Top 100 Quigley Quotes
#1. The social sciences are usually concerned with groups of persons rather than individual persons. The behavior of individuals, being free, is unpredictable.
Carroll Quigley
#2. Too often, advances in civil rights or women's rights are undermined by wrong-headed legislation or weak-kneed political leadership.
Mike Quigley
#3. I don't buy that there's nothing we can do to stop criminals and the mentally ill from killing if they want to.
Mike Quigley
#4. The history of the last century shows, as we shall see later, that the advice given to governments by bankers, like the advice they gave to industrialists, was consistently good for bankers, but was often disastrous for governments, businessmen, and the people generally.
Carroll Quigley
#6. There is such a thing as commonsense middle-ground gun reform, and most gun owners support it.
Mike Quigley
#7. Duane: We are not enemies! We are Aldishmen! Aumut vaosa -- six years I've longed for a Tainish word from a friendly tongue!
Quigley: Keep longing.
Ashley Cope
#8. I am now quite sure that Tragedy and Hope was suppressed although I do not know why or by whom
Carroll Quigley
#9. In addition to their power over government based on government financing and personal influence, bankers could steer governments in ways they wished them to go by other pressures.
Carroll Quigley
#10. Capitalism might be defined, if we wish to be scientific, as a form of economic organization motivated by the pursuit of profit within a price structure.
Carroll Quigley
#11. Western civilization presents one of the most difficult tasks for historical analysis, because it is not yet finished, because we are a part of it and lack perspective, and because it presents considerable variation from our pattern of historical change.
Carroll Quigley
#12. A civilization is complicated, in the first place, because it is dynamic; that is, it is constantly changing in the passage of time, until it has perished.
Carroll Quigley
#13. People go into a gallery, and they're afraid to express their opinions about art. No one's afraid to say, 'Keanu Reeves was bad in that movie.' We see so many films that we can tell who's faking it. But with art, we can't always tell.
William Quigley
#14. One of my earlier films is 'Quigley Down Under.' That was early on in my career, and that was horsey.
Ben Mendelsohn
#15. There were people who said the Society of Cincinnati in the American revolution, of which George Washington was one of the shining lights, was a branch of the Illuminati.
Carroll Quigley
#16. Thus, the use of fiat money is more justifiable in financing a depression than in financing a war.
Carroll Quigley
#17. When goods are exchanged between countries, they must be paid for by commodities or gold. They cannot be paid for by the notes, certificates, and checks of the purchaser's country, since these are of value only in the country of issue.
Carroll Quigley
#18. It is not easy to tear any event out of the context of the universe in which it occurred without detaching from it some factor that influenced it.
Carroll Quigley
#19. I introduced the Transparency in Government Act, a multi-faceted transparency bill that would bring unprecedented access and accountability to the federal government.
Mike Quigley
#20. No scientist ever believes that he has the final answer or the ultimate truth on anything.
Carroll Quigley
#21. We can be just as safe with a smaller, more efficient nuclear arsenal at less cost.
Mike Quigley
#22. In fact, violence as a symbol of our growing irrationality has had an increasing role in activity for its own sake, when no possible justification could be made that the activity was seeking to resolve a problem.
Carroll Quigley
#23. I am committed to working towards a more transparent, accountable, and ethical federal government worthy of the public's trust.
Mike Quigley
#24. Art should be witty, like a good Eddie Murphy movie, to make your life a little easier and better.
William Quigley
#25. The West believes that man and the universe are both complex and that the apparently discordant parts of each can be put into a reasonably workable arrangement with a little good will, patience, and experimentation.
Carroll Quigley
#26. I'm a longtime believer in the old adage that sunlight is the best disinfectant, particularly in politics.
Mike Quigley
#27. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups.
Carroll Quigley
#28. From high school, you can see my Sierra Club card - I've been a member since 1979. That gives you an indication of early interest.
Mike Quigley
#29. Opening up the Capitol dome and giving the public a look at the inner workings of Congress - however messy they may be - certainly won't be pretty. But trust isn't earned by showing off only your Sunday best. The dirty laundry has to be aired, too.
Mike Quigley
#30. To know is not too demanding: it merely requires memory and time. But to understand is quite a different matter: it requires intellectual ability and training, a self conscious awareness of what one is doing, experience in techniques of analysis and synthesis, and above all, perspective.
Carroll Quigley
#31. Each individual in a society is a nexus where innumerable relationships of this character intersect.
Carroll Quigley
#32. On this basis, which was originally financial and goes back to George Peabody, there grew up in the twentieth century a power structure between London and New York which penetrated deeply into university life, the press, and the practice of foreign policy.
Carroll Quigley
#33. Civilizations evolve over time, and most scholars of civilization, including people like Carol Quigley, argue that they go through periods of warring states, and eventually evolve into a universal state.
