Quotations

«It is easier to restrain wild donkeys (Democrats) than to raise a dead elephant (Republicans)»

«I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.»

«Only if we can restrain ourselves is good conversation possible. Good talk rises upon much discipline.»

«It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labour of peace.»

«Rest enough for the individual man, too much and too soon, and we call it death. But for man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet and all its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him, and, at last, out across immensities to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deep space, and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.»

«EXECUTIVE, n. An officer of the Government, whose duty it is to enforce the wishes of the legislative power until such time as the judicial department shall be pleased to pronounce them invalid and of no effect. Following is an extract from an old book entitled, _The Lunarian Astonished_ --Pfeiffer & Co., Boston, 1803:LUNARIAN: Then when your Congress has passed a law it goes directly to the Supreme Court in order that it may at once be known whether it is constitutional? TERRESTRIAN: O no; it does not require the approval of the Supreme Court until having perhaps been enforced for many years somebody objects to its operation against himself --I mean his client. The President, if he approves it, begins to execute it at once. LUNARIAN: Ah, the executive power is a part of the legislative. Do your policemen also have to approve the local ordinances that they enforce? TERRESTRIAN: Not yet --at least not in their character of constables. Generally speaking, though, all laws require the approval of those whom they are intended to restrain. LUNARIAN: I see. The death warrant is not valid until signed by the murderer. TERRESTRIAN: My friend, you put it too strongly; we are not so consistent. LUNARIAN: But this system of maintaining an expensive judicial machinery to pass upon the validity of laws only after they have long been executed, and then only when brought before the court by some private person --does it not cause great confusion? TERRESTRIAN: It does. LUNARIAN: Why then should not your laws, previously to being executed, be validated, not by the signature of your President, but by that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? TERRESTRIAN: There is no precedent for any such course. LUNARIAN: Precedent. What is that? TERRESTRIAN: It has been defined by five hundred lawyers in three volumes each. So how can any one know?»

«Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills? / Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? / What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us? / With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.»

«In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude»

«Morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.»

«No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.»