No I’m not talking about Benghazi …

Webguy and Cristina forwarded me some quotes from my lovely emailers.  I thought that you may enjoy some of these.

Eric Grafman pointed us to this quote by Alexis de Tocqueville:

“There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that spurs all men to wish to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the lesser to the rank of the greater. But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.”

“Equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.”  Powerful stuff!

Eric also enjoyed this quote, which is attributed to either de Tocqueville or Alexander Fraser Tytler:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

Pretty amazing how prophetic that is, isn’t it? 

The last quote was sent by Gary.  It is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln but it is actually believed to be authored by William J. H. Boetcker, a retired Presbyterian minister:

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.  You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.  You cannot further the Brotherhood of Man by encouraging class hatred.  You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.  You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.  You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative.  You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

Good stuff!