Politics

"Politics is the pursuit of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men." --George Jean Nathan (1882 - 1958)

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." –Plato

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." --Also by Plato

"The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'." --Larry Hardiman

"In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant." - Charles de Gaulle

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." -- Vladimir Lenin

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Liberty and Freedom

"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it." --Malcolm X

"...The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky

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Citizenship

"Too many people are only willing to to defend rights that are personally important to them. It's selfish ignorance, and it's exactly why totalitarian governments are able to get away with trampling on people. Freedom does not mean freedom just for the things *I* think I should be able to do. Freedom is for all of us. If people will not speak up for other's people's rights, there will come a day when they will lose their own." - Tony Lawrence

"He that will not reason is a bigot, He that cannot reason is a fool, He that dares not reason is a slave." - William Drummond

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." --Mark Twain

"In Germany they 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, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." -- Martin Niemoller

"There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and politics without principle." --Mahatma Gandhi