JR'S Free Thought Pages
No Gods  ~ No Masters   

              More of Johnny Reb's favorite Quotes

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. - Will Durant
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. . .Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.  – John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”
Education is the process of moving from cocksure certainty to thoughtful skepticism. - My Maxim
People in groups tend to agree on courses of action which, as individuals, they know are stupid. - Unknown
Those who can't teach - administrate. Those who can't administrate - go into politics. - H. L. Mencken
Faith may be defined briefly as the illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable - H. L. Mencken
Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing- H. L Mencken
Following the path of least resistance is what makes men and rivers crooked. - Unknown
Honesty is the best policy - there's less competition. - Unknown
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. - Unknown
Success is just a matter of luck - ask any failure. - Unknown
When policy fails, try thinking. - Unknown (Administrators take note of this gem)
The masses are the opium of religion. - Karl Marx's Corollary
Born losers are those who lose in their fantasies. - Unknown
Never argue with a fool in public since the audience rarely knows the difference. - Unknown
If you were not reasoned into your beliefs, you cannot be reasoned out of them. - Jonathan Swift
A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you. - Bert Leston Taylor
Under capitalism, man exploits man - under communism the reverse is true. - Unknown
Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it. - George Bernard Shaw (This reminds me of Nietzsche's famous quote: "The last Christian died on the cross")
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car. - Unknown
What men value in this world is not rights but privileges. - H. L. Mencken
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde
No one speaks more of free enterprise, competition and survival of the fittest than the man who has just inherited the family fortune. - Unknown     (When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him whose?)
If ignorance is bliss, there should be more happy people. - Unknown
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work - I want to achieve it through not dying. - Woody Allen
A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance. - Robert Frost
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what sells. - Confucius
The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most vehemently are those who try to tell them the truth. - H. L. Mencken
An atheist is someone with no invisible means of support. Atheism: a non-prophet association. - Unknown
Christ died for our sins. Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them? - Jules Feiffer
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. - Unknown
Bach almost persuades me to become a Christian. - Roger Fry
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudice of their social environment. - Albert Einstein
The optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. - James Branch Cabell
You can make a better living in the world as a soothsayer than a truthsayer. - G. C. Litchenberg  (The market for astrologers, psychics and crystal ball gazers is better than it is for philosophers)
Life has meaning for anyone who takes an interest in it. - Sidney Hook
Anyone who has begun to think clearly places some portion of the world in jeopardy. - John Dewey
The measure of a man is what he does with power. - Pittacus
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. Eric Hoffer
Given a thimble full of facts we rush to make generalizations as large as a tub. - Gordon Allport
It is easier to fight for one's principles than it is to live by them. - Alfred Adler
There's a mighty big difference between reasons that sound good and good sound reasons. - Burton Hillis
Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for continuing to believe as we already do. - James Harvey Robinson
Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life's nothingness. - Andre Maorois
There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking. - Joshua Reynolds
When all men think alike, no one thinks very much. - Walter Lippmann
There are some jobs in which it is impossible for a man to be honest and virtuous. - Aristotle  (Most administrative and managerial jobs qualify here)
In a time of war the first casualty is the truth. - Boake Carter
We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both. - Justice Lois D. Bradeis
If you want to get rich by writing, write the sort of material that's read by people who move their lips while reading to themselves. - Don Marquis
As long as the mind clings to belief, it is held in a prison. - J. Krishnamurti
We judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our motives. - Adlai Stevenson
What a man had rather be true, that he more readily believes. - Francis Bacon
The opposite of knowledge is not ignorance, but deceit and fraud. - Jean Baudrillard
When a person has a delusion it is called a psychosis; when several people share the same delusion, it is called a religion. - Owen Fauvel

           As the reader can see I am partial to H.L. Mencken  Check out these links for more: HLM1, HLM2

                       

                          For Home:    

1