Mark Wood - Personal Homepage

Quotes:

"It is widely accepted in Australia, in communist countries and in most dictatorships that the minerals legally belong to the 'State'." - Lang Hancock (1976).

"If you would take time to think, I feel sure you would come to the conclusion that you would have some difficulty in nominating any law since the end of the War, no matter how well-intentioned, that would not be better repealed to the benefit of the community. Every law that Parliament passes gives added power to the Canberra bureaucratic octopus and lessens the capacity of the electorate to produce." - Lang Hancock.

"The best way to help the poor is not to become one of them." - Lang Hancock (1977).

"Socialism is embedded right through the school system and there seems to be an attitude that 'the world owes me a living'. When people talk about things they believe are wrong in our society, they always say 'the government ought to do this or that'." - Lang Hancock (1985).

"If I had asked the people what they wanted I would have made a faster horse." - Henry Ford.

"There is only one thing wrong with our whole education system and this is our whole education system - naturally, as there is no profit incentive in the education system, it is monolithic, incompetent and generally not worth pissing on." - John Singelton.

"The "haves" do not have any more reason to support the institution of private ownership of the means of production than do the "have-nots." If their immediate special interests come into question, they are scarcely liberal. The notion that, if only capitalism is preserved, the propertied classes could remain forever in possession of their wealth stems from a misunderstanding of the nature of the capitalist economy, in which property is continually being shifted from the less efficient to the more efficient businessman. In a capitalist society one can hold on to one's fortune only if one perpetually acquires it anew by investing it wisely. The rich, who are already in possession of wealth, have no special reason to desire the preservation of a system of unhampered competition open to all; particularly if they did not themselves earn their fortune, but inherited it, they have more to fear than to hope from competition. They do have a special interest in interventionism, which always has a tendency to preserve the existing division of wealth among those in possession of it. But they cannot hope for any special treatment from liberalism, a system in which no heed is paid to the time-honored claims of tradition advanced by the vested interests of established wealth." - Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism: In The Classical Tradition, trans. Ralph Raico (New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1985), p. 186.

"My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." - J.B.S. Haldane.

"The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, ... or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Major John Cartwright (5 June 1824).

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate Governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple Government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the Governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." - James Madison, Federalist No. 46 (1788).

"As long as I have a pen in my hand and a revolver in my pocket, I fear no one." - Benito Mussolini, 1914.

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke.

"I'd like to confess, Papa, at that moment I discovered that I really like killing." - Che Guevara.

"The black is indolent and fanciful, he spends his money on frivolity and drink; the European comes from a tradition of working and saving which follows him to this corner of America and drives him to get ahead." - Che Guevara.

"Hatred is the central element of our struggle! Hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him a violent and cold-blooded killing machine. Our soldiers must be thus." - Che Guevara.

"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate." - Che Guevara.

"We must do away with all newspapers. A revolution cannot be accomplished with freedom of the press." - Che Guevara.

"The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims!" - Che Guevara.

"Youth should learn to think and act as a mass. It is criminal to think as individuals!" - Che Guevara.

"Youth must refrain from ungrateful questioning of governmental mandates. Instead, they must dedicate themselves to study, work and military service." - Che Guevara.

"We can in no way accept that my father should appear on women's underwear or men's underwear or that it should be on the back pocket of a pair of jeans or that they use it as a commercial image for a pair of glasses. We think that is lacking in respect and we won't accept that." - Aleida Guevara.

"He belongs more to the romantic tradition than the revolutionary one. To endure as a romantic icon, one must not just die young, but die hopelessly. Che fulfils both criteria. When one thinks of Che as a hero, it is more in terms of Byron than Marx." - Christopher Hitchens.

"To his critics, Guevara was a trigger-happy megalomaniac whose bloody example led thousands to their deaths in futile uprisings that only hardened military repression from Guatemala to Chile." - Patrick J. McDonnell, journalist, "Che Guevara's legacy looms larger than ever in Latin America" in The Los Angeles Times (8 October 2007).

"Most people don't know the real Che Guevara - the Che Guevara who wrote that he was thirsty for blood, the Che who assassinated thousands of people without any regard for any real legal process. " - Felix Rodriguez, CIA agent.

"Che T-shirts are among the first things you'll see after landing at the Havana airport. But at least the Cubans know whom they're glorifying. In the United States, Che's life story and ambitions seem beside the point, or maybe they've just been reduced to caricature. The guy's face is shorthand for "I'm against the status quo." He's politics' answer to James Dean, a rebel with a very specific cause." - David Segal, journalist, in "The Che Cachet" in The Washington Post (7 February 2006).

"To withhold your contempt from men's vices is an act of moral counterfeiting, and to withhold your admiration from their virtues is an act of moral embezzlement." - Ayn Rand.

"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" - Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago".

"The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." - J.B.S. Haldane.

"As long as government has the power to regulate business, business will control government by funding the candidate that legislates in their favor. A free-market thwarts lobbying by taking the power that corporations seek away from government! The only sure way to prevent the rich from buying unfair government influence is to stop allowing government to use physical force against peaceful people. Whenever government is allowed to favor one group over another, the rich will always win, since they can "buy" more favors, overtly or covertly, than the poor." - Dr Mary J. Ruwart.

"London was like some prehistoric animal, capable of enduring terrible injuries, mangled and bleeding from many wounds, and yet preserving its life and movement." - Sir Winston Churchill on The Battle of Britain.