C. Ikehara: Reviving Historical Quotations

[C. Ikehara has been a Librarian for over ten years. His Masters Degree in Library Science is from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.]

Is this what spreading global democracy is all about?:
- It has always been true that the men who were defending Western ideals were bound to be in alliance with men who intended to defend only Western interests. (Henry Butterfield)

Does this help to explain the current economic crisis?:
- As great edifices collapse of their own weight, so Heaven sets a similar limit to the growth of prosperous states. (Lucan)

Is this why so many are in economic trouble?:
- All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income. (Samuel Butler)

For those who are optimistic about the economy:
- Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem. (Woody Allen)

Is this how Obama feels about dealing with dictators?:
- Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

Is McCain up to something?:
- Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill. (Greek proverb)

Is this what McCain is trying to prove?:
- Never run against a war hero. (Adlai Stevenson)

Does Palin need to see a psychiatrist for calling the Iraq War "God's war"?:
- To profess to be doing God's will is a form of megalomania. (Joseph Prescott)

Is she slowly realizing that the honeymoon is over?:
- The tumultous love of the populace must be seized and enjoyed in its first transports...; it will not keep. (Lord Chesterfield)

Does this apply to flip-flopping?:
- There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others. (Michel de Montaigne)

Are you unimpressed with political candidates these days?:
- It is not obligatory for a generation to have great men. (Ortega Y Gasset)

Do political candidates know something we don't know?:
- The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he. (Karl Kraus)

Is politics now all about winning elections?:
- The qualities that get a man into power are not those that lead him, once established, to use power wisely. (Lyman Bergson)

What are there so many problems in the world?:
- If mankind had wished for what is right they might have had it a long time ago. (William Hazlitt)