“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Chapter V Applied Idealism http://www.bartleby.com/55/5.html
1910s, Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography (1913)

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Theodore Roosevelt 445

American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858–1919

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

Property (1935)
Context: Sufficient private property in users' commodities is dependent upon the abolition of private property in primary means of production and distribution. With less private property, we may have more private property and make available plenty for everyone.

“The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) United States Supreme Court justice

Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (3 March 1919).
1910s

“Cartridge firearms are compact vehicles for change that have shaped modern history. The righteousness of their use is entirely up to their users, since like any other tool they can be used both for good or for ill. A firearm is just a tool with no volition. A rifle is no different than a claw hammer. To wit: A hammer can be used to build a house, or it can be used to bash in someone’s skull—the choice of uses is entirely up to the owner. A bulldozer can be used to build roads, or to destroy houses. A rifle can be used to drill holes in paper targets, or to dispatch a marauding bear, or to murder your fellow man. Again, the choice of uses is entirely up to the user.”

James Wesley Rawles (1960) Survivalist-fiction author and blogger

Source: Tools For Survival (2009), P.149

“The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Lecture IV
Lectures on Art (1870)
Context: The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful, or impressive it may be in itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects, — either to state a true thing, or to adorn a serviceable one.

“For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Christopher Hibbert, as quoted in Benito Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce (1965) p. 40
Undated

“Knowledge is a tool, and like all tools, its impact is in the hands of the user.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

“Collective intelligence. Think of how Wikipedia works, how Amazon harnesses user annotation on its site, the way photo-sharing sites like Flickr are bleeding out into other applications… We're entering an era in which software learns from its users and all of the users are connected.”

Tim O'Reilly (1954) Irish computer programmer

When asked "What innovation will most alter how we live in the next few years, as quoted in TIME magazine (24 October 2005)

“The prosperity and advancement of a nation depend upon its intelligentsia”

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) Founder and 1st Governor General of Pakistan

Speech (24 December 1940), published in Some Recent Speeches and Writings of Mr. Jinnah (1947), Vol. 1
Message on Pakistan Day, issued from Delhi (23 March 1943)
Context: The prosperity and advancement of a nation depend upon its intelligentsia, and Muslim India is looking forward to her young generation and education classes to give a bold lead for our guidance and a brilliant record of historical achievements and traditions.

“Surely the human race is at last reaching the stage of adulthood — that adulthood of character which does not depend upon physical age at all — so that it is deliberately embracing responsibility for its own development and government, and trying to face up to the causes of its failures?”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII

“No matter what he does, one always forgives him. It does not depend upon looks, either – although this actual person is abominably good-looking – it does not depend upon intelligence or character or – anything – as you say, it is just "it."”

Elinor Glyn (1864–1943) British novelist and scriptwriter

The Man and the Moment (1914), ch. 7.

“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

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Theodore Roosevelt 445

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