Raw Wit And Wry Wisdom by Lin Stone - HTML preview

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PROVERBS

 

“He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf.” Shakespeare

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Liberal doctrines are less scientifically provable than the story of Noah's Ark. Ann Coulter.

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We've got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life. Richard Lamm.

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Where we once had a few big rules, now we need an encyclopedia of little rules. Chesterson.

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The main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail. You can safely appeal to the United Nations in the comfortable certainty that it will let you down. Conor Cruise O'Brien

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.. the Officer Corp has nothing but distain for Obama the man, but enormous respect for Obama the C-i-C.. ~ John Potts

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Women should not be allowed to serve in the military. They are too vicious. Ann Coulter.

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The military is just one big soup line for loosers -- ~ gordon1776

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When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children. Albert Shanker.

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You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money. -- P.J O'Rourke

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I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President. Charlie Chaplin

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I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor. Lord Byron

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There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong. Gilbert K. Chesterton

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In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated, and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, For then it costs nothing to be a Patriot. -- Mark Twain

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Once upon a time, government budgets were balanced, our money was sound, the streets were safe, and taxes imposed by all levels of government took less than 10% of our income. -- Harry Browne

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Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened. -- Sir Winston Churchill

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To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them... -- George Mason

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The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes. -- Jonathan Swift

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We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs. -- Mikhail Gorbachev

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If we can't legislate what goes on in the bedroom, why can't I hide money from the IRS under my mattress? Ann Coulter.

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Humans have rights under any and all conditions. KATHY KASTEN

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“If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill each other? … Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.” Mother Teresa.

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If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean. Henry Clay

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The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries. It marks its victim, denounces it, and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments. Henry Clay.

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Freedom is a fragile frame and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.

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The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. George Washington

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The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil self constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. Samuel Adams

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If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. -- Samuel Adams

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God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it. Daniel Webster

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I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. Nathan Hale.

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If America lived up to its heritage, its greatness would last forever." J.T. Hale

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If you don't work you won't eat. Capt. John Smith

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The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke

By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. ~ Lenin

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Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. James Bovard.

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Nobody ever died for apple pie.

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My opponent believes he is a wit. His voting record is only half right too.

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Government should provide services that will best facilitate our individual and collective prosperity and freedom. Jesse Ventura

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One more speech in the halls of Congress like that last one and my opponent will never deliver pizza in this state again.

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Pharmaceutical companies now have more registered lobbyists than there are congressmen. Peter Jennings 

The majority in electing our office holders may be less than a quarter of our eligible population. That raises a question as to whether we qualify as a democracy at all. Walker Cronkite

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When you look at politicians today, you don't see profiles in courage.

You see profiles in discourage. Dan Rather

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Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. ~ W. C. Fields

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Honest people have rights too. ~ Emiliano Zapata

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Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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"A slave is one who waits for someone else to free him." - Rosellen Brown

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Thank God we still live in a free country, even if we don't like the political game that is played. ~ Zelma Leker Myers

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Louisa Alcott earned two hundred thousand dollars by her pen way back when a half penny bought a big fistful of candy. Yet, when she was first dreaming of her power, her father handed her a manuscript one day that had been rejected by Mr. Fields, editor of the "Atlantic," with the message: "Tell Louisa to stick to her teaching; she can never succeed as a writer."

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When the Spanish fire on San Juan Hill became almost unbearable, some of the Rough Riders began to swear. Colonel Wood, with the wisdom of a good leader, called out, amid the whistle of the Mauser bullets: "Don't swear—fight!"

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In a skirmish at Salamanca, while the enemy's guns were pouring shot into his regiment, Sir William Napier's men became disobedient. He paused to flog four of the ringleaders under fire. The men yielded at once, and then marched three miles under a heavy cannonade as coolly as if it were an army in review.

Say what we will of genius, specialized in a hundred callings, yet the fact remains that no amount of genius has ever availed upon the earth unless enforced by will power to overcome the obstacles that hedge about every one who would rise above the circumstances in which he was born, or become greater than his calling. Was not Virgil the son of a porter, Horace of a shopkeeper, Demosthenes of a cutler, Milton of a money scrivener, Shakespeare of a wool stapler, and Cromwell of a brewer?

