Quotes
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."
john adamsb. 1797, 2nd President of the United States----
"The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing."
john adamsb. 1797, 2nd President of the United States----
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people."
john quincy adams b. 1825, 6th President of the United States----
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
samuel adams b. 1722, statesman, one of our founding fathers----
"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule."
samuel adams b. 1722, statesman, one of our founding fathers----
"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!"
samuel adams b. 1722, statesman, one of our founding fathers----
"Service to others is the payment you make for your space here on earth."
mohammed ali b. 1942, boxer, world heavyweight champion----
"We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all threads of the tapestry and equal in value no matter what their color."
maya angelou b. 1928, poet and activist----
"Adversity tests us from time to time and it is inevitable that this testing continues during life."
walter annenberg b. 1908, publisher----
"Just how stupid do they think we really are?"
ed berman b. 1954, independent business owner----
"Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another."
erma bombeck b. 1927, author, humorist----
"When I stand before God, at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything You gave me.”"
erma bombeck b. 1927, author, humorist----
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
william jennings bryan b. 1860, lawyer, US Congressman, United States Secretary of State----
"Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care."
jimmy buffett b. 1946, singer, songwriter, author----
"I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy. It's not giving a damn."
leo buscaglia b. 1924, author, speaker, professor----
"What is a rebel? A man who says no."
albert camus b. 1913, French author, philosopher, and journalist----
"Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God."
albert camus b. 1913, French author, philosopher, and journalist----
"America is a rebellious nation. Our whole history is treason; our blood was attained before we were born; our creeds were infidelity to the mother church; our constitution treason to our fatherland."
albert camus b. 1913, French author, philosopher, and journalist----
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
albert camus b. 1913, French author, philosopher, and journalist----
"Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance."
thomas carlyle b. 1795, historian, author, professor----
"Throughout my life, I’ve seen the difference that volunteering efforts can make in people’s lives. I know the personal value of service as a local volunteer."
jimmy carter b. 1924, governor of Georgia, 39th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize----
"Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie, but rather mourn the apathetic, throng the coward and the meek who see the world's great anguish and its wrong, and dare not speak."
ralph chaplin b. 1887, labor activist----
"We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline."
cesar chavez b. 1927, civil rights leader, labor leader, co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union----
"Never give up, never give up, never, never, never give up."
winston churchill b. 1874, British Prime Minister during WWII----
"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
winston churchill b. 1874, British Prime Minister during WWII----
"We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give."
winston churchill b. 1874, British Prime Minister during WWII----
"My generation's apathy, I'm disgusted with it. I'm disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those "other -isms" the counterculture has been whining about for years."
kurt cobain b. 1967, singer, songwriter----
"Perfect taste always implies an insolent dismissal of other people's."
cyril vernon connolly b. 1903, literary critic and writer----
"Every country gets the government it deserves."
benjamin disraeli b. 1804, British Prime Minister----
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
albert einstein b. 1879, theoretical physicist----
"Here in America we are descended in spirit from revolutionaries and rebels -- men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine."
dwight david eisenhower b. 1890, 5 star general US Army, 34th President of the United States----
"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog."
dwight david eisenhower b. 1890, 5 star general US Army, 34th President of the United States----
"Every step we take towards making the State of Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move towards making the State our Master."
dwight david eisenhower b. 1890, 5 star general US Army, 34th President of the United States----
"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
ralph waldo emerson b. 1803, author, poet, essayist----
"The day someone quits school he is condemning himself to a future of poverty."
jaime escalante b. 1930, high school math teacher----
"Determination + Hard Work + Discipline = Way to Success"
jaime escalante b. 1930, high school math teacher----
"We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them."
abraham flexner b. 1866, educator----
"A Government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take away everything you have."
gerald ford b. 1913, 38th President of the United States Please Note: President Ford used this quote in a speech to a joint session of Congress in August of 1974. It as also been attributed to Sen. Barry Goldwater and Thomas Jefferson but we cannot confirm that.----
"We had better hang together, or assuredly we shall hang separately."
benjamin franklin b. 1706, printer, scientist, inventor, one of our founding fathers----
"They who give up essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."
benjamin franklin b. 1706, printer, scientist, inventor, one of our founding fathers----
----
"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."
benjamin franklin b. 1706, printer, scientist, inventor, one of our founding fathers----
"A country between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats."
benjamin franklin b. 1706, printer, scientist, inventor, one of our founding fathers----
"I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called "brightness" but it doesn't work."
gallagher b. 1946, comedian and prop comic (watermelons)----
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
mohandas k gandhi b. 1869, political and spiritual leader India----
"Everybody has a little Watergate in him."
billy graham b. 1918 American Evangelist----
"Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption...If in the next centennial does not find us a great nation...it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."
james garfield b. 1831, 20th President of the United States----
"The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead."
william lloyd garrison b. 1805, abolitionist, journalist, one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society----
"We will either find a way, or make one."
hannibal b. 248 (bc), Carthaginian Military Commander----
"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
patrick henry b. 1736, American Colonial Revolutionary----
"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."
patrick henry b. 1736, American Colonial Revolutionary----
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government, let it come to dominate our lives and interests."
patrick henry b. 1736, American Colonial Revolutionary----
"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals."
sir edmund hillary b. 1919, Mountaineer, Purportedly the first to reach Mt. Everest----
"A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking questions he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve."
oliver wendell holmes b. 1941, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court----
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
david hume b. 1711, Scottish philosopher, historian----
"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment."
