Profoundness

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental - men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. ... The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through. ... But when the field's nationwide ... then all the odds are on the man who is intrinsically the most devious and mediocre - the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind's a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts' desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. -- H.L. Mencken, in 1920

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A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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The tyranny of the ignoramuses is insurmountable and assured for all time -- Albert Einstein

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Those who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be. -- Thomas Jefferson

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To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public, said President Theodore Roosevelt.

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Perhaps the universe is nothing but an equilibrium of idiocies. -- George Santayana.

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His warning that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to get into heaven was typical socialist blather. The affluent have had to devote themselves to breeding smaller camels and building larger needles ever since. - Eric V. Williams

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Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all. -- Michael Rivero

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The only way to win World War III is to prevent it. -- President Dwight David Eisenhower

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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -- John Kenneth Galbraith

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I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. -- James Baldwin

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If the Republicans stop telling lies about us, we will stop telling the truth about them. -- Adlai Stevenson

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You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. -- Charles Austin Beard

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Those who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings, call this a New Order. It is not new and it is not order. -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America. -- President William Jefferson Clinton

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When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt