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of the Taxpayer's Dollar Since 1956
Fairfax VA
The  FAIRFAX COUNTY TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE
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Updated January 8, 2005

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QUOTES TO PONDER

... what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

James Madison, The Federalist

I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers.. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

Thomas Jefferson

In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.

Abraham Lincoln, Auigust 21, 1858

. . . (A) wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, . . .

Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1800

On Government Spending

Nothing is cheap that is superfluous,
for what one does not need is dear at a penny.

Plutarch

Ere you consult your fancy, consult your purse

B. Franklin

On a Citizen's duties 

A little rebellion now and then . . . is a medicine
necessary for the sound health of government. 

Thomas Jefferson

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

Upon the education of the people the fate of this country depends.

B. Disraeli

When Government wants to spend more,
taxpayers have to decide where to spend less.

Experience

The tyranny of a prince is not so dangerous to the public welfare
as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

Montesquieu, 1748

On Politicians

The power to tax involves the power to destroy.
John Marshall

  • What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.
    J. W. von Goethe

  • The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, (and thence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with a whole series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary
    • H. L. Menkin

  • How much cost us the evils that never happened.
    Thomas Jefferson

  • No man's life, liberty or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.
    • Ambrose Bierce

  • The grand fallacy of the political left is that decisions are better made by third parties who pay no price for being wrong. Much of the 20th century has been taken up proving how tragically mistaken that theory is, all around the world. But those who want to be the third party decision makers still remain undaunted.
    Thomas Sowell
    7 Mar 1999 Washington Times

    Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance