[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Favorite Quotes? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/19/2003 8:02:52 AM EDT
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To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquillity would be to calculate on the weaker springs of human character. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34, January 4, 1788 |
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But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war. John Jay, Federalist No. 4 |
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"Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader--the barbarians enter Rome." (Robert Anson Heinlein "To Sail Beyond the Sunset", pg. 227) |
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WAAAAY too many to choose. Here's a few choice ones that always get me 'inspired': [b]"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of Americans to feel safe."[/b] ~ Sen. Diane Feinstein D-CA [b]"We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!"[/b] ~ Rep. Charles Schumer D-NY [b]"Banning guns is an idea whose time has come."[/b] ~ Sen. Joseph Biden, D-DE [b]"The sale of guns must stop. Halfway measures are not enough."[/b] ~ Sarah Brady. [b]"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."[/b] ~ Janet Reno. [b]"Semiautomatic weapons and other weapons of war have no legitimate place in civil society and ought to be banned outright right now."[/b] - Hubert Williams, Police Foundation President. [b]"The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people"[/b] ~ Bill Clinton. [b]"I think it's (the Brady Bill) the beginning. It's not the end of the process by any means."[/b] ~ Bill Clinton [b]"I don't believe that everybody in America needs to be able to buy a semi-automatic or fully-automatic weapon, built only for the purpose of killing people, in order to protect the right of Americans to hunt and practice marksmanship and to be secure."[/b] ~ Bill Clinton. [b]"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that these people have these weapons at all!"[/b] ~ Rep. Henry Waxman, D-NY, 5/2001 MSNBC report on .50BMG rifles. [b]"I don't care about crime, I just want to get the guns."[/b] ~ Frmr. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum |
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Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765 |
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Men must be ready, they must pride themselves and be happy to sacrifice their private pleasures, passions and interests, nay, their private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in competition with the rights of society. John Adams, letter to Mercy Warren, April 16, 1776 |
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If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave. John Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772 |
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Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it. John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776 |
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A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, February 12, 1779 |
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I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, 1766 |
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"Rob the dead, they don't feel a thing, keep ya livin' for another day." -1975 Black Sabbath, The Writ, Sabotage. Just kidding. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln Although, I really like the quotes provided by The_Macallan, it gives us a good idea about what some of our leaders really think. |
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There are just way too many to mention...here are a few: Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est. Latin: "A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand." -Seneca Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. -George Washington Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. -Napoleon Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock. -Thomas Jefferson Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. -John Quincy Adams Do, or do not. There is no 'try'. -Yoda Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. -Plato A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. -Dwight D. Eisenhower The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. -General George Patton Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crime… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -Thomas Jefferson Nobody ever defended anything successfully; there is only attack and attack and attack some more. -General George Patton Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. -General George Patton War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of teeing free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. -John Stuart Mill Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of the man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything thereafter. -Ernest Hemingway This year will go down in history. For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future! -Adolf Hitler I did enjoy it once. And it scared me. Bad. -Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock II If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. -Samuel Adams A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. -Thomas Jefferson |
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"The pacifists are at it again. I met a 'visiting fireman' of great eminence who told me that this was to be the 'last war'. I told him that such statements since 2600 B.C. had signed the death warrants of millions of young men. He replied with the stock lie, 'Oh yes, but things are different now'. My God! Will they never learn?" "The pacifist actually refuses to defend what defends him; his country. In the final analysis this is the most basic immoral position" Gen. Patton |
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"there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." Democracy in America - de Tocqueville "the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it." Robert E. Lee "There are many things in the Bible which I may never be able to explain, but I accept it as the infallible Word of God, and receive its teachings as inspired by the Holy Ghost." Robert E. Lee During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell "It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason." Lord Acton "The man who prefers his country before any other duty duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority." Lord Acton "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton, 1887 "All men have a taste for conflict, at least, all healthy men." Hilaire Belloc |
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -C.S. Lewis |
| "Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."— [b]Winston Churchill[/b] |
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And, from Band Of Brothers Richard Winters: [real life interview with Winters where he quotes Mike Ranney on how he answered a question his grandson once asked him] I treasure my remark to a grandson who asked, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" "No", I answered, "But I served in a company of heroes". |
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It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. -- Voltaire 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, March 23, 1775 "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight: nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety: is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and blood of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mill |
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“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.” --General George S. Patton, Jr. “No man who refuses to bear arms in defense of his nation can give a sound reason why he should be allowed to live in a free country" --President Theodore Roosevelt "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." --George Herbert "At the end of the most grandiose plans and strategies is a soldier walking point." --Harry G. Summers “[it is a] fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen.'' --Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981) “I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy but, by God, they frighten me.” --Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, about soldiers fighting for him against Napoleon "To die with one's sword still in its sheath is most regrettable." --Miyamoto Musashi "And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The Organs (of state security) would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!" —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago" |