#AGRICULTURE
Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.
Socrates, c.470–c.399BC, Athenian philosopher
Grain is the currency of currencies.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin, 1870–1924, Russian Marxist revolutionary and political theorist
The farmer will never be happy again;
He carries his heart in his boots;
For either the rain is destroying his grain
Or the drought is destroying his roots.
A. P. Herbert, 1890–1971, ‘The Farmer’, 1922
Kansas had better stop raising corn and begin raising hell.
Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1853–1933, American orator and agrarian reformer (attrib.)
No one hates his job so heartily as a farmer.
H. L. Mencken, 1880–1956, American essayist and critic
A farm is an irregular patch of nettles bounded by short-term notes, containing a fool and his wife who didn’t know enough to stay in the city.
S. J. Perelman, 1904–79, American humorist
No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs, or has not been around a manure pile.
Harry S. Truman, 1884–1972, 33rd President of the United States, 1945–53
Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890–1969, 34th President of the United States, 1953–61
He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding, rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism.
Joseph Heller, 1923–99,Catch 22, 1961
#AID
Foreign Aid – taxing poor people in rich countries for the benefit of rich people in poor countries.
Bernard Rosenberg, 1923–96, Professor of Sociology, City College, New York, editor ofDissent magazine
Humanitarian aid in the US has begun arriving in Lebanon. The US Government sent 10,000 medical kits, 20,000 blankets, $30 million cash, and today the people of New Orleans said: ‘They didwhat?’
Jay Leno, late-night talk-show host, 2006
It is easy to be conspicuously ‘compassionate’ if others are being forced to pay the cost.
Murray Rothbard, 1926–95, American economist, historian and political theorist
No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good.
Mandell Creighton, 1843–1901, British historian and Bishop of London
She’s the sort of woman who lives for others. You can always tell the others by their hunted expression!
C. S. Lewis, 1898–1963, British novelist, poet and theologian
High-toned humanitarians constantly overestimate the sufferings of those they sympathise with.
H. L. Mencken,Minority Report, 1956
#AMERICA AND AMERICANS
I am willing to love all mankind – except an American.
Samuel Johnson, 1709–84, English essayist, editor and lexicographer
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
Thomas Jefferson, 1743–1826, 3rd President of the United States, 1801–09
In the United S
