"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.