"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." --H. L. Menchen

"Two politicians, one of whom is an anarchist, have more in common that two anarchists, one of whom is a politician." --Wendy McElroy

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others." -- Edward Abbey

"I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way." --Robert Frost, 1935

"Fundamentally, all rights are property rights, beginning with the right to control and dispose of your own life -- as long as it doesn't conflict with anybody else's equal and identical right to control and dispose of his or her own life." --L. Neil Smith

"If you're doing it "for my own good", STOP IT!!" --bumper sticker

"You have nothing to fear from ideas, except the fear of doubt. You can only have doubt with beliefs, not with facts. I try to never present beliefs unless I distinctly indicate something as a belief. The Monastery holds that the fewer beliefs one has the better for the individual." --Brother Daniel of Universal Life Church Monastery

"Statists believe that people are too stupid and irresponsible to run their own lives but, paradoxically, are smart enough and intelligent enough to vote for politicians who will appoint the bureaucrats who will tell them how to live. --James Ostrowski

There's always free cheese in a mousetrap.

Alexander Tyler - "A democracy cannot exit as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury." (interesting note: by the 2004 United States Presidential election, due to "baby boomers" beginning to overbalance the popularion toward retirement and social security et al, more than half the citizens will be recieving cash in some form from the United States government.)

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them." --P. J. O'Rourke

"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other." --Ronald Reagan

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H. L. Menchen

"We are not liberated until we liberate others. So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need." - Marilyn Ferguson

"Talk is cheap---except when Congress does it." --Cullen Hightower

"If you've ever observed a committee, you know that the highest intelligence in a room isn't the sum of its occupants' IQs, but simply that of the brightest individual -- divided by the number of other people in the room." --L. Neil Smith

"The Constitution shall never be construed....to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." --Samuel Adams

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." --Thomas Jefferson

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." -- Charles Babbage

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood, isn't it? -- A. Hope

"When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest." - Source Unknown

The truth will set you free-but first it will make you damn mad... - M. Scott Peck

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." --Tacitus, Roman Historian, 55-117 A.D.

"Will all crimes be charged as double, or triple, or even more? Will jaywalking become not crossing a street at a corner, and crossing the street in the middle of the block, using feet to commit a crime, willfully interfering with the proper flow of traffic, using a weapon of low impact to unlawfully traverse an asphalt surface at a point unregulated for pedestrian motion?" --Kevin Tull

"The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within its confines and be for the good of all... The Common Good Before the Individual Good." --1920 Platform of the German National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- Robert A. Heinlein

"If you're one in a million, there's 1,500 of you in China."

"Jesus paid for our sins--now let's get our money's worth." --bumper sticker

"Drag the Joneses down to your level. It's cheaper." --Anonymous

"Crime wouldn't pay if the government ran it." --Anonymous

An athiest is a man with no invisible means of support. �--John Buchan

If you don't have time to do it right you must have time to do it over. --Anonymous

"The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter." --Blaise Pascal

Television: chewing gum for the eyes. --Frank Lloyd Wright

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. --Eric Hoffer

I am an agnostic; I don't pretend to know what ignorant men are sure of. --Clarence S. Darrow

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are not. --Plato

Just because you do not take an interest in politics, doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. -- PERICLES (430 BC)

Politicians are so busy because the time they don't spend passing laws, they spend helping their friends get around them.

Patience n.- Lack of action due to inability to decide what to do.

Originality is the art of concealing your sources. --Franklin P. Jones

Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research. --Wilson Mizner

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. --Voltaire

There is a great difference between a good physician and a bad one; yet very little between a good one and none at all. --Arthur Young

One dog barks at a shadow; a hundred bark at his sound. --Chinese Proverb

A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually. --Abba Eban

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. --Unknown

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. --Eric Hoffer

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

Propaganda...serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda. -- Eric Hoffer

Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows. --David T. Wolf

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. -- Howard Aiken

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing. --Nicholas Murray Butler

I drink to make other people interesting. --George Jean Nathan

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. --Winston Churchill

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. --George Bernard Shaw

A good listener is usually thinking about something else. --Kin Hubbard

A good storyteller is a person who has a good memory and hopes other people haven't. --Irvin S. Cobb

Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking. --H. L. Mencken

Foreign aid: taxing poor people in rich countries for the benefit of rich people in poor countries. --Bernard Rosenberg

I think, therefore I'm single. --L. Winston

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. --H. L. Mencken (note: nor their intelligence)

Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths. --Edgar A. Shoaff

In theory, theory and practice are the same-- in practice, however, they are not. --Unknown

"The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user's failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it." --Neal Stephenson

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." --Arthur C Clarke "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." --Barry Gehm Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don`t understand it. - Florence Ambrose. (Online comic "Freefall" #255)

Hope is society's poor attempt to affect the future without work. --Sergei Tyro

Nostalgia, Entropy, History... *sigh* some things just ain't what they used to be.

There's nothing like a girl with a plunging neckline to keep a man on his toes.

Cleavage: Something you can both look down on and yet still approve of.

'IMG tags lead to SCRIPT tags, SCRIPT tags lead to APPLET tags, APPLET tags lead to suffering..'. --unknown Slashdot.org poster

'There's always law. Law is just the opinion of the guy with the biggest gun.' --Neal Stephenson

Before you defeat the competition, you must first subjugate the other departments.

