Old Wisdom for our Bad Time

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. - Matthew 7:15


My view has always been that a state’s political system reflects the characteristics of its leaders. - Xenophon


Me seemes the world has runne quite out of squaare
​From the first point of his appointed sourse,
And being once amisse, grows daily wourse and wourse.
- Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queen


Nothing can more hurt a state than that cunning men pass for wise. - Francis Bacon


It is better to be ruled by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian.  - Martin Luther


Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire


Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute. - Charles Cotesworth Pinckney


Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? - Thomas Jefferson


Alas! It is delusion all;
The future cheats us from afar,
Nor can we be what we recall,
Nor dare we think on what we are.
- Byron


Political words are the most indefinite, on account of the constant struggle of power to enlarge itself by tortured construction of terms.  - John Taylor of Caroline


The Confederates have gone out of this war with the proud, secret, deathless, dangerous consciousness that they are THE BETTER MEN.  - Edward Pollard, The Lost Cause, 1866


Our sole object was the establishment of our independence and the attainment of an honourable peace. - R.E. Lee, 1866


. . . the government is in its essence the executive committee of great wealth.  - Frank Owsley, Southern Agrarian, 1936


Shine on, O perishing republic.  - Robinson Jeffers


To see what is in front of one’s nose, needs a constant struggle.  - Orwell


The spiritual life of a nation is more important than its territory, and more important, even, than its level of economic prosperity.  - Solzhenitsyn


American culture is an infinite regression to moronic vulgarity.  - Thomas Fleming


I find absolutely no ground for optimism, and I have every reason for hope. - Wilfred Sheed


Police protection is an oxymoron.  - Bernard Theursam


Have we no shame? No.  - Fred Reed


The foremost duty of a citizen, especially in dangerous times, is to think. - Charley Reece


It cannot be repeated too often that the purpose of Politically Correct censorship is to punish people who tell the truth. Rulers don’t care about falsehoods. - Clyde Wilson


History teaches us that the capacity for things to get worse is limitless. - Chalmers Johnson


You can’t go home again.  - Thomas Wolfe