Great Throughts Treasury

"In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these."

"I have never seen a monument erected to a pessimist."

"My nightmares relate all of man's inhumanity to man---to our willing acceptance of cruelty to the other animals."

"Oh, things always get better. Tomorrow will always be better. Just think about it . . . is there any time in history in which you'd rather live than now?"

"Like what you do, if you don't like it, do something else."

"There's a whole argument in the relief world about whether aid undermines the social and political contract between the state and its citizens. But if the government can't provide assistance, do you want to allow people to die?"

"Retiring is just practicing up to be dead. That doesn't take any practice."

"Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game."

"If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of ten it will."

"Fight for your lives! The bridge has been cut!"

"Each generation imagines that we're all going to hell. Each generation goes through a little hell and comes out heat tempered and better than before."

"Ever occur to you why some of us can be this much concerned with animals suffering? Because government is not. Why not? Animals don't vote."

"Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep."

"And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer. "I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer. God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. "Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer."

"Dependency arguments often come from elites - either aid agencies or governments - and say something about attitudes to poor people."

"Even now, we're standing there dying, daring to do nothing decisive because we've declared ourselves to be better than our terrorist enemies, more moral, more civilized. Our image is at stake, we insist. But we didn't come this far because we are made of sugar candy. Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and into this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. Yes, that was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on, to grab this land from whomever, and we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves. And so it goes with most great nation-states, which feeling guilty about their savage pasts, eventually civilize themselves out of business, and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry, up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy."

"Every pessimist who ever lived has been buried in an unmarked grave. Tomorrow has always been better than today, and it always will be."

"God bless us one and all, especially those who denounce Him... God bless America, despite all her faults, she is still the greatest nation of all... God bless our service men who are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God... May 2004 will be the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions. Keep looking up... In God We Trust."

"Golf is a game in which you yell "fore," shoot six, and write down five."

"He was born under a comet...died under one too."

"Greg has been asked to give us a second opinion on the horse. I'll ride at Belmont on Saturday."

"I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his theory of evolution."

"I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is."

"If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I?d just keep on doing what he?s doing."

"If I were the Devil... I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ?Do as you please.? ?Do as you please.? To the young, I would whisper, ?The Bible is a myth.? I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is ?square?. In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: ?Our Father, which art in Washington??"

"If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer. If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha. And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit. When in Rome..."

"If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'?"

"If such an event occurred and Belden were unable to obtain waivers or otherwise resolve the covenant violation, an acceleration of the amounts under the credit agreement or the termination of the ISDA agreement could create a default under the indenture for Belden's $192 million senior secured notes."

"If I were the devil, I?d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I?d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I?d get organized. I?d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I?d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I?d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I?d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say ?she?s right.? With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them."

"It was self-serving politicians who convinced recent generations of Americans that we could all stand in a circle with our hands in each other?s pockets and somehow get rich."

"Now you know the rest of the story."

"Mr. President [Richard Nixon], I love you, but you're wrong. [on the Vietnam War]"

"It's especially hard if the government is not providing services, or is even conducting ethnic cleansing against you."

"I've never seen a monument erected to a pessimist."

"No, that wasn't a factor. We had no excuses."

"The silent majority has been silent too long? it's time we tell that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard, that the vast majority don't care what they want... it is time the majority rules! It's time we tell them, you don't have to pray... you don't have to say the pledge of allegiance, you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right... but by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away... we are fighting back... and we WILL WIN!"

"The tragedy of these incidents must act as a stimulus for the industry to review its procedures, making sure that vehicle risks are properly controlled. Wherever possible, pedestrians and vehicles should be segregated, paying special attention to transfer stations and sorting areas. Street collection activities need to address the risks to collection staff and other road and pavement users. Using reversing aids such as mirrors, CCTV, detectors, and beacons do reduce the risks. In most public access areas, you will usually need to provide reversing assistants, their job being to help the driver and prevent or warn pedestrians entering maneuvering areas when the risks cannot be controlled adequately by other means."

"One would think by listening to all the propaganda about the United Nations that they are some sort of benevolent, peaceful organization. Never in the history of the United Nations has it stood for anything but killing and violence. They have never kept peace anywhere on this globe. Their sole function is to replace the U.S. military - dissolve all four branches of our armed forces. Their allegiance is only to the United Nations Charter which does not recognize the U.S. Constitution. This body is made up almost exclusively of communists and leaders of the bloodiest regimes on this globe. Their history and operating agenda is apparent to anyone who takes the time to sincerely and with an open mind, research the facts of this organization, separating truth from myth. Bilderberger participants (another group committed to one-world domination) in 1992 called for 'conditioning the public to accept the idea of a U.N. army that could, by force, impose its will on the internal affairs of any nation.'"

"Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying. God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well.......... just sue me."

"The years don't always add wisdom, but they do add perspective."

"There's a whole argument in the relief world about whether aid undermines the social and political contract between the state and its citizens. But if the government can't provide assistance, do you want to allow people to die."

"There's such a thing as too literally interpreting."

"They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here?"

"These devils must be stopped!"

"This is the highest honor I have received since 60-some years ago, when Angel said "I do.""

"What do you mean, you don't want to!"

"What happens with these guys (organizations) is it's very hard to find a successor. When the charismatic founder goes away, who's going to replace him?"

"When your outgo exceeds your income, the upshot may be your downfall."

"Tomorrow has always been better than today, and it always will be."

"We wanted security. And they gave us chains. And we were 'secure.'"