September 30, 2019 – Click here to listen
A friend recently sent me a collection of sayings that were mostly written decades and even centuries ago, but have remained timeless. In fact, it gave me some comfort in knowing that we are not the first to face our nation’s current problems. Importantly former governments and their societies were shaped and ruled by miscreants too. Read this and see if it sounds familiar.
- In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame,
two is a law firm,
and three or more is a congress.
– John Adams - If you don’t read the newspaper
you are uninformed,
if you do read the newspaper
you are misinformed.
– Mark Twain - Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were
a member of Congress.
But then I repeat myself.
– Mark Twain - I contend that for a nation to try
to tax itself into prosperity is like a
man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle.
– Winston Churchill - A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
– George Bernard Shaw - A liberal is someone who feels a
great debt to his fellow man,
which debt he proposes
to pay off with your money.
– G. Gordon Liddy - Giving money and power to
government is like giving whiskey
and car keys to teenage boys.
– P.J. O’Rourke - Government’s view of the
economy could be summed up
in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
– Ronald Reagan (1986) - I don’t make jokes.
I just watch the government
and report the facts.
– Will Rogers - If you think health care is
expensive now, wait until you
see what it costs when it’s free!
– P. J O’Rourke - No man’s life, liberty, or
property is safe while the
legislature is in session
– Mark Twain (1866) - Talk is cheap, except when
Congress does it.
– Anonymous - The inherent vice of capitalism is
the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism
is the equal sharing of misery.
– Winston Churchill - The only difference between a
tax man and a taxidermist is that
the taxidermist leaves the skin.
– Mark Twain - There is no distinctly
Native American criminal class,
save Congress.
– Mark Twain - What this country needs are
more unemployed politicians
– Edward Langley,
Artist (1928-1995) - A government big enough
to give you everything you want,
is strong enough to take
everything you have.
– Thomas Jefferson
FIVE BEST SENTENCES
- You cannot legislate
the poor into prosperity,
by legislating the wealthy
out of prosperity. - What one person receives without
working for, another person must
work for without receiving. - The government cannot give to
anybody anything that the
government does not first take
from somebody else. - You cannot multiply wealth
by dividing it. - When half of the people get
the idea that they do not have to work,
because the other half
is going to take care of them,
and when the other half gets
the idea that it does no good to work,
because somebody else
is going to get what they work for,
that is the beginning
of the end of any nation!
The Bible states that history repeats itself. I think this is probably in there to instruct us to learn from it. We should take careful note of how the nations are behaving on the world scene. The Bible makes a case for understanding the repetitive character of human behavior. Jesus Christ understood it very well. One example was when He soberly reflected on trends and conditions before the time of Noah’s Flood and plainly stated in Matthew 24:37 – “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be when the Son of Man comes.” He refers to the times just prior to the end of life as we know it on this planet. We can’t afford to just to get on with our lives. We can’t risk being apathetic in a time that demands awareness, alertness and commitment. We need to recognize the direction of world affairs and their connection to biblical history.
Eccl. 1:9
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before . . .