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Of course the banks must pay the money back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You do want hungry politicians to be fed, don't you?

Audubon after years of forest life had two hundred of his priceless drawings destroyed by mice. "A poignant flame," he relates, "pierced my brain like an arrow of fire, and for several weeks I was prostrated with fever. At length physical and moral strength awoke within me.

Again I took my gun, my game-bag, my portfolio, and my pencils, and plunged once more into the depths of the forests."

Sometimes, when he makes a speech, I think he had his ears pierced too deep.

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ART. X of New Hampshire State Constitution: Government being instituted for the common benefit; protection, and security of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted and public liberty manifestly endangered , and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people of right ought and may to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

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Who ordained that the few should have the land (of Britain) as a prerequisite; who made 10,000 people owners of the soil and the rest of us trespassers in the land of our birth? -- David Lloyd George

We cannot defend freedom abroad while deserting it at home. Edward R. Murrow

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A democracy can recover quickly from physical or economic disaster, but when it's moral convictions weaken it becomes easy prey for the demagogue and charlatan. Tyrany and oppression then become the order of the day. J. William Fulbright

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The government has no real money of its own. To get cash, it must take it from others either by outright theft (conquest) or legalized theft (taxes). Every dollar it takes from people is one less dollar these same people have to spend on stuff they like (heating, food and rent, perhaps?). As a result, the best gum'mint can hope to achieve with high taxes is a horizontal net of zeroes.

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There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher classes. Victor Hugo

We have met the enemy and he is us. Pogo

Tyranny begins when law can be bought. Dr. Norman Jones, author of Main Street Vs. Wall Street.

Winners don't have good attitudes because they win, they win because they have good attitudes. Dr. Jim Tunney

Criticism works better with those doing well already. Dr. Norman Jones

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A life without confrontation is meaningless. Socrates

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Trillions of dollars have been spent since Pres. Johnson declared war on poverty more than 40 years ago, and poverty rates are largely unchanged. Michael Tanner

That which the media doesn't report politicians can ignore. ~ Dr. Norman Jones

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The great divide in our country is not between Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives. It is between those on the inside of government and the rest of us. United States Senator. Peter Fitzgerald - R-IL

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. -- Harry S. Truman

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. ~ Harry S. Truman

(General Grant's) imperturbability is amazing. I am in doubt whether to call it greatness or stupidity. ~ James A. Garfield

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Grant is not a retreating man. Gentlemen, the Army of the Potomac has a head. ~ Robert E. Lee

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Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel ~ Shakespeare

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What a thing the friendship is, world without end. ~ Browning

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When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick. - Bill Lemley

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Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed. - Michael Pritchard

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If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much."" Tom Krause

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True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost. C. C. Colton

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We have everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language. ~ Oscar Wilde

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Business Maxims

That Make All The Difference

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. That is the principal difference between a man and a dog. Mark Twain

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"Most businesses are trying to hit a home run every day in a new ball park." Jay L. Abraham.

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“If there was anything the human race had a sufficiency of, a sufficiency and a surfeit, it was books,” ~ Joseph Mitchell, writer for The New Yorker.

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Budgets depend on dependable income, and that's not so dependable anymore. Thom Forbes

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A consultant is an ordinary person a long way from home. ~ Ed Dyson

An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. ~ Elbert Hubbard

If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? ~ Elbert Hubbard

I wish others to live their lives, too, up to their highest, fullest and best. To that end I pray that I may never meddle, dictate, interfere, give advice that is not wanted, nor assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people I'll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation. That is to say, I desire to be Radiant—to Radiate Life. ~ Elbert Hubbard

If you work for a man, in Heaven's name work for him. If he pays wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him, speak well of him, think well of him, and stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man, I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of his time, but all of his time. I would give an undivided service or none. If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, why, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart's content. But, I pray you, so long as you are a part of an institution, do not condemn it. Not that you will injure the institution—not that—but when you disparage the concern of which you are a part, you disparage yourself. And don't forget—“I forgot” won't do in business. ~ Elbert Hubbard

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I was destined for mountains of success, but I let a few excuses get the better of me in the first 40 years. ~ Lin Stone

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water. -- John W(illiam) Gardner

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Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road. -- Stewart Brand

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In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield. ~ Warren Buffett

"If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians. ~ Warren Buffett

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He went where only the lemmings will follow. anon.

