Category: Friday Quote

Peace is not merely the absence of violence, but the presence of justice.

I heard this in Ghost In the Shell. From my research, it’s a derivative of a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

This is how I judge when someone calls for peace. Will there be real peace, or merely a cessation of conflict? One of those lessons learned by studying history is that a peace without justice inevitably leads back to war, and usually a more bitter war.

The political left’s welfare state makes poverty more comfortable, while penalizing attempts to rise out of poverty. Unless we believe that some people are predestined to be poor, the left’s agenda is a disservice to them, as well as to society.

Dr. Thomas Sowell, economist

I understand the human need to alleviate suffering, but I believe the way is to provide opportunities for people to succeed. My brother often says “A hand up, not a hand out.” I think that tends to summarize my idea of charity as well.

Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

George Washington, First President of the United States, in his Farewell Address

If these last two weeks have proved anything, it is that our national-security complex (military establishments) have clearly decided that our individual liberties are less important than their need for information. What’s worse, a majority of Americans seem to agree with them.