"They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin "Instances of the licentious and outrageous behavior of the military conservators still multiply upon us, some of which are of such nature, and have been carried to so great lengths, as must serve fully to evince that a late vote of this town, calling upon its inhabitants to provide themselves with arms for their defence, was a measure as it was legal natural right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by the Bill of Rights, (the post-Cromwellian English bill of rights) to keep arms for their own defence; and as Mr. Blackstone observes, it is to be made use of when the sanctions of society and law are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression." - 'A Journal of the Times' (1768-1769) colonial Boston newspaper article "They tell us, Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power." - Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775 "Three millions of People, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, Sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us." - Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775 "The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!" - Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775 It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that Gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" - Patrick Henry (1736-1799) in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775 "The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some others them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them; ... the weak will become the prey to the strong." - Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1775). "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined." - Patrick Henry, speaking to the Virginia convention for the ratification of the constitution on the necessity of the right to keep and bear arms. "Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" - Patrick Henry, Philadelphia, 1836. Sentry: "Halt, who goes there?" Voice : "American." Sentry: "Advance and recite the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner." Voice : "I don't know it." Sentry: "Proceed, American." There are only three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. It is often easier to apologize for your actions than to ask permission to do those actions. Ships are very safe when in port. Unfortunately a ship's mission has nothing to do with staying in port! "War to the hilt between capitalism and communism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in 20 or 30 years. In order to win, we shall need the element of surprise. The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep, so we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash them with our clenched fist."-Quoted by Dmitri Z. Manuisky, Lenin School of Political Warfare (1931). "Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security." William F. Buckley "He that violates his oath profanes the Divinity of faith itself." - Cicero (found on LA City Hall) "Disperse you Rebels - Damn you, throw down your Arms and disperse." -- Maj. John Pitcairn, Lexington, MA, April 19, 1775 "Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people." -- Aristotle. Quoted by John Trenchard and Walter Moyle "An Argument Shewing, That a Standing Army Is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy" [London, 1697] The English nobleman came home early to find his wife with her lover. Angrily he reached for his shotgun and aimed at the interloper. Just then, his butler whispered in his ear, "You're a sportsman, sir; get him on the rise." Too often foreign aid is when the poor people of a rich nation send their money to the rich people of a poor nation. "Men that are above all Fear, soon grow above all Shame." -- John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon "Cato's Letters: Or, Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects" [London, 1755] [The American Colonies are] "all democratic governments, where the power is in the hands of the people and where there is not the least difficulty or jealousy about putting arms into the hands of every man in the country. [European countries should not] be ignorant of the strength and the force of such a form of government and how strenuously and almost wonderfully people living under one have sometimes exerted themselves in defence of their rights and liberties and how fatally it has ended with many a man and many a state who have entered into quarrels, wars and contests with them." -- George Mason from "Remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company" quoted from The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792 edited by Robert A. Rutland [Chapel Hill, 1972 "... The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both. ...Men worry less about doing an injury to one who makes himself loved than to one who makes himself feared. The bond of love is one which men, wretched creatures that they are, break when it is to their advantage to do so; but fear is strengthened by a dread of punishment which is always effective." -- Machivelli - The Prince; Chapter 17 In the arguments over the validity of the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, Dr. Albert Einstein uttered his now oft-quoted line, "God does not play dice with the Universe" but rarely quoted is Dr. Neils Bohr's response, "Albert, stop telling God what to do." "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure." -- Albert Einstein "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." -- Winston Spencer Churchill Address at Harrow School, October 29, 1941 "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." -- Winston Spencer Churchill "...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious." -- Joseph Goebbels - Nazi Propaganda Minister "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." - Joseph Goebbels - Nazi Propaganda Minister God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." -- Daniel Webster "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke "Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows" - Franklin D. Roosevelt "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." - Thomas Paine "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. depart, i say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" - Oliver Cromwell in dissolving Parliament, 1653 "If the laws of the Union were oppressive, they could not carry them into effect, if the people were possessed of the proper means of defence." - William Lenoir "A cardinal rule of bureaucracy is that it is better to extend an error than to admit a mistake." - Colin Greenwood "We, the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts - not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution." - A. Lincoln "If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Ark. Supreme Court, 1878 "The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." - Senator Hubert Humphrey "There is only one tactical principal which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death, and destruction in the minimum amount of time." - General George S. Patton "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." --- General George S. Patton "We always hire Democratic Congressmen who promise to give us from the government all the things we want. And we always hire Republican Presidents to make sure we don't have to pay for it." - T.J. Rodgers quoting in REASON "The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." -- Will Rogers "They have rights who dare maintain them." -- James Russell Lowell We, free citizens of the Great Republic, feel an honest pride in her greatness, her strength, her just and gentle government, her wide liberties, her honored name, her stainless history, her unbesmirched flag, her hands clean from oppression of the weak and from malicious conquest, her hospitable door that stands open to the hunted and the persecuted of all nations; we are proud of the judicious respect in which she is held by monarchies which hem her in on every side, and proudest of all of that loft patriotism which we inherited from our fathers, which we have kept pure, and which won our liberties in the beginning and has preserved them unto this day. While patriotism endures the Republic is safe, her greatness is secure, and against them the powers of the earth can not prevail." -- Mark Twain Kill one man and you are a murderer. Kill millions and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone and you are a God. -- Jean Rostand "...The right of the people peacefully to assemble for lawful purposes existed long before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. In fact, it is and always has been one of the attributes of a free government. It `derives its source,' to use the language of Chief Justice Marshall, in Gibbons v Ogden, 9 Wheat., 211, `from those laws whose authority is acknowledged by civilized man throughout the world.' It is found wherever civilization exists. It was not, therefore, a right granted to the people by the Constitution... The second and tenth counts are equally defective. The right there specified is that of `bearing arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right granted by the constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependant upon that instrument for its existance. The Second Amendment declares that it shall not infringed; but this, as has been seen, means no more than it shall not be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government..." UNITED STATES v. CRUIKSHANK; 92 US 542; (1875) The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun. --- R. Buckminster Fuller "If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military." --- President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) A camel is a horse designed by a committee and an elephant is a mouse built to military specifications." -- from page 321 of "Cryptanalysis for Microcomputers" by Caxton C. Foster (University of Massachusetts), Hayden Book Co. Inc., 1982.