I thought it might be of interest to once again post this quote by John Adams. A warning that many seem not to remember...

"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt."
- John Adams 1735-1826

I thought it might be of interest if everyone would post a quote from the past, warnings that we ignored and are now reaping the consequences of.

I feel it most appropriate to be the first to post Santayana's famous aphorism
"the one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again"

This is inscribed on a plaque at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

How long until we are the ones looking out from behind such a fence?

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

Thomas Jefferson

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. ~Jonathan Swift, The Drapier's Letter

Some 225 years ago, as an aged Benjamin Franklin departed from the Constitutional Convention of 1787, a woman in the street called out: "Well Doctor Franklin, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin replied back: "a republic, if you can keep it".

Democracy is the road to socialism.-- Karl Marx


How often do we here "democracy" spoken highly of from our elected tyrants?

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

and my favorite

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill

And this one which John Adams warned

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.

“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot...”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon

“It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Friday

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers,
the special interests.
An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

Woodrow Wilson