Mark Wood

"Dying societies accumulate laws like dying men accumulate remedies." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"Democracy is the political regime in which the citizen entrusts the public interests to those men to whom he would never entrust his private interests." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"Political blunders repeat themselves, because they are the expression of human nature. Successes do not repeat themselves, because they are the gift of history." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"The two terms of the democratic alternative today-oppressive bureaucracy or repugnant plutocracy-are canceling each other out. Combining into a single term: opulent bureaucracy. At once repugnant and oppressive." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"Universal suffrage in the end does not recognize any of the individual's rights except the 'right' to be alternately oppressor or oppressed." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"No folktale ever began this way: Once upon a time, there was a president..." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"The more complex the functions which the state assumes, the more subordinate the bureaucrats on whom the citizen's fortune depends." - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

"One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you." - Jeff Bezos.

"Law is a bunch of words written on paper by people who are generally considered to be liars and thieves. So let's try to figure out what's right rather than what's legal." - Joe Rogan.

"Conscience is a God to all mortals." - Menander.

"We live, not as we wish to, but as we can." - Menander.

"Riches cover a multitude of woes." - Menander.

"Whom the gods love dies young." - Menander.

"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander.

"Conscience goes through the stomach" - Latin Proverb.

"I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade." - Menander.

"Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil." - Menander.

"[Old age] never comes alone." - Menander.

"Health and intellect are the two blessings of life." - Menander.

"The man who runs may fight again." - Menander.

"It is not white hair that brings wisdom." - Menander.

"The trouble with socialism, is that eventually you run out of other people's money." - Margaret Thatcher.

"Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behaviour. Complex rules and regulations gives rise to simple and stupid behaviour." - Dee Hock.

"The recognized doctrine that the people are to be governed by some abstract power, apart from themselves, has not, even at this day in this country, lost its hold... the people expect too much of the government." - Walt Whitman.

"Under a proper organization, the wealth and happiness of the citizens could hardly be touched by the government...Men must be "masters of themselves," and not look to Presidents and legislative bodies for aid." - Walt Whitman.

"Although government can do little positive good to the people, it may do an immense deal of harm...the Democratic principle...would prevent all this harm. It would have no man's benefit achieved at the expense of his neighbors. It would have no one's rights infringed upon...the sum and substance of the prerogatives of government...While mere politicians, in their narrow minds, are sweating and fuming with their complicated statutes, this one single rule, rationally construed and applied, is enough to form the starting point of all that is necessary in government: to make no more laws than those useful for preventing a man or body of men from infringing on the rights of other men." - Walt Whitman.

"More precious than all worldly riches is Freedom." - Walt Whitman.

"[Poets] are the voice and exposition of liberty." - Walt Whitman.

"My contention is that good men (not bad men) consistently acting upon that position [imposing "the good"] would act as cruelly and unjustly as the greatest tyrants. They might in some respects act even worse. Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under of robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some points be satiated; but those who torment us for their own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to heaven yet at the same time likely to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on the level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals." - C.S. Lewis.

"Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas." - Margaret Thatcher.

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