Quotes

Capitalism has defeated communism. It is now well on its way to defeating democracy. — David Korten

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. — Muhammad Ali

No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. — U.N. Convention Against Torture

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without. — President Dwight Eisenhower

Revivals are hindered when ministers and churches take wrong ground in regard to any question to any question involving human rights. — Charles Finney, nineteenth century evangelist

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says, "Oh crap, she's up!" — author unknown

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. — James Madison, referred to as the “father” of the US Constitution

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the US, was a severe critic of what he called "the selfish spirit of commerce [that] knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.” In the early years of the 19th century, as banks and corporations began to flex their political muscles, he announced that: “I hope we shall crush . . . in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Physically unable to accept an invitation to speak in Washington on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson instead sent remarks to be read, including the following: “The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” — John Nichols

On a 2011 trip up Alaska’s “inland passage,” I picked up one of those free, ad-filled tour guides for the region. There were brief profiles of several towns in that coastal region formally known as the Alexander Archipeligo. For the town of Sitka, the book noted the remnants of Russian influence, including Orthodox churches. The book summarizes the town's history as "a unique blend of Tlingit (a native Alaskan nation) culture, Russian imperialism and, ultimately, American expansionism." It's those dirty Ruskies who want empire. Us? We just expand. — Ken Sehested

In San Francisco, a billboard for an e-trading firm proclaimed, “Make love not war,” and then—down at the bottom—“Screw it, just make money." — Barbara Ehrenreich