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1. "In its ethical or moral meaning, the word "happiness" refers to a life well lived, a whole life that is morally good because it is the product of virtue (or the habit of right desire) accompanied by the blessing of good fortune. In this sense of the word, happiness is not something we feel or experience. In no moment of period of time can happiness in this sense be felt or experienced. During one's life, one may be on the road to happiness, one may be described as becoming happy, but one cannot be said to be happy. Only when your life is over can someone else commenting on your life declare that you had lived a good life and can be described as a person who had achieved happiness." - Mortimer J. Adler
2. "But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promised joy."
- Robert Burns, To a Mouse
3. "Every kind of honor and enlargement was bestowed upon you, and then ... flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honored, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years." - Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians, c. A.D. 97
4. "A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent." - Niccolò Machiavelli
5. "Liberty is not a means to a political end. It is itself the highest political end." — Lord Acton
6. "The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour." - Japanese proverb
7. "Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food." - Michael Pollan
8. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — Lord Acton
9. "A State arises ... out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants. Can there be any other origin of a State? ... Then, as we have many wants, and many persons are needed to supply them, one takes a helper for one purpose and another for another; and when these partners and helpers are gathered together ... the body of inhabitants is termed a State." - Socrates, in Plato's Republic, book 2
10. "And they exchanged with one another, and one gives, and another receives, under the idea that the exchange will be for their good." - Socrates, in Plato's Republic, book 2
11. "Harsh counsels have no effect. They are the hammers which are always repulsed by the anvil." - Helvetius
12. "Let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention." - Socrates, in Plato's Republic, book 2
13. "Now the first and greatest of necessities is food, which is the condition of life and existence. The second is a dwelling, and the third is clothing and the like." - Socrates, in Plato's Republic, book 2
14. "Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all." - Alexis de Tocqueville
15. "I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run." - Alexis de Tocqueville
16. "When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly." - George Washington
17. "It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants." - Alexis de Tocqueville
18. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou
19. "I am sure I bring a heart true to the work. For the ability to perform it, I must trust in that Supreme Being who has never forsaken this favored land, through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people. Without that assistance I shall surely fail. With it I cannot fail."
- Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Buffalo, New York, 16 Feb 1861
20. "While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years."
- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address
21. "There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped."
- G. K. Chesterton
22. "Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light." - George Washington
23. "Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness." - William E. Gladstone
24. "I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end." - Margaret Thatcher
25. "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
- Alexis de Tocqueville
26. "There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it." - Alexis de Tocqueville
27. "The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." - Lord Acton
28. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
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