Thursday, December 16, 2004

Quotations #027

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government; it can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -- Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1747-1813; Prof. History, Edinburgh U.) (written pre 1776)

"Not to know what happened before one was born is to remain ever a child." -- Cicero

"I doubt that we can ever find anyone more gullible than an intellectual academic." -- Isaac Asimov, Foundation's Edge.

"All that's quiet is magic." -- Rita Dove, "Eastern European Eclogues"

Asked what he considered education's greatest problem, Nathan Pusey, president of Harvard University, answered "Hardness of heart in the well-educated." (Harvard Magazine, March/April 2002, 98)

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