Samuel P. Huntington
#34. My outspoken positions haven't always been popular in the halls of Congress, but they have been rooted in what I believed was right and necessary.
Mike Quigley
#35. I've seen it with my own eyes: When government takes money from the poor and the middle class, everyone suffers.
Mike Quigley
#36. A society is a group whose members have more relationships with one another then they do with outsiders.
Carroll Quigley
#37. The traditional Christian attitude toward human personality was that human nature was essentially good and that it was formed and modified by social pressures and training.
Carroll Quigley
#38. I didn't want to miss another second of that night, when I knew heaven and earth had been moved because a Father loved me.
Nicole Quigley
#39. Just the circumstances of being in D.C., people give you books, and there are issues you want to learn more about, so you are tearing into as many as you can.
Mike Quigley
#40. It is this power structure which the Radical Right in the United States has been attacking for years in the belief that they are attacking the Communists.
Carroll Quigley
#41. The process by which civilization, as an abstract entity distinct from the societies in which it is embodied, dies or is reborn is a very significant one.
Carroll Quigley
#42. Anyone who has ever asked for directions knows you need two crucial pieces of information to get good results: a starting point and a destination.
Mike Quigley
#43. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so.
Carroll Quigley
#44. The very idea that there is some kind of conflict between science and religion is completely mistaken. Science is a method for investigating experience ... Religion is the fundamental, necessary internalization of our system of more permanent values.
Carroll Quigley
#45. When we approach history, we are dealing with a conglomeration of irrational continua. Those who deal with history by nonrational processes are the ones who make history, the actors in it.
Carroll Quigley
#46. To this day the Arab influence is evident in southern Italy, northern Africa and, above all, in Spain.
Carroll Quigley
#47. I never wanted to be someone who's asking someone to put my work in their gallery. I wanted to be asked.
William Quigley
#48. A state is not the same thing as a society, although the Greeks and Romans thought it was. A state is an organization of power on a territorial basis.
Carroll Quigley
#49. Passionately defending one's principles is crucial. Representing your district is fundamental. But refusing to entertain the common ground - with no other cost but giving the other guy a political 'win' - is a disservice.
Mike Quigley
#50. It is clear that every civilization undergoes a process of historical change. We can see that a civilization comes into existence, passes through a long experience, and eventually goes out of existence.
Carroll Quigley
#51. Very lovely indeed
- Quigley responding to Violet's comment about the view, while actually looking at her.
Lemony Snicket
#52. Josh had said the only difference between the church girls and me was that they had been forgive. Even after I'd asked for it, it felt too easy, too convenient. A prayer, a faith that gave them some relationship with God, a God who is invisible to everyone else?
Nicole Quigley
#53. Hitler's economic revolution in Germany had reduced financial considerations to a point where they played no role in economic or political decisions.
Carroll Quigley
#54. (after Quigley deduces Duane is undead, and says he must not be a legitimate human.)
Duane: "Legitimate?!" Plat, shall I legitimately drop you from another cliff?!
Ashley Cope
#55. This persistence as private firms continued because it ensured the maximum of anonymity and secrecy to persons of tremendous public power who dreaded public knowledge of their activities as an evil almost as great as inflation.
Carroll Quigley
#56. As a policy maker, I have to stand up for the rights of all my constituents, regardless of their faith.
Mike Quigley
#57. The people of Chicago have made it very clear that they favor sensible restrictions on gun ownership.
Mike Quigley
#58. Our Founding Fathers drafted the Bill of Rights to ensure that We the People could determine how best to protect our communities.
Mike Quigley
#59. Ironically enough, why I got into politics is because I came to the conclusion that if you wanted to save the world, which in my mind was through the environment, those elected officials seemed to be the ones who made a lot of the important decisions, if not the most important decisions.
Mike Quigley
#60. (after Quigley explains that the ghosts have been feeding off of their misery)
Toma: So, what, we should think happy thoughts?!
Duane: That is not a talent of mine.
Ashley Cope
#61. The failure of Christianity in the areas west from Sicily was even greater, and was increased by the spread of Arab outlooks and influence to that area, and especially to Spain.
Carroll Quigley
#62. The instrument of expansion of Classical civilization was a social organization, slavery.
Carroll Quigley
#63. I spent 10 years fighting for reform in Cook County, and I didn't change my DNA when I got to Washington.
Mike Quigley
#64. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers.
Carroll Quigley
#65. The Council on Foreign Relations is the American branch of a society which originated in England ... [and] ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established.
Carroll Quigley
#66. Since 2001, I've done what every elected official should be doing in government right now. My staff and I took a look at the books, thought outside the box and proposed reforms.
Mike Quigley
#67. Quigley (to Duane): My business is not your business, whether you ask after it in Tainish or interpretive dance.
Ashley Cope
#68. We can't allow ourselves to descend down the rabbit hole of unbridled partisanship for partisan sake.
