The Notes (7 page)
P
ublic opinion—often erratic, inconsistent, arbitrary & unreasonable—frequently hampered by myths & misinformation, by stereotypes & shibboleths & by innate resistance to innovation—for these reasons Pres. must not be bound by pub. opinion. He must reign in Wash. but he must also rule.
Thomas Wolfe
T
o every man his chance, to every man regardless of his birth his shining golden opportunity. To every man the right to live, to work, to be himself & to become whatever his manhood & his vision can combine to make him. This seeker is the promise of Am.
John Adams at Signing of Dec. Independence
S
ink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there’s a divinity that shapes our ends. I know the uncertainties of human affairs. But I see through this day’s business. We may die, die as colonists; die as slaves; die it may be on the scaffold. Be it so. But while I live, let me have a country or at least the hope of a country, at least the hope of a country, and
that
a
free
country. But whatever be our fate, be assured, that this declaration will stand. . . . All that I have, and all that I am and all that I hope to be in life I am now ready to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration.
Thomas Jefferson
I
f a nation expects to be
ignorant
&
free
in a state of civilization, it expects what never was & what never will be.
T
he last hope of human liberty in the world rests on us. Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press.
John Stuart Mill & Daniel Webster
I
f the roads, the railways, the banks, the insurance offices, the great joint stock companies, the U’s and the family charities were all of them branches of the govt. If the emps. of all of these diff. enterprises were appt’d and pd. by the govt. and looked to the govt. for every ride in life; not all the freedom of the press and popular const. of the legis. would make this country free otherwise than in name.
A
state which dwarfs its men in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands—even for beneficial purposes—will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.
Alexis De Tocqueville
T
he man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
I
t daily renders the exercise of the free agency of this race of man less useful & less frequent; this govt. grad. this race of man of all the uses of the individual man. This govt. has predisposed this race of man to endure these individually, small & petty erosions of individ. liberty & often to look upon them as benefits. It covers the whole surface of svc. with a network of small complicated rules. A network of individually uniform rules thru which the most orig. minds & most energetic characterize cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man has not been shattered; it has been softened, bent and guided. Men are seldom forced to act, but are constantly prevented from acting. The Nat. is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid & industrious animals & govt. is the shepherd.
Pope Pius 12th, End WWII
W
hen I took up my little sling and aimed at communism I also hit something else. I hit the force of that great socialist revolution which under the name of liberalism spasmodically, incompletely & somewhat formlessly has been inching its ice cap over this nat. for 2 decades. Though I knew it existed, still I had no idea of its extent or the depth of its penetration or the fierce vindictiveness of its revolutionary temper—which was the reflex of its struggle to keep & advance its pol. power.
Anonymous