Quote-a-palooza
“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.” —Thomas Jefferson
“The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.” —James A. Garfield
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” —1 Corinthians 12:4-7
“If you think political spin and political gamesmanship are the answers to this country’s problems, then vote for the Democrats. Some leading Democrats have already announced that they plan to impeach President Bush if they get control of the House of Representatives. In other words, in the middle of a war, they are prepared to bog down the administration in domestic political and legal hassles, putting the winning of the White House in 2008 ahead of winning the war on terrorism. There was a time when we all understood that, whatever we might think of a President, we still had only one President at a time and that wholesale obstruction and undermining of him was obstruction and undermining of the United States in the face of its enemies.” —Thomas Sowell
“Evil still stalks the planet. Its ideology may be nothing more than blood lust; no program more complex than economic plunder or military aggrandizement. But it is evil all the same. And wherever there are forces that would destroy the human spirit and diminish human potential, they must be recognized and they must be countered.” —Ronald Reagan
“You talk about independence [of the judiciary] as though it is unquestionably and unqualifiably a good thing. It may not be. It depends on what your courts are doing. The more your courts become policy-makers, the less sense it makes to have them entirely independent... Take the abortion issue: Whichever side wins, in the courts, the other side feels cheated. I mean, you know, there’s something to be said for both sides. The court could have said, ‘No, thank you.’ The court have said, ‘You know, there is nothing in the Constitution on the abortion issue for either side.’ It could have said the same thing about suicide, it could have said the same thing about... all the social issues the courts are now taking... It is part of the new philosophy of the Constitution, and when you push the courts into that, and when they leap into it, they make themselves politically controversial. And that’s what places their independence at risk.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia