Even a cursory glance at history should convince one that individual crimes committed for selfish motives play a quite insignificant read more

Even a cursory glance at history should convince one that individual crimes committed for selfish motives play a quite insignificant part in the human tragedy, compared to the numbers massacred in unselfish loyalty to one's tribe, nation, dynasty, church, or political ideology, ad majorem gloriam dei. The emphasis is on unselfish. Excepting a small minority of mercenary or sadistic disposition, wars are not fought for personal gain, but out of loyalty and devotion to king, country or cause. Homicide committed for personal reasons is a statistical rarity in all cultures, including our own. Homicide for unselfish reasons, at the risk of one's own life, is the dominant phenomenon of history.

That government is best which governs least.

That government is best which governs least.

I'm going to be a vice president very much like George Bush was. He proved to be a very effective read more

I'm going to be a vice president very much like George Bush was. He proved to be a very effective vice president, perhaps the most effective we've had in a couple of hundred years.

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.

Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.

The notion of a farseeing and despotic statesman, who can lay down plans for ages yet unborn, is a fancy read more

The notion of a farseeing and despotic statesman, who can lay down plans for ages yet unborn, is a fancy generated by the pride of the human intellect to which facts give no support.

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its read more

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.

A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe.

A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe.