Thoughts for the Day and Week

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Birthplace of Independent Conservatism

Five quotes that have significant relevance to our current national debate on the nation's debt and lack of fiscal responsibility, the value of restrained government and limited taxation, the rights of individuals to retain the fruits of their labor, and the importance of an independent and just judiciary.

"The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the
people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful
administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both
the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check
upon both, and both should be checks upon that." --John Adams, Thoughts on
Government, 1776

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers
has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not
exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of
association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the
fruits acquired by it." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, 1816

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there
is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation." --John
Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819

"A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all
useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and
unoppressive." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Lafayette, 1823

"It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in
the people." --Richard Henry Lee, letter to Colonel Martin Pickett, 1786

Okay progressives, have at it!