Nations Quotes - Page 15

• The very foundation of private property and free contracting wears away in a nation in which its most vital, most concrete, most meaningful types of private property and free contracting disappear from the moral horizon of the people.

  Joseph A. Schumpeter

  Meaningful, People, Foundation

  Joseph A. Schumpeter (2013). “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy”, p.141, Routledge

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• The industrial and social injustice of our era is the tragic aftermath of democracy's overemphasis on freedom as the "right to do whatever you please." No, freedom means the right to do what you ought, and ought implies law, and law implies justice, and justice implies God. So too in war, a nation that fights for freedom divorced from justice has no right to war, because it does not know why it wants to be free, or why it wants anyone else to be free.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Wisdom, War, Mean

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• Nothing disturbs me more than the downward trend of productivity in our nation today. The consequences of a decrease in productivity are a diminished standard of living, higher labor costs, less competitive prices, and more inflation.

  Robert S. Strauss

  Wisdom, Cost, Trends

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• Nations are less disposed to make revolutions in proportion as personal property is augmented and distributed among them, and as the number of those possessing it is increased.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Numbers, Politics

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1840). “Democracy in America”, p.190

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• The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Men, Principles

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.412

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• Our thoughts fly therefore by themselves in this festive hour of our plant community, to the man whom we thank for the ressurection of our Nation: Adolf Hitler, the patron of German labour and German art.

  Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach

  Art, Men, Community

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• One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the alter of the great historical ideas - justice or progress or happiness of future generations... or emancipation of a nation or race or class... this is the belief that somewhere... there is a final solution.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Race, Class, Ideas

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• Religious liberty in a nation is as real as the liberty of its least popular religious minority. Look not to the size of cathedrals or even to the words on the statute books for proof of the reality of religious freedom. Ask what is the fate of the Protestant in Spain, the Jew in Saudi Arabia, the Arab in Israel, the Catholic in Poland or the atheist in the United States.

  Paul Blanshard

  Religious, Atheist, Real

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• Man arose to high moral vision two thousand years before the Hebrew nation was born.

  James Henry Breasted

  Men, Years, Two

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• Persecution on racial and religious grounds has absolutely no place in a nation given over to liberty.

  Nicholas Murray Butler

  Religious, Atheism, Liberty

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• Freedom of religion, as the Founding Fathers saw it, was not just the right to associate oneself with a certain denomination but the right to disassociate without penalty. Belief or nonbelief was a matter of individual choice - a right underwritten in the basic charter of the nation's liberties.

  Norman Cousins

  Father, Individual Choice, Choices

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• The plain message conveyed by the new administration is that George W Bush's America is a Christian nation, and that non-Christians are welcome into the tent so long as they agree to accept their status as a tolerated minority rather than as fully equal citizens. In effect, Bush is saying: "This is our home, and in our home we pray to Jesus as our savior. If you want to be a guest in our home, you must accept the way we pray."

  Alan Dershowitz

  Christian, Jesus, Home

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• But the United States is neither a Christian nation nor the exclusive home of any particular religious group. Non-Christians are not guests. We are as much hosts as any Mayflower-descendant Protestant. It is our home as well as theirs. And in a home with so many owners, there can be no official sectarian prayer. That is what the First Amendment is all about, and the first act by the new administration was in defiance of our Constitution.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Christian, Religious, Prayer

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• We are a religious nation because we do not have a state religion, because the government guarantees freedom of religion but has no role in religion, because not only do we tolerate our religious differences, we celebrate them.

  Geraldine Ferraro

  Religious, Government, Differences

  Geraldine Ferraro, Linda Bird Francke (1985). “Ferraro: My Story”, p.211, Northwestern University Press

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• This is regrettable indeed for a nation that aspires to teach democracy to other nations, because, as Burke said: "Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other."

  J. William Fulbright

  School, Atheism, Democracy

  J. William Fulbright (2011). “The Arrogance of Power”, p.35, Random House

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• The fey in this country keep to themselves, and are a separate nation, much like the American Indians, but with even more autonomy.

  Laurell K. Hamilton

  Country, Fey, Literature

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• The United Nations has become a largely irrelevant, if not positively destructive institution, and the just-released U.N. report on the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan, proves the point.

  Linda Chavez

  Literature, Atrocities, Institutions

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• Thus the sum of things is ever being reviewed, and mortals dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.

  Lucretius

  Space, Generations, Literature

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• A profession that we are a nation "under God" is identical, for establishment clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation "under Jesus," a nation "under Vishnu," a nation "under Zeus," or a nation "under no god," because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.

  Alfred Goodwin

  Jesus, Atheism, Purpose

  "America's pledge of allegiance ruled unconstitutional" by Duncan Campbell, www.theguardian.com. June 26, 2002.

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• If the ministers of the Church have often permitted nations to revolt for Heaven's cause, they never allowed them to revolt against real evils or known violencess. It is from Heaven that the chains have come to fetter the minds of mortals.

  Baron d'Holbach

  Real, Evil, Heaven

  Paul Henri Thiry, baron d' Holbach (2012). “Superstition In All Ages (1732) Common Sense”, p.197, tredition

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• It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Christian, Country, Book

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• The Romans had, like other Pagan nations, a nature festival, called by them Saturnalia, and the Northern peoples had Yule; both celebrated the turn of the year from the death of winter to the life of spring - the winter solstice. As this was an auspicious change the festival was a very joyous one... The giving of presents and the burning of candles characterized it. Among the Northern people the lighting of a huge log in the houses of the great and with appropriate ceremonies was a feature.

  Samuel L. Jackson

  Spring, Winter, Years

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• All history shows that, in exact proportion as nations advance in civilisation, the accounts of miracles taking place among them become rarer and rarer, until at last they entirely cease.

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky

  Miracle, Atheism, Lasts

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1865). “History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe”, p.158

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• There's a principle here and I'm hoping the court will uphold this principle so that we can finally go back and have every American want to stand up, face the flag, place their hand over their heart and pledge to one nation, indivisible, not divided by religion, with liberty and justice for all.

  Michael Newdow

  Heart, Justice For All, Hands

  "Daughter Barred From Pledge Hearing". www.foxnews.com. March 25, 2004.

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• This issue is whether or not our government should be infusing religion into the public schools. Our churches are very strong in this nation and I think that's great and everybody should have the ability to worship as he or she sees fit. I choose to worship not believing in God and government should not thrust a religious idea down my throat.

  Michael Newdow

  Religious, Strong, Believe

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