The Culdian publications say very little in the manner of politics and economics. In the case of The Kolbrin, it must be remembered that the common ancient man, particularly in the times and places discussed, had very little political or economic control, education, or power in or over his culture or nation’s destiny regarding these. This was the province of Kings, Pharaohs, Chiefs, Lords, and Elders. It would be inappropriate and out of place, even potentially dangerous, to discuss and pontificate on these subjects.
The Channeled Works contain wisdom from advanced beings with instruction on self-mastery, living a more balanced life, and a smattering of metaphysical cosmology which helps to put other instruction and goals into a larger perspective. Discussion of politics and economics, in their more specific sense, therefore do not apply to the Teachings of the Guides.
The Booklets back up and extend upon the previous two types of publication, and by this extension, do not require political or economic discussion generally to advance the stated goals of the Culdian Trust.
That is not to say that politics or economics is unimportant or that they should not be learned and discussed among us. On the contrary, they certainly should; however, they currently take a back seat and are of secondary importance to the Culdian goals of self-mastery, family and community health and balance, and awareness. Keep this in mind when studying these subjects, without letting political differences and ignorance divide those who would otherwise be their spiritual brothers and sisters. There is much still to learn on these subjects, especially as civilization advances, so let us discuss and debate with both skepticism and an open-mind, without unexamined prejudice towards old, unexamined, knee-jerk political assumptions. In other words, let us seek the Truth, wherever it leads us.
Below are a large collection of quotes taken from various American Founding Fathers. I have grouped most by author, and attempted to keep most of the themes together where possible. I have taken the most from Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the wisest and most educated of any American president; also the author of the Declaration of Independence and the founder of the University of Virginia. The second most quotes comes from James Madison, who succeeded Jefferson as president and who was also the ‘father’ or framer of the American Constitution. The third most quotes comes from Benjamin Franklin, who while never was a president, was the greatest diplomat and most politically shrewd of his generation, considered the most experienced and wise elder of the founding fathers, and among them all, was a true renaissance man of broad learning. The rest of the quotes (besides Thomas Paine) are mainly one-offs from various others of this time, all coming from men as learned, profound, and wise in their own ways.
I have decided to take these quotes specifically from the American Founding Fathers, who while far from perfect, helped to lay the political and economic framework which directly preceded the greatest advance of civilization in known history. This includes the industrial, technological, and information revolutions, the democratizing of the majority of the world through sheer example, and the biggest population boom and largest creation of wealth in known history. The examples are too numerous to list, and may be further discussed elsewhere on this sub-forum, but it should be clearly understood that the American revolution and its generation was a necessary antecedent to this gigantic leap forward in human civilization the world over.
Many of these quotes help to put our current situation in perspective, and a review of history may help to clarify political and economic laws which are all too often unlearned, forgotten or confused.
Feel free to comment on any of these quotes, but if you would prefer a full on discussion about any of these (or other) related concepts, please start a separate thread in this sub-forum.
– Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge. --James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, Circa1790
It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country. – Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. – Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. – Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. – Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. – Thomas Jefferson
Prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them – Thomas Jefferson
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. – Thomas Jefferson
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate. – Thomas Jefferson
It is a duty certainly to give our sparings to those who want; but to see also that they are faithfully distributed, and duly apportioned to the respective wants of those receivers. And why give through agents whom we know not, to persons whom we know not, and in countries from which we get no account, [let us instead give] where we can do it at short hand, to objects under our eye, through agents we know, and to supply wants we see? – Thomas Jefferson
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. – Thomas Jefferson
When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. – Thomas Jefferson
The States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore… never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market. – Thomas Jefferson
Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated. – Thomas Jefferson
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. – Thomas Jefferson
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? – Thomas Jefferson
If we were directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we would soon want for bread. – Thomas Jefferson
The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife. – Thomas Jefferson
On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed. – Thomas Jefferson
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. – Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. – Thomas Jefferson
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ (10th Amendment) To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition. – Thomas Jefferson
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. – Thomas Jefferson
He (King George III) has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. – Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. – Benjamin Franklin
When the people find that they can vote themselves other people’s money, that will herald the end of the republic. – Benjamin Franklin
Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. – Benjamin Franklin
He that lives upon hope will die fasting. – Benjamin Franklin
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. – James Madison
The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.†– James Madison
If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions. – James Madison
I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic — it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out. – James Madison
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. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
– James Madison
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. --James Madison
We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion Flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government. – James Madison
Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. – James Madison
There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. – James Madison
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. – Thomas Paine
If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute. – Thomas Paine
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness [rarity] only that gives every thing its value. – Thomas Paine
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. – George Washington
In the main it will be found that a power over a man’s support (salary) is a power over his will
– Alexander Hamilton
Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue. --John Witherspoon
Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness. – James Wilson
One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle. --James Otis
If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them. – Candidus, in the Boston Gazette, January 20, 1772
An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation. – John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819
Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. – Samuel Adams