[lbo-talk] happiness pays?

[Josh Narins]

> On Apr 1, 2006, at 8:15 PM, Marta Russell wrote:
> 
> >That surprises the hell out of me.
> 
> As well it should--I was indulging myself in an April Fool's lie. (I'm 
> pretty sure it's really Patrick Henry or Thomas Paine or one of those 
> guys--probably Paine.) It just sort of reminded me, in the start, of 
> Goldwater's "Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice" (my slogan 
> being "Vice in the pursuit of liberty is not necessarily extreme, 
> though it's more fun when it is").

http://www.bartleby.com/73/1073.html

Technically the quote is from Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist, in
1852.

It's often attributed to Jefferson, but no corroboration in his papers
has been found. Also often attributed to Patrick Henry.

Anyway, it reminds me of the role of information in a popular
government, and how America in 1776 was the #2 newspaper-reading society
in world history. Sweden, at some point, beat that record.