It occurred to me that while our government debates the degree to which we will give up the American Ideal and thus become our enemy (by legalizing torture and/or doing away with Habeas Corpus)... that Voltaire probably had something sage to add to the discussion...
After the break, words as wise today as they were some 350 odd years ago...
Voltaire:
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
"Common sense is not so common."
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
"Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them."
"It is said that the present is pregnant with the future."
"There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."
"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible."
"The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice."
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it."
"Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies."
"It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce."
"Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference."
"Prejudices are what fools use for reason."
"It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one."
"All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God."
"The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it."
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
"The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days."
"Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do."
Amen