Education

H. L. Mencken:

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues, and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else…Their purpose, in brief, is to make docile and patriotic citizens, to pile up majorities, and to make John Doe and Richard Doe as nearly alike, in their everyday reactions and ways of thinking, as possible.

The fate of the State

"...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matt. 26:52)

The price of liberty

"God hath vouchsafed man liberty only on condition of eternal vigilance; which condition if he break it, servitude is the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
John Curran, Irish statesman

Jim Rogers' advice to his daughter

- Conduct your own research and trust your own judgment.
- Focus on what you yourself love.
- Be persistent.
- Broaden your horizons and see as much of the world as you can.
- The most important thing you can learn is how to think and question everything you hear.
- Study and learn from history.
- Master more than one language – and make sure one of them is Mandarin.
- Don't panic.
- Take care of yourself and don't neglect the sunscreen.
- Remember that boys need girls more than girls need boys.

Jim Rogers:
A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing

The art of speculation

“Opportunities are always there, but the opportunist is lacking.”
-- Dickson Watts, Speculation as a Fine Art and Thoughts on Life

Tu ne cede malis

Ludwig von Mises: "How one carries on in the face of unavoidable catastrophe is a matter of temperament. In high school, as was custom, I had chosen a verse by Virgil to be my motto: Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it. I recalled these words during the darkest hours of the war. Again and again I had met with situations from which rational deliberation found no means of escape; but then the unexpected intervened, and with it came salvation. I would not lose courage even now. I wanted to do everything an economist could do. I would not tire in saying what I knew to be true." - Notes and Recollections

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine: In Memoriam

2009-06-09 | “Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”
Thomas Paine

“To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.”
Thomas Paine

“He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.”
Thomas Paine

“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”
Thomas Paine