"Quotable Quotes"

I'm not really a political person. In fact, I tend to look at politics as the cause of most of the problems in this country. OK, maybe not that bad, but let's just say I don't think highly of politicians and their practice of politics. I refuse to align with any party, and could best describe myself as "radically independent".

Still, with "Super Tuesday" quickly approaching, and the fact that, while I'm not political I take my civic duty rather seriously (in which case you'll usually find me voting against people more often than voting for others), I thought I'd post some "patriotic" and "political" quotes to start you thinking towards what you may do this coming Tuesday. (By the way, I apologize for the funny formatting. Blogger and I had a major disagreement on whether or not everything should be uniform, and Blogger won...)

On Freedom and Liberty:

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. - Edmund Burke

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves – Abraham Lincoln

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety - Benjamin Franklin

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. -James Madison

A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular. - Adlai Ewing Stevenson

...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Victor Frankl

Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism, are all too frequently those who…ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism—the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought. - Margaret Chase Smith

If you have a right to respect, that means other people don't have a right to their own opinions. - Thomas Sowell

On Patriotism and Loyalty:

A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. - Bill Vaughan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. - Edward Abbey

He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. - Harry Emerson Fosdick

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first. - Charles de Gaulle

"You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it." - Malcom X

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. - Mark Twain

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. - Theodore Roosevelt

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else." - Theodore Roosevelt

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. - James A. Baldwin

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. - Henry Steele Commager

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? - Pablo Casals

On Politics and Government:

A politician will do anything to keep his job even become a patriot. - William Randolph Hearst

Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest. - Thomas Sowell

It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into laws. - Thomas Sowell

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."- Thoreau

Miscellaneous:

Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could only do a little. - Edmund Burke

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. - Benjamin Franklin

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our disposition, and not our circumstances." - Martha Washington

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt