The Notes (15 page)

C. S. Lewis

T
he older ed. was a kind of propagation—men transmitted manhood to man—the new is merely propaganda.

Ortega Y. Gasset

C
ivilization is not self supporting—it is artificial and requires the artist or the artisan. If you want to make use of the advantages of civilization but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization—you are done.

Edmund Burke

I
t is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the pub. to be the most anxious for its welfare.

Abe Lincoln

L
abor was prior to capitalism but property is the fruit of labor. Prop. is desirable & is a positive good to the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich & hence is just encouragement to industry & enterprise.

A
man may be loyal to his govt. & still be opposed to the peculiar prins. & practices of the admin. in power.

W
ith public sentiment behind you, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible. Therefore, he who influences public sentiment performs a vastly more significant act than he who simply meets statutes.

Winston Churchill

T
he destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world we learn we are spirits not animals. There is something going on in time & space & beyond time & space which whether we like it or not spells duty.

F.D.R. on Public Employee Strikes

I
want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organizations of govt. employees. A strike of pub. emps. manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of govt. until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of govt. by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable & intolerable.

J.F.K.

W
e are in danger of losing something solid at the core. We are losing that pilgrim & pioneer spirit of initiative and independence—that old-fashioned Spartan devotion to duty, honor & country.

Ibn Khaldoun (Moslem Phil. 14th Century)

A
t the beginning of the dynasty taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the Dynasty taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.

Cicero

A
nation can survive its fools & even the ambitious but it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in an accent familiar to his victims & wears their face & their garments . . . he rots the soul of the nation. He works secretly & unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.