economic trends revealing threats facing young families and youth, compared to prior generations - displaying hard data evidence from reliable sources in color graphic form, on subjects such as > > debt, government, family incomes, social security, international trade, regulations, inflation, energy, voter turnout, trust, healthcare, national security and education. A table of contents is on the home page. The chapter you are now visiting contains powerful and instructive quotes. |
1. The 4 principal reasons why a federal government was
formed: "(1) The common defense (national security); (2) the
preservation of public peace, as well against internal convulsions as external
attacks; (3) the regulation of commerce with other nations and between states; (4)
the superintendent of our intercourse, political and commercial, with foreign countries (foreign affairs)." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper
No.23, 1787 - a founding father with most important interpretation of the Constitution.
2. Above in more detail: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State." - James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 25, 1788 - considered the 'father of the Constitution'
3. "With respect to the words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." - James Madison
< (editor note: the above 3 quotes (and #27 below) prove our nation's founders intended that the Federal Government NOT be involved in social issues concerning citizens, such as: social security, Medicare, Medicaid, health, welfare, education, income redistribution, entitlements, unemployment insurance, farm subsidies, housing, flood insurance, etc.) >
4. Thomas Jefferson's prediction: "The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield."
5. "There is in the nature of government an impatience of control that disposes those invested with power to look with an evil eye upon all external attempts to restrain or direct its operations. This has its origin in the love of power. Representatives of the people are not superior to the people themselves." - Alexander Hamilton - Federalist Paper No.15, 1787.
6. "Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison - 1788
7. "I place economy among the first and most important of republic virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared." -Thomas Jefferson to William Plumer, 1816 (See 2 powerful Debt Reports > of the Federal Government and of The Total Nation)
8. "The price of
9. "Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrants." - James Madison
10. "Judge the future by the past." - Patrick Henry - 1736-1799
< (editor note: the following 4 quotes (11, 12, 13, 14) state the intent of our nation's founders regarding foreign affairs) >
11. "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none." - Thomas Jefferson, 1801 inaugural address.
12. "America... well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extraction, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force... She might become dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit." - John Quincy Adams; Address, 4 July 1821
13. "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all... The Nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest ... Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world." - George Washington, Farewell Address, 17 Sept. 1796.
14. "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." - Thomas Jefferson
15. "No legislative act contrary to the Constitution can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representative of the people is superior to the people." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper No. 78.
16. "Our constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any
other." - John Quincy
Adams, 6th President of
17. "A democracy cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can
vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority
always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury,
with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a
dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred
years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to
spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from 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 back to bondage." Alexander
Tyler (When the thirteen colonies
were still a part of
18. "On every question of construction (of The Constitution), let us carry ourselves back to the time when The Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." - Thomas Jefferson
19. "A small leak can sink a great ship." - Benjamin Franklin
20. "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke 1729-1797
21. "Aided by a little sophistry on the words 'general welfare', [they claim] a right to do not only the acts to effect that which are specifically enumerated and permitted, but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general welfare." --- Thomas Jefferson 1825 to W. Giles.
22. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul." - Mark 8:36
23. "No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence." - George Washington to James Madison 1789.
24. "I believe
that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people
ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then
by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the
people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their
fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the
people, to whom it properly belongs.
" Thomas Jefferson - letter
to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802).
25. "...There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. ... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing." - Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837
26. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson
27. “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can
prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking
care of them.” --Thomas Jefferson
28.
29. "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it an a moral Code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
30. "Earth
provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."
- Mohandas K. Ghandi
31. "You can fool
some of the people all of the time, all the people some of the time, but
not all the people all of the time." - Abraham Lincoln ??
32. "The price
good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be
ruled by evil men." - Plato
429-347 B.C.
