Compulsory Quotes

• A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.

  Isabel Paterson

  Education, Historical, Liberty

  Isabel Paterson (1993). “God of the Machine”, p.258, Transaction Publishers

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.

  Edward Abbey

  Pro Life, Abortion, Want

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.44, RosettaBooks

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• Learning is not compulsory; it's voluntary... But to survive, we must learn.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Inspirational, Leadership, Education

  "Deming: The Way We Knew Him". Book by Frank Voehl, February 28, 1995.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

  Garrison Keillor

  Love, Funny, Christmas

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• Lesbian existence comprises both the breaking of a taboo and the rejection of a compulsory way of life. It is also a direct or indirect attack on the male right of access to women.

  Adrienne Rich

  Rejection, Males, Heterosexuality

  Adrienne Rich (1994). “Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985”, p.38, W. W. Norton & Company

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Liberty, Opinion, Achieve

  West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette (1943)

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.

  Abbie Hoffman

  Peace, War, Military

  Quoted in James Charlton, The Military Quotation Book (1990)

  76 Copy quote

  Show source

• The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Education, School, People

  19 Copy quote

• I love Brazilians. Brazilians ought to be made compulsory at 15.

  Victoria Beckham

  Made, Ought

  7 Copy quote

• Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

  Plato

  Wisdom, Plato, Educational

  Plato (1977). “The Portable Plato”, p.349, Penguin

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Mistress, Instinct, Forbidden

  "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress". Book by Robert A. Heinlein, 1966.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - have ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled.

  John Taylor

  Teacher, Children, College

  6 Copy quote

• Getting old is horrible, but it is interesting . . . one of the things I've realized is that growing old is compulsory, but growing up is optional.

  Sebastian Horsley

  Growing Up, Interesting, Horrible

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I'd proposed solving the pension problem by compulsory euthanasia for every fifth pensioner I'd have got less trouble for it.

  Tony Blair

  Problem, Trouble, Euthanasia

  4 Copy quote

• Being wealthy is often a powerful predictor that people spend less time doing pleasurable things and more time doing compulsory things and feeling stressed.

  Daniel Kahneman

  Powerful, People, Feelings

  14 Copy quote

• Compulsory obedience to a master is a state of slavery, willing obedience to one's father is the glory of son ship.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Father, Son, Slavery

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1986). “The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Resistance and Social Transformation”, Clarendon Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We usually spend one hour per week on ballet but Marta Karolyi has us do a lot of compulsory floor in the morning practice.

  Kristie Phillips

  Morning, Gymnastics, Practice

  5 Copy quote

• Leisure may be defined as free activity, labor as compulsory activity. Leisure does what it likes, labor does what it must, the compulsion being that of Nature, which in these latitudes leaves men no choice between labor and starvation.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Life, Success, Nature

  7 Copy quote

• Continued adherence to a policy of compulsory education is utterly incompatible with efforts to establish lasting peace.

  Ludwig von Mises

  School, Effort, Adherence

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Dinner was ready. Professor Lidenbrock did full justice to it, for his compulsory fast on board had turned his stomach into an unfathomable gulf.

  Jules Verne

  Justice, Boards, Dinner

  Jules Verne (1965). “Journey to the centre of the earth”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Cutting, Eugenics, Waiting

  Buck v. Bell (1927)

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Filipinos are not a reading people, and despite the compulsory course on the life and works of Rizal today, from the elementary to the university levels, it is accepted that the 'Noli me Tangere' and 'El Filibusterismo' are highly regarded but seldom read (if not totally ignored). Therefore one asks, how can unread novels exert any influence?

  Ambeth R. Ocampo

  Reading, People, Levels

  16 Copy quote

• 13.5 Mrs. Wolfe asks whether Mr. Iqbal expects her Susan to undertake compulsory headstands. 13.6 Mr. Iqbal infers that, considering Susan's academic performance and weight problems, a headstand regime might be desirable.

  Zadie Smith

  Weight Problems, Might, Academic

  Zadie Smith (2003). “White Teeth”, p.107, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission.

  Prince

  Artist, Law, Records

  "Prince Wants Cover Songs Outlawed: What's the Best Cover Song of All Time?". www.foxnews.com. April 26, 2011.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Consider Social Security. The young have always contributed to the support of the old. Earlier, the young helped their own parents out of a sense of love and duty. They now contribute to the support of someone else's parents out of compulsion and fear. The voluntary transfers strengthened the bonds of the family; the compulsory transfers weaken those bonds.

  Milton Friedman

  Support, Parent, Liberty

  Milton Friedman, William Richard Allen (1983). “Bright promises, dismal performance: an economist's protest”, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source