Famous Quotes
Benjamin Franklin
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
George Mason:
"What is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
Elbridge Gerry
"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . . Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."
Thomas Paine
"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government."
"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."
"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one."
Samuel Adams
"The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peacable citizens from keeping their own arms."
"Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance."
"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official."
"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."
"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public."
"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty'."
"The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer."
Abraham Lincoln
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
Ronald Reagan
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."
"Government isn't the solution to our problems, government is the problem."
"The gun has been called the great equalizer, meaning that a small person with a gun is equal to a large person, but it is a great equalizer in another way, too. It insures that the people are the equal of their government whenever that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the governed." - 1975
"This is the issue... Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."
"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."
"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
"You won't get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There's only one way to get real gun control: disarm the thugs and criminals, lock them up, and if you don't actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time. It's a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun control. I happen to know this from personal experience."
"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth."
General Quotes
"He who has lost freedom has nothing left to lose." - Unknown
"Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it" - Lysander Spooner
"Persuasion is never dangerous not even in despotic governments; but military force, if often applied internally, can never fail to destroy the love and confidence, and break the spirits, of the people." - The Anti-Federalist Papers
"Many instances can be produced in which the people have voluntarily increased the powers of their rulers; but few, if any, in which rulers have willingly abridged their authority. This is a sufficient reason to induce you to be careful, in the first instance, how you deposit the powers of government." - Brutus I October 18, 1787
"I have reason to conclude, that he who would get me into his power without my consent, would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too when he had a fancy to it; for no body can desire to have me in his absolute power, unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom, i.e. make me a slave. To be free from such force is the only security of my preservation; and reason bids me look on him, as an enemy to my preservation, who would take away that freedom which is the fence to it; so that he who makes an attempt to enslave me, thereby puts himself into a state of war with me." - Chapter III Of the State of War, 1690 Two Treatises of Government by John Locke"
"What Christian kings call peace is the little time necessarily spent in reloading their guns". - Robert G Ingersoll
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant." - Maximilien Robespierre
"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." — Frederick Douglass, civil rights activist, Aug. 4, 1857
"When Hitler came for the Jews... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned." - Pastor Martin Niemoller, Congressional Record, October 14, 1968, vol. 114, p. 31636.
"We have four boxes with which to defend our freedom: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box." - Unknown.
"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." - George Bernard Shaw
"Allow the orderly citizen to carry the weapon he needs for his self-defense, but severely punish the person who actually misuses a weapon" - Dr Flegel, Senior Court-Martial Judge for the German Navy, Aug 1931
"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American...[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." - Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
"There are 'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be 'absolutes.'" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black