Life is a thin narrowness of taken-for-granted, a plank over a canyon in a fog. Rose Wilder Lane More Quotes by Rose Wilder Lane More Quotes From Rose Wilder Lane One thing I hate about the New Deal is that it is killing what, to me, is the American pioneering spirit. I simply do not know what to tell my own boys, leaving school and confronting this new world whose ideal is Security and whose practice is dependence upon government instead of upon one's self. All the old character-values seem simply insane from a practical point of view; the self-reliant, the independent, the courageous man is penalized from every direction. Rose Wilder Lane independenthateschool Anyone who says that economic security is a human right, has been to much babied. While he babbles, other men are risking and losing their lives to protect him. They are fighting the sea, fighting the land, fighting disease and insects and weather and space and time, for him, while he chatters that all men have a right to security and that some pagan god—Society, The State, The Government, The Commune—must give it to them. Let the fighting men stop fighting this inhuman earth for one hour, and he will learn how much security there is. Rose Wilder Lane fightingspacemen As an American I am of course fundamentally opposed to democracy and to anyone advocating or defending democracy, which in theory and practice is the basis of socialism. Rose Wilder Lane socialismdemocracypractice Men in Government monopolize the necessary use of force; they are not using their energies productively; they are not milking cows. To get butter, they must use guns; they have nothing else to use. Rose Wilder Lane necessary-usegunmen Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don't even remember leaving open. Rose Wilder Lane gratitudehappyhappiness No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men. Rose Wilder Lane doemenfacts What I can't understand is, how can anybody figure now that the government can support us, when we support the government. Rose Wilder Lane supportfiguresgovernment There is a city myth that country life was isolated and lonely; the truth is that farmers and their families then had a richer social life than they have now. They enjoyed a society organic, satisfying and whole, not mixed and thinned with the life of town, city and nation as it now is. Rose Wilder Lane lonelycitiescountry Nothing whatever but the constitutional law, the political structure, of these United States protects any American from arbitrary seizure of his property and his person, from the Gestapo and the Storm Troops, from the concentration camp, the torture chamber, the revolver at the back of his neck in a cellar. Rose Wilder Lane politicalgovernmentlaw I am now a fundamentalist American; give me time and I will tell you why individualism, laissez-faire and the slightly restrained anarchy of capitalism offer the best opportunities for the development of the human spirit. Rose Wilder Lane laissez-faire-capitalismopportunitygiving The need for Government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary, there is no need for Government. Rose Wilder Lane unnecessarygovernmentneeds We are never aware of the present; each instant of living becomes perceptible only when it is past, so that in a sense we do not live at all, but only remember living. Rose Wilder Lane instantrememberpast It was not seen that woman's place was in the home until she began to go out of it; the statement was a reply to an unspoken challenge, it was attempted resistance to irresistible change. Rose Wilder Lane resistancechallengeshome The longest lives are short; our work lasts longer. Rose Wilder Lane lasts I'm not "filled with my art". I ain't got no art. I've got only a kind of craftsman's skill, and make stories as I make biscuits or embroider underwear or wrap up packages. Rose Wilder Lane underwearskillsart Our quilts were more than useful, they had the faint sentimentality of a pressed flower. And no more beauty. We did not value them for their appearance, but for the memories in them, for their good wearing qualities and the thrift they represented. Rose Wilder Lane quiltsflowermemories The Democratic Party is now a political mechanism having a genuine political principle: national socialism. Rose Wilder Lane politicalpartyprinciples no one in a group of three is the same person he (she, it) is in a group of two. No more than he is the same in a group of two as he is alone. Rose Wilder Lane groupsselftwo That way of life against which my generation rebelled had given us grim courage, fortitude, self-discipline, a sense of individual responsibility, and a capacity for relentless hard work. Rose Wilder Lane hard-workresponsibilityself The question is whether personal freedom is worth the terrible effort, the never-lifted burden and risks of self-reliance. Rose Wilder Lane effortriskself