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If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, you can rest assured that the water bill is higher over there too. Bishop T.D Jakes

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Trouble looks back, worry looks ahead, faith looks up! anon.

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The refund policy of Deepo.info is patiently explained. "I hate people that get a delivery and then expect a refund... my pet peeve .... You are for sure not welcome around here anymore..."

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“Free people don’t ‘exhaust’ resources. They create them.” Malcolm S. Forbes Jr.

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Eighty percent of the human resources department is transactional government compliance and vendor management. Brian Fayak

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We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. -- Henry David Thoreau

The best thing I ever did for poor people is to not become one of them. J. Paul Getty

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"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." Willa A. Foster

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When you show the value of your product you won’t have to defend its price. Jim Meisenheimer

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"There will always be a place for good quality content that stands out from the crowd." Steve Pavlina.

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In times of success it's the gentle hand and the delicate touch that keeps our sights aimed straight. Lin Stone

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The only way to stay ahead is to do the things you need to before you need to. Lin Stone

"That's not short-term thinking. That's naive thinking." Jay L. Abraham.

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Earth-shattering revelations aren’t what they used to be ~ Nicole Dean

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Failure is more frequently from want of energy than from want of capital. Daniel Webster

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What is valuable is not new. What is new is not valuable. Daniel Webster

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Energy has always been the basis of cultural complexity and it always will be. The past clarifies potential paths to the future. One often discussed path is cultural and economic simplicity and lower energy costs. This could come about through the "crash" that many fear -- a genuine collapse over a period of one or two generations, with much violence, starvation, and loss of population. 

The alternative is the "soft landing" that many people hope for - a voluntary change to solar energy and green fuels, energy-conserving technologies, and less overall consumption. This is a utopian alternative that, as suggested above, will come about only if severe, prolonged hardship in industrial nations makes it attractive, and if economic growth and consumerism can be removed from the realm of ideology. Joseph A. Tainter

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The best men as men, and the best workmen, are not walking the streets looking for work. ~ Andrew Carnegie The Fascinating Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. This is easily the most wonderful experience I have ever tried. I have read every word and appreciated every sentence in this book.

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The nation that has the best home market, especially if products are standardized, as ours are, can soon outsell the foreign producer. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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The losses men encounter during a business life which seriously embarrass them are rarely in their own business, but in enterprises of which the investor is not master ~ Andrew Carnegie

 

There is one great difference between the American working-man and the foreigner. The American is a man ~ Andrew Carnegie

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the true road to preëminent success in any line is to make yourself master in that line ~ Andrew Carnegie

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It is essential to permanent success that a house should obtain a reputation for being governed by what is fair rather than what is merely legal. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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Stock gambling and honorable business are incompatible. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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Speculation is a parasite feeding upon values, creating none. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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No expenditure returned such dividends as the friendship of our workmen. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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I believe that higher wages to men who respect their employers and are happy and contented are a good investment, yielding, indeed, big dividends. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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It is for the interest of the employer that his men shall make good earnings and have steady work. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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High wages are well enough, but they are not to be compared with steady employment. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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It is not capital we need to guard, but helpless labor. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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I am certain that disputes about wages do not account for one half the disagreements between capital and labor. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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If it be asked which man of our age, or even of the past ages, has risen from the lowest to the highest, the answer must be Booker Washington. He rose from slavery to the leadership of his people—a modern Moses and Joshua combined, leading his people both onward and upward. ~ Andrew Carnegie

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I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.~ E.V. Lucas

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You cannot lift prejudice from the public eye by presenting facts.

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These Truths We Hope Are Self-Evident

America is headed for disaster, if you don't believe it, just look at what has happened to all the other nations where the citizens no longer think. We must train ourselves to think responsibly, first for the good of our nation, and then as a balance for the folks on either side of us that would mark their ballots with the word, "DUH!" -- if it was on there.

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Freedom is a responsibility, not a privilege.

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Don't believe in what politicians promise late in the campaign; That is when they will lie the most about what they intend to do.