Today's Daily Affirmation: "I no longer need to punish, deceive or compromise myself. Unless, of course, I want to stay employed. "

Being a good communicator means people find out what is really wrong with you.

Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.

"Experience suggests that, if we were able to kill off the well-intentioned at birth, as a preventative measure, the leftover evil-doers would be small potatoes, in comparison." --Rick Moen

Blessed is he who has reached the point of no return and knows it for he shall enjoy living.

Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.

Build something foolproof and every fool will use it.

Democracy is that form of government where everybody gets what the majority deserves.

The United States government is considering changing its symbol to a condom, because it represents inflation, halts production, and gives you a false sense of security while you are being screwed.

Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either, Just leave me alone.

Do someone a favor and it becomes your job.

Don't be irreplaceable; if you cannot be replaced, you cannot be promoted.

Don't question authority: it hasn't got a clue.

Don't take life too seriously, it's not permanent.

There is only one way to be happy by means of the heart -- to have none. -- Paul Bourget

Excellence can be attained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible.

Fact without theory is trivia; theory without fact is bullshit.

For every "10" there are 10 "1's".

For every action, there is a corresponding over-reaction.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

In order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty. But you can get everything dirty without getting anything clean.

Key Ring n. - Device ensuring that if you lose any of your keys, all the rest get lost along with them.

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

Happiness is merely the remission of pain.

He who beats his sword into a plowshare usually ends up plowing for those who kept their swords.

When choosing between two evils, I always like the one I haven't tried before." -- Mae West

"To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established." --La Rochefoucauld

For business purposes, I have to preserve the outward signs of sanity -- Mark Twain

The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them. --William Clayton (more or less also expressed by Sun Tzu)

If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments. --Earl Wilson

Religious Roulette: Game in which you stand around in a circle and blaspheme and see who gets struck by lightning first.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." --Galileo Galilei

PHILOSOPHY: A study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently.

Today is the last day of your life ...so far.

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." --Douglas Adams

Order is for idiots, genius can handle chaos

"Only a government school bureaucracy could wonder what is wrong with young children who prefer to move around, talk, and learn what they want to learn rather than sit quietly and listen to an adult droning on." --Sheldon Richman

I will endure all this subhuman driveling shit with a smile.

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail. --Gore Vidal (note: No worries; incompetence abounds)

Life is pain. Anybody that tells you differently is selling something. --William Goldman

"This is not a court of Justice, young man, it is a court of Law!" Oliver Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Once I tried to kill myself with bungee cord. I kept almost dying. --Stephen Wright

Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective. --P.J. O'Rourke

Save a tree... Eat a beaver

I've learned- that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do, is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

Patience is a minor form of despair, disguised as virtue. -- Ambrose Bierce

They called me mad. I called them mad. And damn them they out voted me.

"If I am required to understand the society, then I require everyone (else) to understand TCP/IP. Fair deal?" --"Mad Scientist", poster at www.adequacy.org

I was walking down the street when this man hammering on his roof called me a paranoid little freak... In morse code. --Emo Phillips

The reason attempted suicide is illegal: The government considers it tax evasion.

In the land of the blind, the man with one eye will be stoned to death...

If the pen is mightier than the sword, and a picture is worth a thousand words, how dangerous is a fax? --Gregory Santo (note: This must make the internet an idealogical nuke )

Much can be accomplished with a smile. More can be accomplished with a smile and a gun. --Al Capone

They say that every hour you spend exercising is another hour added on to your life. But what good is all that time if you spend it on exercise? --Bruce Willis

You don't have to swim faster than the shark, just faster than the guy next to you. --P. Benchley

You have power and the ability to bring it about through change. Just stick a dime in a light socket.

The best things in life are usually already taken.

If you be yourself you will find that you will be by yourself too.

If you take life too seriously you won't get to laugh along with everybody else when you fail.

Death is never prevented... just postponed

"The man who can smile when things go wrong has found someone he can blame it on." --Arthur Bloch

FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. --Ambrose Bierce

Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do so. --Bertrand Russell

The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts. --Bertrand Russell

"Inquiry is fatal to certainty." -- Will Durant

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable. --Ambrose Bierce

Of course we lie all the time, because we know that society would collapse under the strain of relentless truth-telling. --Hugh Mackay

What do you want more? Principles or Survival?

Expectations of happiness are bound to provoke disappointment.

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. --Douglas Adams

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side. --Orson Scott Card

The invention Of weights and measures Makes robbery easier. Signing contracts, setting seals, Makes robbery more sure. Teaching love and duty Provides a fitting language With which to prove that robbery Is really for the general good. A poor man must swing For stealing a belt buckle But if a rich man steals a whole state He is acclaimed As statesman of the year. - The Way of Chuang Tzu, IX.2

Leges humanae nascuntur, vivunt, moriuntur. (Human laws are born, live, and die)

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. --Franz Kafka

"There will come a day when I shall give up and resort to dealing with idiots by brandishing a pointy stick." --"centron" (on Slashdot.org)

"Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall! --Eomer's Song (JRR Tolkien)