♦ nivek ♦ Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 "... as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever ..."-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) US Founding Father Source: before the Constitutional Convention, (June 2, 1787) http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/B...klin.Quote.336B "If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. " -- Frank Herbert (1920-1986) Source: "The Dosadi Experiment" http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/F...bert.Quote.A211 "The greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most needed and most powerful in modern government, namely, the efficient expert administrators exclusively concerned with what they regard as the public good." -- Fredrich August von Hayek (1899-1992), Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974 http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/F...ayek.Quote.A208 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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