Provocative Aphorisms for the Thoughtful Realist - or - Platitudes for Grannies NOT!

AMERICA

Delay, Thomas Dale (U.S. Congressman from Texas)
Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills.

Hancock, Butch
Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.

Ivins, Mary Tyler "Molly"
I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults.

Vaughan, William E. "Bill"
A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.

Will, George Frederick
Football combines the two worst features of American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.

DEMOCRACY

Carey, Alex
... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.

Chase, Stuart
Democracy, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.

Fulbright, James William
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

Jefferson, Thomas
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Mencken, Henry Louis
As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Peter, Laurence J.
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.

Simon, John
Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.

White, Elwyn Brooks
Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.

EDUCATION

Abbey, Edward Paul
A formal education can sometimes be broadening but more often merely flattens.

FREEDOM

Thompson, Dorothy
Of all forms of government and society, those of free men and women are in many respects the most brittle. They give the fullest freedom for activities of private persons and groups who often identify their own interests, essentially selfish, with the general welfare.

GOVERNMENT

Buñuel, Luis
God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed.

Goering, Hermann Wilhelm
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Jackson, Jesse Louis
In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.

RELIGION

Adams, John
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

Aquinas, St. Thomas
That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.

Dawkins, Clinton Richard
Mystics exult in mystery and want it to stay mysterious. Scientists exult in mystery for a different reason: it gives them something to do. More generally … one of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.

Dawkins, Clinton Richard
Religion's power to console doesn't make it true.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo
The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.

Jefferson, Thomas
Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.

Jefferson, Thomas
The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.

Ladman, Cathy
All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt, with different holidays.

Madison, James
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.

Mencken, Henry Louis
People say we need religion when what they really mean is we need police.

Nehru, Jawaharlal
The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organized religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.

Pascal, Blaise
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Pirsig, Robert Maynard
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.

Sagan, Carl Edward
How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?" Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way." A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

Seneca the Younger
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Weinberg, Steven
Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.

Wilde, Oscar [Fingal O'Flahertie Wills]
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.

THE SYSTEM

Bonaparte, Napoleon
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

Orwell, George
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

WEALTH

DeMartini, John
If you don't put a value on money and seek wealth, you most probably won't receive it. You must seek wealth for it to seek you. If no burning desire for wealth arises within you, no wealth will arise around you. Having definiteness of purpose for acquiring wealth is essential for its acquisition.

WORK

Aaron, Raymond
If you don't have an assistant, you are one.

Forbes, Malcolm Stevenson
The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.

Garson, Greer
Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.

© 2008 Montague Media