Views on the
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Judge Sam R. Cummings
United States of America vs. Timothy Joe Emerson (3/31/1999)
United States District Court
Northern District of Texas
San Angelo Division
Note: In the original text, Judge Cummings cites considerable history and precedent. These citations have been omitted here for brevity. For his full historical and legal proof for the idea that the 2nd Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms, please see the Memorandum Opinion for the legal proof in its 33 page entirety!)
(In regard to the 2nd Amendment) "Collective rights theorists argue that addition of the subordinate clause (i.e. "[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,...") qualifies the rest of the amendment by placing a limitation on the people's right to bear arms... However, if the amendment truly meant what collective rights advocates propose, then the text would read "[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the States to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." However, that is not what the framers of the amendment drafted. The plain language of the amendment, without attenuate inferences therefrom, shows that the function of the subordinate clause was not to qualify the right, but instead to show why it must be protected... The right exists independent of the existence of the militia. If this right were not protected, the existence of the militia, and consequently the security of the state, would be jeopardized."
- Read the "Memorandum Opinion (3/31/1999)" detailing the issue and reasoning behind this case (in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format).
- Read the final Judgement (3/31/1999) (in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format).
Judge Laurence H Silberman
Shelly Parker, et al. vs. District of Columbia (3/9/2007)
United States Court of Appeals
District of Columbia Circuit
Note: In the original text, Judge Silberman cites considerable historical, precedent and linguistic arguments. These citations have been omitted here for brevity. For his full historical and legal proof for the idea that the 2nd Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms, please see the Majority Opinion for the entire 75 page legal proof.
- Read the "Majority Opinion (3/9/2007)" detailing the issue and reasoning behind this case (in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format).
Justice Alex Kozinski
"It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as spring-boards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us. As guardians of the Constitution, we must be consistent in interpreting its provisions... ...The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed.... However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else..."
Anti-gun lawyer Michael Kinsley
"The purpose of the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee was pretty clearly to protect political discourse.
But liberals reject the notion that free speech is therefore limited to political topics, even broadly defined.
True, that purpose is not inscribed in the amendment itself.
But why leap to the conclusion that a broadly worded constitutional freedom ("the right of the people to keep and bear arms") is narrowly limited by its stated purpose, unless you're trying to explain it away?
My New Republic colleague Mickey Kaus says that if liberals interpreted the Second Amendment the way they interpret the rest of the Bill of Rights, there would be law professors arguing that gun ownership is mandatory."
-- Washington Post, January 8, 1990
Chris W. Stark of the GOA Texas
(formerly of the JPFO )
"David Kopel has said the Bill of Rights isn't for conservatives to protect their property or guns, or for liberals to protect filthy speech or rights of accused. Those rights were meant to hang together... Our priority may be the Second Amendment, but our perspective must be civil rights."
George Washington
"Observe good faith and justice toward all nations.
Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
Religion and morality enjoin this conduct,
and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?
It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant
period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel
example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.
Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a
plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a
steady adherance to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the
permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least,
is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas!
Is it rendered possible by its vices? ... "In the execution of such a
plan nothing is more essential than that permanent,
inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others
should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward toward
all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual
hatred or habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity
or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and
its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to
offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty
and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur.
-- Presidential Farewell Address, Sept 17, 1796.
"The well informed members of the community, actuated by the highest motives of self-love, would [as the Militia] form the real defense of the country. Rebellions would be prevented or suppressed with ease; invasions of such a government would be undertaken only by mad men; and the virtues and knowledge of the people would effectually oppose the introduction of tyranny."
"The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure." (1793)
John Adams
"Here, every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this
authority, I do not deny the inhabitants had a right to arm themselves at that time, for their
defense, not for offense..."
-- In regards to The Boston Massacre of 1770.
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded
on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against
the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never
have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it
is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall
ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11.
"The United States goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is a well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. If the United States took up all foreign affairs, it would become entangled in all the wars of interest and intrigue, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own soul."
