FAITH - makes a Christian. LIFE - proves a Christian. TRIALS - confirm a Christian. DEATH - crowns a Christian.
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"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." --Alexis de Tocqueville
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"Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants." -- William Penn (1644-1718), Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania
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"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained." --George Washington
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“When we consider with some attention the frame and architecture of the universe, and the just proportion of all its parts, we discover at the first glance the traces of the divinity, or, in better terms, the seal of God himself impressed upon all things called the works of nature.”
The imminent historian Charles Rollin, of the University of Paris
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“As we look at the machines in some of our factories we sometimes wonder at what the mind of man has created, overlooking the fact that we are living on a little world that is a part of a gigantic machine which is operating silently and everlastingly in the sky . . . . Surely here is a gigantic machine which makes us stand in awe and wonder at the power of the creator who could design such a machine and put it into operation”
Dr. Arthur M. Harding, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of Arkansas
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"I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors……in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is Good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great."
- - Alexis de Tocqueville An aristocratic Frenchman who came to the U.S. in 1831 -- when he was only 25 years old -- and later wrote Democracy in America, a two-volume study of the American people and their political institutions.
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"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed
of ignorance and the gospel of envy."
-- Winston Churchill, 1948
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"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage."
Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813). Scottish jurist and historian.
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I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon --- If I can. I seek opportunity --- not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existance; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say: this, with God's help, I have done. All of this is what it means to be an American.
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I got this one off my son's site:
“being exiles [in the world] does not mean being cynical. It does not mean being indifferent or uninvolved. The salt of the earth does not mock rotting meat. Where it can, it saves and seasons. ... And the light of the world does not withdraw, saying ‘good riddance’ to godless darkness. It labors to illuminate.”
—John Piper
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