Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2004-05-16 May 14, 2004The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts.~ Bergan EvansIn all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.~ Bertrand RussellWhat are the moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; that merit attaches to readiness to believe; that the doubting disposition is a bad one, and skepticism is a sin.~ Thomas Henry Huxley May 13, 2004It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.~ Bruce SchneierThe State…has had a vested interest in promoting attitudes that would tend to make us skeptical of our own abilities, fearful of the motives of others, and emotionally dependent upon external authorities for purpose and direction in our lives.~ Butler D. ShafferTo the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief from the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility.~ Eric Hoffer May 12, 2004All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow.~ H. L. MenckenA new fascism promises security from the terror of crime. All that is required is that we take away the criminals’ rights – which, of course, are our own. Out of our desperation and fear we begin to feel a sense of security from the new totalitarian state.~ Gerry SpenceWhen it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.~ John Viscount Morley May 11, 2004For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.~ Niccolo MachiavelliThe real danger is the gradual erosion of individual liberties through automation, integration, and interconnection of many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.~ U. S. Privacy Study Commission...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.~ Voltairine de Cleyre May 10, 2004A man’s liberties are none the less aggressed upon because those who coerce him do so in the belief that he will be benefited.~ Herbert SpencerWe have plenty of freedom in this country but not a great deal of independence.~ John W. RaperThe people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness… This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs, when he first appears he is a protector.~ Plato Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print