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Congress gets elected on the beautiful promises made to the American voter. It gets re-elected on beautiful alibis.

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In every presidential campaign you hear the sweet words that sweeps candidates into power. But after the Oval Office is achieved all you hear is a pitiful wail for compromise -- and patience.

Compromise? In politics that's where we agree to take one step backward and they agree to take 2 steps forward.

Patience? "Patience" might as well mean "FORGET IT!"

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What is this nonsense tune that tinkles along on the same broken key -- My vote doesn't count?”

Did they really expect that casting their one, single vote would sway the entire nation to suddenly have good sense? That is not the way a good Republic works.

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From to-day a new order of things begins. `Goethe

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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." Adolf Hitler

Even as we celebrate these historic landslide victories, let us remember that the only reason we have won is that, this year, all the fools were on our side.

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The Frenchman may fight for the glory of France, the Englishman fall upon bared swords for his monarch, and the German march off to Moscow on the whim of his latest brand of Kaiser, but, unless you count our draftees, Americans fight for the freedom of mankind.   

Congress keeps pretending to tear bread out of Goldman Sachs mouth to show its support for American investors. They would save us some real money if Congress just stayed at home and cleaned up its own kitchen where this mess of dotage got cooked up.

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It is irresolution that is worse than rashness. He that shoots may sometimes hit the mark; but he that shoots not at all can never hit it. Irresolution is like an ague; it shakes not this nor that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The man who is forever twisting and turning, backing and filling, hesitating and dawdling, shuffling and parleying, weighing and balancing, splitting hairs over non-essentials, listening to every new motive which presents itself, will never accomplish anything. But the positive man, the decided man, is a power in the world, and stands for something; you can measure him, and estimate the work that his energy will accomplish. ~ Feltham

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Opportunity is coy, is swift, is gone, before the slow, the unobservant, the indolent, or the careless can seize her. Vigilance in watching opportunity, tact and daring in seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement; these are the martial virtues which must command success. ~ Phelps.

*The best men are not those who have waited for chances, but who have taken them; besieged the chance; conquered the chance; and made chance the servitor. ," ~ Chapin

Is it not possible to classify successes and failures by their various degrees of will-power? A man who can resolve vigorously upon a course of action, and turns neither to the right nor to the left, though a paradise tempt him, who keeps his eyes upon the goal, whatever distracts him, is sure of success.

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Not every vessel that sails from Tarshish will bring back the gold of Ophir. But shall it therefore rot in the harbor? No! Give its sails to the wind!

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Conscious power exists within the mind of every one. Sometimes its existence is unrealized, but it is there. It is there to be developed and brought forth, like the culture of that obstinate but beautiful flower, the orchid. ~ Mellès.

To allow it to remain dormant is to place one's self in obscurity, to trample on one's ambition, to smother one's faculties. To develop it is to individualize all that is best within you, and give it to the world. It is by an absolute knowledge of yourself, the proper estimate of your own value."

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Those who have accomplished great things in the world have been, as a rule, bold, aggressive, and self-confident. They dared to step out from the crowd, and act in an original way. Sir, they were not afraid to be generals.

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He who waits for certainty never wins.

*"The law of the soul is eternal endeavor,

That bears the man onward and upward forever."

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A man can be too confiding in others, but never too confident in himself.

Never admit defeat or poverty. Stoutly assert your divine right to hold your head up and look the world in the face; step bravely to the front whatever opposes, and the world will make way for you. No one will insist upon your rights while you yourself doubt that you have any.

Believe you were made for the place you fill. Put forth your whole energies. Be awake, electrify yourself; go forth to the task. A young man once said to his employer, "Don't give me an easy job. I want to handle heavy boxes, shoulder great loads. I would like to lift a big mountain and throw it into the sea,"--and he stretched out two brawny arms, while his honest eyes danced and his whole being glowed with conscious strength.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN, English Naturalist.

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Government got us into this financial mess by never making more than the minimum payment on the National Debt ~ Lin Stone

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It is wonderful how even the apparent casualties of life seem to bow to a spirit that will not bow to them, and yield to assist a design, after having in vain attempted to frustrate it.

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We have grow