robert m. hutchins b. 1899, education, philosopher, dean Yale Law School, President of U of Chicago----
"Most human beings have an infinite capacity for taking things for granted."
aldous huxley b. 1894, author----
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."
thomas jefferson b. 1743, 3rd President of the United States----
"Delay is preferable to error."
thomas jefferson b. 1743, 3rd President of the United States----
"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."
thomas jefferson b. 1743, 3rd President of the United States----
"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men 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 b. 1743, 3rd President of the United States----
"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."
japanese proverb----
"There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion."
carl gustav junq b. 1875, Swiss psychiatrist----
"The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."
helen keller b. 1880, author, political activist, lecturer----
"Science 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."
helen keller b. 1880, author, political activist, lecturer----
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
robert kennedy b. 1925, United States Attorney General----
"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future."
john f. kennedy b. 1917, US Senator, 35th President of the United States----
"And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
john f. kennedy b. 1917, US Senator, 35th President of the United States----
"For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
john f. kennedy b. 1917, US Senator, 35th President of the United States----
"Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t even have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve... You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love..."
martin luther king, jr. b. 1929, clergyman, activist, leader African American civil rights movement----
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent."
martin luther king, jr. b. 1929, clergyman, activist, leader African American civil rights movement----
"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan."
martin luther king, jr. b. 1929, clergyman, activist, leader African American civil rights movement----
"If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime."
george c. lichtenberg b. 1742, German scientist, physics----
"We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
abraham lincoln b. 1809, 16th President of the United States----
"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets."
abraham lincoln b. 1809, 16th President of the United States----
"I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without know whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him."
abraham lincoln b. 1809, 16th President of the United States----
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power."
abraham lincoln b. 1809, 16th President of the United States----
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
abraham lincoln b. 1809, 16th President of the United States----
"When an individual fear or apathy passes by the unfortunate, life is of no account."
haniel long b. 1888, American poet, publisher----
"It is essential to liberty that the government in general should have a common interest with the people, so it is particularly essential that [Congress] should have an immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people."
james madison, federalist #52 b. 1809, 4th President of the United States----
"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned."
peter marshall b. 1902, preacher, chaplain to the US Senate----
"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 b. 1901, American anthropologist----
"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for any public office."
henry louis mencken b.1880, American writer----
"The cynics are right nine times out of ten."
henry louis mencken b.1880, American writer----
"There is something even more valuable to civilization that wisdom, and that is character."
henry louis mencken b.1880, American writer----
"It doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause."
henry louis mencken b.1880, American writer----
"The biggest conspiracy has always been the fact that is no conspiracy. Nobody’s out to get you. Nobody gives a shit whether you live or die. There, you feel better now?"
dennis miller b. 1953, radio talk-show host, political commentator, actor, comic----
"The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy."
charles di montesquieu b. 1689, French political thinker----
"When a person goes to a country and finds their newspapers filled with nothing but good news, he can bet there are good men in jail."
daniel patrick moynihan b. 1927 US Senator, US Ambassador to the UN----
"In Germany , the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me."
reverend martin niemoller b. 1892, German anti-Nazi theologian, pastor----
"As I watch government at all levels daily eat away at our freedom, I keep thinking how prosperity and government largesse have combined to make most of us fat and lazy and indifferent to, or actually in favor of, the limits being placed on that freedom."
lyn nofziger b. 1924, author, white house advisor----
"By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy - indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction."
william osler b. 1849, physician, described as the father of modern medicine----
"I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them"
pablo picasso b, 1881, artist----
"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
plato b (c), 428-27 BC, philosopher----
"No matter how big and powerful government gets, and the many services it provides, it can never take the place of volunteers."
ronald reagan b 1911, actor, governor of California, 40th President of the United States----
"If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t been in bed with a mosquito."
anita roddick, b. 1942, founder of the Body Shop----
"The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office."
will rogers b. 1879, Cherokee-American cowboy, humorist, social commentator, actor----
"So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect."
eleanor roosevelt b. 1884, first lady FDR, US Delegate to the UN, activist----
"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protest the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control of over the government."
franklin d. roosevelt b. 1882, state senator, governor, 32nd President of the United States----
"For most Americans the Constitution has become a hazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life."
arthur m. schlesinger, jr b. 1917, Pulitzer Prize winner, author, white house aide to jfk----
"I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
albert schweitzer b. 1875, philosopher, theologian, Nobel Peace Prize----
"Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand."
bodie thoene b. unknown (currently living), author----
"Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice."
arnold toynbee b. 1889, British historian----
"I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases."
harry s truman b. 1884, Suit Salesman, Senator, 33rd President of the United States----
"A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years."
harry s truman b. 1884, Suit Salesman, Senator, 33rd President of the United States----
"If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
harry s truman b. 1884, Suit Salesman, Senator, 33rd President of the United States----
"I never did give anyone hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."
harry s truman b. 1884, Suit Salesman, Senator, 33rd President of the United States----
"Everyone talks about apathy, but no one does anything about it."
author unknown----
"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
vincent van gogh, b. 1853, Post Impressionist Painter----
"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."
voltaire b. 1694, French writer, philosopher----
"Elitism in our leaders only shackles the honorable and effective practice of the political process, it erodes the fabric of a representative government, that creates apathy and apathy is the ultimate death of any democracy."
peter h. williams b. 1957, Founder of MyOneVote.Com----
"I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don’t believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn’t want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street."
malcolm X b.1925, African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, human rights activist----
"You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it."
malcolm X b.1925, African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, human rights activist