"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
George Mason
(co-author of the Second Amendment)
"...A well-regulated Militia, composed of the Gentlemen, Freeholders, and other Freemen was necessary to protect our ancient laws and liberty from the standing army . . . And we do each of us, for ourselves respectively, promise and engage to keep a good Fire-lock in proper Order & to furnish Ourselves as soon as possible with, & always keep by us, one Pound of Gunpowder, four Pounds of Lead, one Dozen Gun Flints, and a pair of Bullet Moulds, with a Cartouch Box, or powder horn, and Bag for Balls."
"[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was Governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually."
"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."
"That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power." --The Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 1776.
Samuel Adams
(Brewer/Patriot)
"...it is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control . . . The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no Danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them.
"(It is my hope that the Constitution be) never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of their grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures."
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chain be set lightly upon you and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen."
"...it does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
Patrick Henry
"Give me Liberty, or give me death."
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty! Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel! Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force, and whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined! When the government removes your armaments, you will have no power but government will have all power!"
"You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government."
"The great object is that every man be armed."
"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation,
that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own 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?"
-- June 9, 1788, in the Virginia Convention
on the ratification of the Constitution
"Debates in the Several
State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution",
Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.168 (Philadelphia, 1836)
Thomas Jefferson
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
-- Declaration of Independence
as originally written in 1776.
"No free man shall be debarred the use of arms within his own land."
-- Virginia Constitution, 1776
"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences."
"The general voice from north to south... calls for a bill of rights. It seems pretty generally understood that this should go to juries, habeas corpus, standing armies, printing, religion and monopolies. I conceive there may be difficulty in finding general modifications of these suited to the habits of all the States. But if such cannot be found, then it is better to establish trials by jury, the right of habeas corpus, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion, in all cases, and to abolish standing armies in time of peace, and monopolies in all cases, than not to do it in any. The few cases wherein these things may do evil cannot be weighed against the multitude wherein the want of them will do evil."
"The supremacy of the civil over the military authority I deem [one of] the essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration."
"A distinction between the civil and military [is one] which it would be for the good of the whole to obliterate as soon as possible."
"[Napolean Bonaparte] has at least transferred the destinies of the republic from the civil to the military arm. Some will use this as a lesson against the practicability of republican government. I read it as a lesson against the danger of standing armies."
"The Greeks and Romans had no standing armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so."
"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important, but especially so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been violated."
"A right of free correspondence between citizen and citizen on their joint interests, whether public or private and under whatsoever laws these interests arise (to wit: of the State, of Congress, of France, Spain, or Turkey), is a natural right; it is not the gift of any municipal law, either of England, or Virginia, or of Congress, but in common with all other natural rights, it is one of the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established."
"The right of free correspondence is not claimed under the Constitution of the United States, nor the laws or treaties derived from it, but as a natural right, placed originally under the protection of our municipal laws and retained under the cognizance of our own courts."
"The legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions."
"The error seems not sufficiently eradicated that the operations of the mind as well as the acts of the body are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others."
"The following [addition to the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or otherwise to publish anything but false facts affecting injuriously the life, liberty or reputation of others, or affecting the peace of the [United States] with foreign nations."
"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them."
"[We in America entertain] a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens resulting not from birth but from our actions and their sense of them."
"The constitutions of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property and freedom of the press."
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
"The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them."
"If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it."
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
"[I]t is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principle of this government, and consequently those [things] which ought to shape its administration... Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority -- economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected... the wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment; they should be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic instruction; the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety."
-- First Inaugural Address
"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."
"It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual... Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"I freely admit the right of a nation to change its political
principles and constitution at will, and the impropriety of any but its
own citizens censuring that change."
-- Thomas Jefferson to the Earl of
Buchan, 1803.
"I do not indeed wish to see any nation have a form of government forced on them; but if it is to be done, I should rejoice at its being a free one."
"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."
"Considering that Congress alone is constitutionally invested with the power of changing our condition from peace to war, I have thought it my duty to await their authority for using force in any degree which could be avoided." (Message to Congress, 1805)
"The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield."
"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
May [our choice to rebel against tyranny] be to the world, what I believe it will be,
(to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,)
the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition
had persuaded them to bind themselves,
and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.
