Fun_People Archive
20 Apr
Quote of the day - 4/20/98 - How did they know?

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 98 11:53:41 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Quote of the day - 4/20/98 - How did they know?

X-Lib-of-Cong-ISSN: 1098-7649
Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: good@pixar.com (Craig Good)

A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last
only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from
the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority (who vote) will vote
for the candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse,
with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal
policies, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest democratic nations has been 200
years. Each has been through the following sequence: From bondage to
spiritual faith, from faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from
liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to
selfishness, from selfishness to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from
dependency back again into bondage.
	-- Lord Macaulay (1857)

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Forwarded-by: CFrank@wrf.com
Forwarded-by: qotd-request@ensu.ucalgary.ca (Quote of the day)

The laws providing tax shelters reflect the strong philisophical commitment
of the Founding Fathers, particularly Alexander Hamilton, to the principle
that the public good would be served if dentists owned cattle ranches.
	-- Calvin Trillin, on United States tax law and evasion.

© 1998 Peter Langston