Mike Quigley
#69. Bolshevism presented itself as an economic threat to themselves at the same time that Nazism presented itself as a political threat to their countries.
Carroll Quigley
#70. He was now my world, and I vowed to do everything I possibly could to protect him.
Ashley Quigley
#71. Growing up during the Cold War, I remember the seemingly imminent threat of nuclear war. In primary school we were taught to 'duck-and-cover' for protection. But even as children hiding under wooden desks, we recognized the inadequacies of this strategy.
Mike Quigley
#72. The difference between a stable society and an unstable one is that the restraints in an unstable one are external. In a stable society government ultimately becomes unnecessary; the restraints on people's actions are internal, they're self-disciplined ...
Carroll Quigley
#73. When the business interests ... pushed through the first installment of civil service reform in 1883, they expected that they would be able to control both political parties equally.
Carroll Quigley
#74. I love Boston. I come here all the time and play pick-up ice hockey with friends in Concord and Bedford.
William Quigley
#75. Empowering women by allowing them to choose when and how many children to have is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.
Mike Quigley
#76. Honest to goodness, Brian Campbell, he was holding the Cup, and there was no one around for a minute. He says, 'Hold this for a second.' So he hands it to me - one of the best moments of my life.
Mike Quigley
#77. It is also in theory, conceivable that some universal empire some day might cover the whole globe, leaving no external "barbarians" to serve as invaders.
Carroll Quigley
#78. I like to take out the recycling because I actually feel like I'm doing something.
Mike Quigley
#79. A community is made up of intimate relationships among diversified types of individuals
a kinship group, a local group, a neighborhood, a village, a large family.
Carroll Quigley
#80. Even today few scientists and perhaps even fewer nonscientists realize that science is a method and nothing else.
Carroll Quigley
#81. During my time in Washington, I have become increasingly frustrated by the power held by the gun lobby.
Mike Quigley
#82. As the largest contributor to the United Nations and funder of international family planning, the U.S. is in a unique position to continue to lead the global agenda and place reproductive health at its core.
Mike Quigley
#83. There are some people who you've got to stay away from. They can't help themselves; they are just genetically programmed to screw you over.
Mindy Quigley
#84. Ever since I arrived in Washington in April 2009, I have been fighting for more transparency and accountability in government.
Mike Quigley
#85. Whether I'm reading a national publication or one of my local Chicago newspapers, I don't need to turn too many pages before I stumble upon another scandal. Not only do ethics violations deteriorate the public trust, but they also disrupt and undermine legitimate debate and policy.
Mike Quigley
#86. Each central banksought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.
Carroll Quigley
#87. Protection of religious freedom means considering the faiths and beliefs of everyone involved.
Mike Quigley
#88. A fully integrated culture would be like the dinosaurs, which had to perish because they were no longer able to adapt themselves to changes in the external environment.
Carroll Quigley
#89. I didn't deserve a friend like this, who loved me for no reason--- who loved me despite my mistakes. I caught my breath as the thought entered my mind. Could God love me this way too? If Josh was going to jump off this boat and trust in God to save us, couldn't I trust him as well?
Nicole Quigley
#90. I did 'Quigley Down Under,' which is quite deliberately placed in Australia, which is a Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman, Laura San Giacomo film from '88, I want to say.
Ben Mendelsohn
#91. The basis of social relationships is reciprocity: if you cooperate with others, others will cooperate with you.
Carroll Quigley
#92. By the winter of 1945-1946, the Russian peoples were being warned of the dangers from the West.
Carroll Quigley
#93. One of the chief reasons for the widespread fear of the Huns rested on their ability to travel very long distances in relatively short periods. This ability may well have been based on their use of horseshoes.
Carroll Quigley
#94. Scaling back the U.S. fleet of 14 nuclear-armed submarines to eight would maintain a robust deterrent at sea while generating billions in savings and easing pressure on the Navy's shipbuilding budget.
Mike Quigley
#95. We need to replace hyperbole with a reasonable, informed discussion about how to reinvent the federal budget with more transparency and better accountability.
Mike Quigley
#96. Just as we can no longer pretend that ducking under wooden desks will keep us safe from a nuclear bomb, we must no longer pretend that a large nuclear stockpile will protect us from the most immediate security threats the United States faces.
Mike Quigley
#97. The problem of meaning today is the problem of how the diverse and superficially self-contradictory experiences of men can be put into a consistent picture that will provide contemporary man with a convincing basis from which to live and to act.
Carroll Quigley
#98. Our political organization, based as it is on an eighteenth-century separation of powers and on a nineteenth-century nationalist state, is generally recognized to be semiobselete.
Carroll Quigley
#99. As a husband and a father of two daughters, I want young women around the globe to have the same rights and opportunities as my daughters.
Mike Quigley
#100. Before being elected to Congress, I oversaw the Cook County Hospital System as a Cook County Commissioner for 10 years.
Mike Quigley
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top