That form which we have substituted,
restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion.
All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.
The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth,
that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs,
nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.
These are grounds of hope for others.
For ourselves, let the annual return of this day [July 4th]
forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
-- 1826
"A strong body makes a strong mind. 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 in the mind. Let your
gun therefore
be the constant companion of your walks."
-- 1785 letter to 15 year old nephew.
Thomas Paine
"The peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self defense... arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world."
"...The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not destitute of arms, for all would be alike;
but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them."
-- Thoughts on Defensive War
"Arms as the last resource decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king [of England], and the continent [America] has accepted the challenge."
"Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders. I challenge the warmest advocate of reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will. But the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by that connection are without number [as it] tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint."
We are already greater than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less? To bring the matter to one point, Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question is an independent, for independency means no more than this, whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us, There shall be no laws but such as I like.
But where, say some, is the king of America?... [L]et a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to BE king, and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is."
-- Common Sense: Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs, Jan. 1776
"These are the times that try men's souls... Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered... Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."
"Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to 'bind me in all cases whatsoever' to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villian, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America."
"It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. [British general] Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to [British general] Gage, and this is what the tories [British sympathisers, 'loyalists'] call making their peace... a peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of... Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it."
"Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact."
-- The American Crisis (Pamphlet #1), Dec. 1776
"[L]et every man follow, as he has a right to do, the religion and the worship he prefers."
The only religion that has not been invented, and that has in it every evidence of divine originality, is pure and simple deism. It must have been the first and will probably be the last that man believes. But pure and simple deism does not answer the purpose of despotic governments. They cannot lay hold of religion as an engine but by mixing it with human inventions, and making their own authority a part; neither does it answer the avarice of priests, but by incorporating themselves and their functions with it, and becoming, like the government, a party in the system. It is this that forms the otherwise mysterious connection of church and state; the church human, and the state tyrannic.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny."
James Madison
"Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
"[A] government resting on a minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed;
a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a
free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms,
shall be compelled to render military service in person."
-- Original version of the 2nd Amendment
"The powers delegated by this constitution, are appropriated to the departments to which they are respectively distributed: so that the legislative department shall never exercise the powers vested in the executive or judicial; nor the executive exercise the powers vested in the legislative or judicial; nor the judicial exercise the powers vested in the legislative or executive departments."
"[religion and government] will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State." -- Federalist No. 45
". . . The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature... the executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war." (1793)
"In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." (1793)
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
"The establishment of the chaplainship [for prayers] to Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights, as well as of Constitutional principles."
Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu
"There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates."
Robert F. Melson
Professor of Political Science, Purdue University
"Since the Second World War many more people have been killed as victims of domestic massacres and partial or total genocide's than by international war. State-perpetrated massacres are a greater danger to the world community than war itself." -- Revolution and Genocide, page 285 (1996)
Machiavelli
"Being unarmed makes you an object of contempt... Between an armed man and an unarmed man there is no comparison whatever, and it is not reasonable to expect that one who is armed will be happy to obey one without arms, nor that the latter will feel secure in being guarded by armed servants. Since one is bound to feel contempt and the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work together."
"It must be understood that there are two ways of fighting, one with laws and the other with arms. The first is the way of men, the second is the style of beasts, but since very often the first does not suffice it is necessary to turn to the second."
"Men are so simple and so ready to follow the needs of the moment that the deceiver will always find some one to deceive."
"There never was a new prince who disarmed his subjects; on the other hand where they are found unarmed the prince always arms them, for the arms you give your subjects become your own, as those who were suspect become your faithful followers and those who were well disposed to you are encouraged to remain so, and thus all your subjects become your partisans... If, however, you disarm your people, you begin by offending all of them, showing that you do not trust them either through fear or lack of confidence, and the suspicion of either will arouse hatred against you. Further, as you cannot well remain without any arms, you will have to turn to mercenaries, whose character we have [found to be of a negative sort], and even if they were good they could not be strong enough to protect you against powerful enemies and doubtful citizens."
