Inherited wealth deadens talents and energies. A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Alexander Tyler, writing ca. 1750, about the fall of the Athenian Republic. FDR took America off the gold standard on Patriot's Day, 1933 (April 19th). How ironic! "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with public money" Alexis de Tocqueville, French Historian "Modern
art is when you buy a picture to cover a hole in the wall, then
decide the hole looked better." .... anon "Waste
not, want not; willful waste makes woeful want." ... Ben Franklin, statesman "A wise and frugal government, which shall
restrain men from injuring oneanother, which shall leave them otherwise
free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall
not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned ... this is the
sum of good government." ... Thomas Jefferson, first inaugural address [Back] |