Words of wisdom

By BOB URBAN

rurban@tnonline.com

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Currently we are a nation that is not very happy with our government. Taxes are too high. The economy is in the dumpster. We're fighting wars in two countries where we shouldn't even be involved with.

But criticism of our nation's leaders is nothing new. Take these tidbits from noted leaders and scholars from throughout our nation's history and see if you can relate those criticisms to the climate in Washington today.

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.

John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.

Mark Twain (I take exception with the second part of Mr. Twain viewpoint on this one).

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.

Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801-1850)

11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Ronald Reagan (1986)

12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

P.J. O'Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.

Voltaire (1764)

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!

Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.

Mark Twain (1866)

17. Talk is cheap ... except when Congress does it.

Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.

- Mark Twain