33. "He who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing." - Benjamin
Franklin
34. "The
human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed
of two distinct races: the men who borrow, and the men who lend." - Charles Lamb
35. "He who
borrows sells his freedom." - German Proverb
36. "Necessity
is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of
tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." - William Pitt (1759-1806)
"An informed citizenry
is the only true repository of the public will.. . . The People
cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read,
all is safe." - Thomas Jefferson
>> EDITOR NOTE > > this quote forms one of the motivations for creating this Grandfather Economic Report series - -
to help assure there are more informed citizens.
CONTEMPORARY QUOTES
My favorite contemporary quotes >
a. "The farther backward you look, the farther forward you can see." - Winston
Churchill - (NOTE: the wisdom of this quote is reflected by the fact each chapter
of The Grandfather Economic Report series
displays data history in long-term picture-graphic form to help tell each story, with
integrity).
b. "Life
is tough; it's tougher if you're stupid" - John Wayne -
(For sure you will be less stupid
if you take the time to form your view based on hard data trends, such as shown in this core-threat summary of
the Grandfather Economic Report series.
c. "Old
age ain't no place
for sissies." - Bette Davis
- academy award winning actress - (NOTE: being of grandfather age I can attest to the
quality of this quote).
Now to some other great quotes >
- "There doubtless are many causes for the loss of
freedom, but surely a major cause has been the growth of government and its
increasing control of our lives. Today, government, directly or indirectly, controls
the spending of as much as half our national income." - Milton
Friedman, Nobel laureate in Economics - 1998 (see Graphics)
- "Modern civilization is a product of the philosophy
of laissez faire (non-interference). It
cannot be preserved under the ideology of government omnipotence (all-powerful)."
Ludwig Von Mises,
'Human Action' xxxiv - 1949 - World renowned economist and social philosopher - 1831-1973
- "Trust but verify" - Ronald Reagan, U.S. President,
1980-88 - - speaking about foreign leaders.
- "We hear sad complaints sometimes of merciless
creditors; whilst the acts of merciless debtors are
passed over in silence." -
William Frend, 1817
- "If decade after decade the truth cannot be told,
each person's mind begins to roam irretrievably." Alexander
Solzhenitsyn - Nobel laureate Literature 1970
- "Capitalism will always have dramas. It is
governments that turn them into crisis." -
William Emmott, editor The Economist, 11 Sept. 1999
- "Behind all the complexities of modern political
economy lies the simple fact that human beings are, speaking generally, of two
persuasions: the first would spend tomorrow what they earn today; the second would spend
today what they hope to earn tomorrow. From this rudimentary biological fact arise all
conflicts that lead to economic crises: to panics, depressions, violent and
revolutionary transfers of wealth, and perhaps most wars." Freeman Tilden, 'A
World in Debt' - 1935
- "The only secret is the history you don't know." - Harry S. Truman, former president.
- "The only proper purpose of government is to
protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper
government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self defense, and, as such,
may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper
functions of government are: to protect you from criminals; the military, to protect you
from foreign invaders; and, the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach
or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective
law." - 'Atlas Shrugged', by renowned
philosopher Ayn Rand, 1957.
- "There is no subtler, no surer means of
overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process
engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a
manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." Lord
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946),
renowned British economist.
- "The American future is an
innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring
to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Government
becomes the parent, as “it provides for their security, foresees and
supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns,
directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their
inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble
of living? Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not
tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each
nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of
which the government is the shepherd.” - 'Alexis de Tocqueville, 'Democracy in
- "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through
inflation. There is no safe store of value. The financial policy of the
welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect
themselves. Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a
mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a
society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. The abandonment of the gold standard
made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an
unlimited expansion of credit (debt creation)." - by Allan
Greenspan (#8) in The
Objectivist newsletter published in 1966, reprinted in Ayn
Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. (See Inflation Report)
- "The
decline of great powers is caused by simple economic over extension."
- Paul
Kennedy 'The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers - economic change and military
conflicts 1500-2000' - (See
International Debt & Trade Report)
- "Government is best that governs least." -
Henry Thoreau,
in 'Civil Disobedience' -'people should not permit governments to overrule'
- "Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation.
