Tuesday, August 29, 2006

thought for tuesday




















"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."

voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

5 comments:

SadButTrue said...

"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out...without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest,insane,intolerable." -H.L.Mencken

It seems like under BushCo™ the mere act of thinking clearly has become a full contact sport.

jams o donnell said...

Great quote Betmo! I love his one about the execution of Admiral Byng

".....it is found necessary from time to time to shoot an admiral, to encourage the others."

Sarah said...

Voltaire - A great thinker and a powerful voice.

shawn (aka blogstud) said...

love jams favorite quote. I also like the one you posted, betmo.

so sad and so true.

I am still keeping my fingers crossed that most voters will send Washington a message in November.

landsker said...

The French certainly had some philosophers didn`t they.Wonder why?
A government beomes rich and powerful, through war and conquest.
The wealth allows and encourages the creation of the middle classes, who espouse education and knowledge, then discovering that their wealth exists only because of the misery of others, seek to denounce the means of wealth creation.
Thus, seemingly, it has been with all empires, whose wealth has been created through war.

Denis Diderot (1731-1784) was another French philosopher.
" From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step. "

And his most quoted,
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."