"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to
time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.."
- Thomas Jefferson
"I think that this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of
human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White
House--with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined
alone."
- John F. Kennedy [to an assembly of Nobel Prize winners]
"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do a second and
third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and
truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of
the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Any president that lies to the American people should have to resign."
- Bill Clinton
"Yes, the president should resign. He has lied to the American people, time and time again, and betrayed their trust.
Since he has admitted guilt, there is no reason to put the American people through an impeachment. He will serve
absolutely no purpose in finishing out his term the only possible solution is for the president to save some dignity and
resign."
- 12th Congressional District Hopeful William Jefferson Clinton during the Nixon investigations.
"The best way to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen is to go about repeating the very phrases which our
founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
- Charles Austin Beard
"They first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
- Martin Niemöller
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- S. G. Tallentyre
(This quote is commonly attributed to Voltaire, but it is not found in his writing.)
"Live free or die."
- New Hampshire State Motto
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in
insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
- Louis D. Brandeis
"My only regret is that I have but one life to give
for my country.
- Nathan Hale
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
- Emiliano Zapata
"No one ever governs well who seeks to govern..."
- Plato
I will be as harsh as
truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish
to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No!
no! . . . I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse -
I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD.
- William Lloyd Garrison
"If nominated to govern, I will not run; if elected I will not serve."
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
"Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office."
- David Broder
"There is many a [boy] who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell. You
must bear this warning voice to generations to come."
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans
of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more
desolation. War is hell."
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because
of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about
it."
- Albert Einstein
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve and receive neither liberty nor safety..."
- Benjamin Franklin
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."
- George Washington
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to
protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-Thomas Jefferson
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
- U. S. Constitution, "Amendment II"
"Every good communist should know that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
- Mao Tse Tung
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
- Mahatma Gandhi
"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?"
- Patrick Henry
"Damn the torpedoes!
Full speed ahead!"
- Admiral David G. Farragut - Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864
"I have not yet begun to fight!"
- Rear Admiral John Paul Jones
"Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being."
- Kahlil Gibran
"To believe in something, and not to live it, is to be
dishonest."
- Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi
"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
- Mark Twain
"I never let schooling interfere with my education."
- Mark Twain
"I know no method to secure the repeal of bad,
obnoxious, or unjust laws so effective as their strict execution."
- Ulysses S. Grant
"Injustice anywhere is an affront to justice
everywhere."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared..."
- Homer
"If you want peace, work for justice. If you want
justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace the truth"
- Pope John Paul II
"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace."
- Amelia Earhart
"Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once."
- William Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar, Act II, Sc. 2, line 32."
"Courage -- a perfect sensibility of the measure of
danger, and a mental willingness to endure it"
- Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
"The only thing required for evil to triumph is for
good men to do nothing..."
- Edmund Burke
"Every society honors its live conformists and its
dead troublemakers."
- Mignon Mclaughlin
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."
- Thomas Jefferson
"One of the penalties for [a citizen] refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
- Plato
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains
among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual."
- Frank Herbert
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all
of them imaginary."
- H. L. Mencken
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal
sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of
miseries..."
- Winston Churchill
"All that Communism needs to make it successful is someone to feed and clothe it."
- Columbia Record
"The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level."
- Norman Mailer
"There can be no honor in a sure success, but much
might be wrested from a sure defeat."
- T.E. Lawrence
"The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to
others."
- Homer
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
- Flannery O'Connor
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
- Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton.
"All that is gold does not glitter.
"
- J.R.R. Tolkien.
"Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana
"History is a vast early warning system."
- Norman Cousins
"Democracy is the worst form of government -- except for all the others."
- Winston Churchill
"Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned
in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's
character, give him power."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous."
- William Proxmire
"He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."
- Albert Einstein
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."
- Mark Twain
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and
conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."
- Bertrand Russell
"Bush Sr. was a jerk, Quayle an idiot, Clinton was atrocious and disgusting, most of those who persecuted him were hypocritical, Gore is shallow and weak,
Bradley is an idealist, Bush Jr. a fool, and all of the independent candidates act like they're on drugs."
- David Borenstein On the politics of the 1990's
"History is always altered due to
fictional novels and movies. Historians should stick
to writing history and novelists should write novels. It is a distortion
of nature to try and do both...Disney’s movies always misconstrue
the truth about history. Have you ever seen a friendly chipmunk?
They aren’t the type of animal you can go up and pet.”
- Shelby Foote
"Do not indulge is hyberbole or flattery - it is a waste of time and merely encourages the stupid"
- Connie Boone