It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens against crimes
against themselves or their property. When government -- in pursuit of good intentions --
tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help
special interests, the costs come in inefficiency, lack of innovation, and loss of
freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player. It is my view that what
is important is cutting government spending, however spending is financed. A so-called
deficit is a disguised and hidden form of taxation. The real burden on the public is what government spends (and mandates others
to spend). As I have said repeatedly, I would rather have government spend one
trillion dollars with a deficit of a half a trillion than have government spend two
trillion dollars with no deficit." - Milton Friedman, Noble laureate
- "It is the aim
of good government to stimulate production, of bad
government to encourage consumption." - Jean Baptiste Say, French economist 1767-1832 (Hodges' note -
- "Beware
the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor,
for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it
narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils
with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of
the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will
offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is
what I have done! And I am Caesar." 100 BC to 44 BC.
- "The emotions of man are stirred more quickly
than his intelligence." - Oscar Wilde 1854-1900
- "Stay on the
balls of your feet and keep your eyes on the belt buckle." - good advice, whether playing
basketball, listening to ravings of politicians or other salesmen, assessing financial
markets, or dealing with family challenges. Author unknown
- "It [is] a common defect of men
in fair weather to take no thought of storms." -
Machiavelli 1469-1527
- "Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret
Mead - other Meade quotes 1901-1978
- "Those who do
not take an interest in public affairs are doomed to be ruled by evil men" -
PLATO - 300 B.C.
- "The first panacea for a
mismanaged nation is inflation of
the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a
permanent ruin. Both are the refuge of political and economic
opportunists." - Ernest Hemingway
- 1899-1961 - Nobel laureate Literature 1954
- "There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought
about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come
sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or
later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." - Ludwig von Mises,
in Human Action, Regnery, 1966, p. 572.
- "The consequences
of inflation are malinvestment, waste, a
wanton redistribution of wealth and income, the growth of speculation and gambling,
immorality and corruption, disillusionment, social resentment, discontent, upheaval and
riots, bankruptcy, increased governmental controls, and eventual collapse." Henry Hazlitt
1894-1993
- "Free
trade is economically efficient. Yet national independence is even more fundamental. [If] we have got to live in a mercantilist, nationalist,
bellicose world dominated by a few great empires, on the one hand, and if
the domestic policy of this country is to remain free to shape its own destiny,
on the other hand, I do not see the possibility, and I should very much doubt the wisdom,
of any major deviation from the policy of protection.” - Joseph Schumpeter, economist and
political scientist
- "All
truth passes through 3 phases: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is
violently opposed, and Third, it is accepted as self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860 -
19th century philosopher
- “By adopting programs to
redistribute substantial amounts
of income, a nation guarantees that its government will become more powerful and invasive
in other ways.” - Robert
Higgs
- "We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has
found no remedy for the worst of them all - - the apathy of human beings." -
Hellen
Keller 1880-1968 - famous deaf/blind author
- "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." -
Ayn Rand, 20th century philosopher
- "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 war is much worse.
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more
important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being
free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
- John Stuart Mill
1806-1873 - philosopher & political economist
- "Government
interventions always breed economic dislocations that
"necessitate" more government interventions." Ludwig von Mises
- "There are always those in
government who are anxious to increase its power and
authority over the people. Strict adherence to personal privacy
annoys those who promote a centralized
state."
-
- "To the extent that there is a central bank governing the
amount of money in the system, that
is not a free market," said former Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan in September 2007 on T-V to Jon Stewart
- "We can't solve problems
by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. A type of insanity,
doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein
1879-1955 - Nobel laureate Physics 1921
- "Should you find
yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be
more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."
- Warren Buffett,
the world's 2nd richest man in 2005.
- A scary quote - - something of which to be most
watchful > "It is the absolute right of the
State to supervise the formation of public opinion. If you tell a lie big
enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the
political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the
mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the
State." - Dr.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945.
- "Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences." - Robert Louis Stevensen, novelist 1850-1894
- "Be fearful when others are greedy,
and be greedy when others are fearful." - Warren Buffett, world's 2nd
richest man.
