Thomas Paine, Ayn Rand, Sir Leslie Stephen

[♦ nivek ♦]

"These are the times that try men's souls.

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will,

in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country;

but he that stands it now,

deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;

yet we have this consolation with us,

that the harder the conflict,

the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods;

and it would be strange indeed,

if so celestial an article as Freedom

should not be highly rated."

-- Thomas Paine

(1737-1809)

December 19, 1776

Source: The American Crisis, No. 1

http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Thomas.Paine.Quote.80F8

"America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to "the common good," but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance -- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way."

-- Ayn Rand

(1905-1982) Author

http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Ayn.Rand.Quote.7576

"Every man who says frankly and fully

what he thinks is so far doing a public service.

We should be grateful to him for attacking

most unsparingly our most cherished opinions."

-- Sir Leslie Stephen

(1832-1904), literary essayist, author

Source: The Suppression of Poisonous Opinions, 1883

http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Leslie.Stephen.Quote.30EE