I shudder at the very thought of being born again into this world. Life to me . . . has been a monstrous, painful, agonizing affair, and the idea of repeating such an existence - even if better in a way - is horrifying to me. . . . I gratefully look forward to oblivion, but I must be sure of it.

Taylor Caldwell

Categorized in : Ideas World Looks

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Taylor Caldwell

arrogance government people

Don't let the past steal your present. This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone.

Taylor Caldwell

holiday christmas past

Mankind adores its betrayers, and murders its saviors.

Taylor Caldwell

mankind adore murder

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.

Taylor Caldwell

family christmas night

The nature of human beings never changes; it is immutable. The present generation of children and the present generation of young adults from the age of thirteen to eighteen is, therefore, no different from that of their great-great-grandparents. Political fads come and go; theories rise and fall; the scientific 'truth' of today becomes the discarded error of tomorrow.

Taylor Caldwell

grandparent children fall

It is a stern fact of history that no nation that rushed to the abyss ever turned back. Not ever, in the long history of the world. We are now on the edge of the abyss. Can we, for the first time in history, turn back? It is up to you.

Taylor Caldwell

up-to-you long world

We, perhaps, have corrupted our children and our grandchildren by heedless affluence, by a lack of manliness, by giving the younger generation more money and liberty than their youth can handle, by indoctrinating them with sinister ideologies and false values, by permitting them, as young children, to indulge themselves in imprudence to superiors and defiance of duly constituted authority, by lack of prudent, swift punishment when the transgressed, by coddling and pampering them when they were children and protecting them from a very dangerous world.

Taylor Caldwell

dangerous-world parenting children

It is inevitable, that eventually the people will demand absolute security from the state... And absolute security is absolute slavery.

Taylor Caldwell

slavery demand people

Learning should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of the noble and the learned.

Taylor Caldwell

joy adventure travel

You see, when a nation threatens another nation the people of the latter forget their factionalism, their local antagonisms, their political differences, their suspicions of each other, their religious hostilities, and band together as one unit. Leaders know that, and that is why so many of them whip up wars during periods of national crisis, or when the people become discontented and angry. This is the explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all massacres, and all attempts at genocide.

Taylor Caldwell

political-differences religious war

I like animals because they are not consciously cruel and don't betray each other.

Taylor Caldwell

betrayal betrayed animal

Corrupt citizens breed corrupt rulers, and it is the mob who finally decides when virtue shall die.

Taylor Caldwell

dies virtue citizens

Freedom was given to humanity by God. But, governments, if they can help it, never give freedom. They just hand out slavery with slogans.

Taylor Caldwell

government giving hands

A wise man distrusts his neighbor. A wiser man distrusts both his neighbor and himself. The wisest man of all distrusts his government.

Taylor Caldwell

neighbor wise men

There is no solid satisfaction in any career for a woman like myself. There is no home, no true freedom, no hope, no joy, no expectation for tomorrow, no contentment. I would rather cook a meal for a man and bring him his slippers and feel myself in the protection of his arms than have all the citations and awards and honors I have received worldwide, including the Ribbon of Legion of Honor and my property and my bank accounts. They mean nothing to me. And I am only one among the millions of sad women like myself.

Taylor Caldwell

women home mean

Giving a phenomenon a label does not explain it.

Taylor Caldwell

labels doe giving

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Taylor Caldwell

rome freedom work

Men who retain irony are not to be trusted. They can't always resist an impulse to tickle themselves.

Taylor Caldwell

irony impulse men

I am the skeptic of skeptics.

Taylor Caldwell

skeptic

It is human nature to instinctively rebel at obscurity or ordinariness.

Taylor Caldwell

obscurity rebel human-nature