- "Thinking is the hardest work there
is which is probably why so few people engage in it.” - Henry Ford 1863-1947 - founder of the
Ford automotive company and the means of mass production.
- “Every lunatic
thinks all other men are crazy.” and
"In heated arguments we are apt to lose sight of the truth." and, "Better to be ignorant of
a matter than half know it." - Publilius Syrus, Latin writer 50 B.C. - his other famous quotes
- “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a
revolutionary act.” - George
Orwell 1903-1950 author and journalist
- "Great Powers in relative decline instinctively respond by spending more on
‘security,’ and thereby divert potential resources from ‘investment’
and compound their long-term dilemma." -
Historian Paul Kennedy describing “imperial overstretch” in The Rise and Fall of
Great Powers 1989
- "Speculation, where everyone could earn money without
work, was the pipe dream … this led to growth of special interests
that did not coincide with the interests of the nation as a whole. We cannot allow
economic life to be controlled by a small group of men … tinctured by the fact that
they can make huge profits, not from production, but from lending money
and marketing securities
… we cannot tolerate this opportunistic, selfish attitude …" - Franklin Roosevelt memo
to trade commissioner Landis Nov. 1933
- "Ponzi’ finance
units must increase its outstanding
debt in order to meet its financial obligations.” - Hyman Minsky,
economist, characteristics of financial crises
- “Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
- "The security of the dollar involves the security of
us all... We are determined to do whatever must be done in the interest of this
country and, indeed, in the interest of all to protect the dollar as a convertible
currency at its current fixed rate.We
are determined to maintain the firm relationship of gold and the dollar at the
present price of $35 an ounce, and I can assure you will do just that." - speech 30 Sept. 1963 by President Kennedy to the IMF. (the Dollar Foreign Exchange Report
shows what happened to the dollar in the following years, as JFK's commitment was
ignored.)
- “When economic prospects are at their brightest, the dangers of
complacency and recklessness are greatest. As our prosperity proceeds on its record-breaking path,
it behooves every one of us to scan the horizon of our national and international economy
for danger signals so as to be ready for any storm.” Taking away the 'punch bowl.' - Bill Martin - former Federal
Reserve Bank chairman - 1965 at
- "Men
go mad in herds but only come to their senses one by one." -
Charles Mackay, the 19th-century Scottish journalist
- "IF you can keep your head when all about you Are
losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But
make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting - - Rudyard kipling
- "When I was fourteen I thought my father was a
complete idiot but by the
time I turned 21 I was amazed by how much the old man had learned." - Mark Twain
1835-1910 American writer
- "I am not
young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
- The boiling frog story states that "a frog can be boiled alive if the water is heated slowly
enough — it is said that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but
if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will never jump out." The
story is generally told in a figurative context, with the upshot being that people should
make themselves aware of gradual change lest they
suffer a catastrophic loss - - such as ever increasing personal debt, ever
increasing government size, sinking in quick sand, etc.
- "If
stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us
out?" - Will
Rogers, columinist 1830
- "Life is tough; it's tougher if
you're stupid." - John Wayne
- “The problem with socialism is that sooner or
later you run out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister.
And - - we end with a repeat of this author's favorites >
a. "The farther backward you look,
the farther forward you can see." - Winston Churchill - (NOTE: the wisdom
of this quote is reflected in that each chapter of The Grandfather Economic Report series
displays data history in long-term picture-graphic form to help tell each story).
b. "Old age ain't no place for sissies." - Bette Davis - academy award winning
actress - (NOTE: being of grandfather age I can attest to the quality of this quote).
Perhaps these quotes may add deeper
perspective to our thoughts
{ Consider proposing addition of your own favorite
quotes - by e-mail }
RETURN
To HOME PAGE & INDEX of the Grandfather Economic Report
of dramatic pictures reviewing economic threats facing young families and their children,
compared to the past. (this is a listing by subject of each
mini-report in the Grandfather Economic Report series).
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