"A prince... should encourage his citizens and enable them to go about their affairs in tranquility whether in commerce, agriculture, or any other kind of activity, so that one man may not refrain from improving his possessions for fear lest they be taken from him, nor another hesitate to engage in commerce for fear of taxes. Rather should a prince reward such citizens and any others who may in any way enrich his state or his city."
"[C]ertainly we should never be willing to fall simply in the belief that some one will pick us up again."
Edward Abbey
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
Noah Webster
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States."
Abraham Lincoln
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
"...Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man - this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in and inferior position... Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal."
Woodrow Wilson
"Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance."
Benjamin Franklin
"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
"...there are natural duties which precede political ones, and cannot be extinguished by them."
"All blood is alike, Ancient."
"Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, -- if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other... ...I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution, wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered."
-- Speech in the Constitutional Convention, at the conclusion of its deliberations,
September 17, 1787.
"No nation was ever ruined by trade."
The argument that, for a President, "returning [after the President's term in office] to the mass of the people was degrading was contrary to republican principles. In free Governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former therefore to return among the latter was not to degrade but to promote them."
With the constitutional convention "groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, how has it happened that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?" Franklin asked the members of the convention. In answer to this question, he notes (on the paper his call to prayer speech was written on), "[t]he convention, except three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary!"
A true American "would think himself more obliged to a genealogist who could prove for him that his ancestors and relations for ten generations had been ploughmen, smiths, carpenters, turners, weavers, tanners or even shoemakers, and consequently that they were useful members of society, than if he could only prove that they were Gentlemen, doing nothing of value but living idly on the labor of others."
"All wars are follies, very expensive, and very mischievous ones. When will mankind be convinced of this, and agree to settle their differences by arbitration? Were they to do it, even by the cast of a die, it would be better than by fighting and destroying each other."
"I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character, he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, near the river where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labors of the fishing hawk... The turkey is, in comparison, a much more respectable bird, and a true original native of America... He is (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage..."
"I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was
painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, 'Don't tread on me.' As
I know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I
supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America...
the Rattle-Snake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America...
[The rattlesnake has no eyelids and] may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance..."
She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is
therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage...
she never wounds 'till
she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against
the danger of treading on her...
I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles,
'till I went back and counted them and found them just thirteen,
exactly the number of the Colonies united in America;
and I recollected too that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers...
'Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are,
and yet how firmly they are united together,
so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces.
One of those rattles singly, is incapable of producing sound,
but the ringing of thirteen together,
is sufficient to alarm the boldest man living."
[Note: Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina took this concept to heart and designed the now
famous Gadsden Flag, which consists of yellow field with a coiled rattlesnake device in the center
and the legend Don't Tread On Me under the snake, seen above, right.]
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to prosper."
"History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy..."
"God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country."
"Uncle" Ted Nugent
"The 2nd Amendment of our Bill of Rights is my concealed weapons permit... PERIOD."
"[F]or people to... walk out of their houses knowingly unarmed and helpless, it boggles my mind. I can't imagine such a wimpy, helpless accepted condition, and I would like people to man up, to freedom up, to good over evil up and people should do what we've done around the country, get their concealed weapons permit, train, get a modicum of tactical understanding of weapon retention, weapon utility and stop evil and not wait for the multiple stab wounds."
Bob Lonsberry
"Sheep are slaughtered, men die fighting."
"[T]he religious views of the majority must never be codified and enforced by the power of government. People who have other beliefs – or no beliefs – about the holiness of Sunday should not have their conduct unreasonably restrained by a government which is compelling conformity with other religious beliefs... [b]ecause God does not compel obedience. And he does not ask his servants to compel it either... ...The hardest part about being free is that you must allow your neighbor to be the same."
Capitalism must be built upon patriotism and a personal regard for the financial interests of others. Not imposed by government or regulation, but by the simple whispering to each soul of what is right and what is wrong. Making a bigger buck is not worth selling out your country or unfairly hurting the economic interests of other people.
Mahatma Ghandi
"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the act which deprived a whole nation of arms as the blackest." -- Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography, p. 446.
"The society which is the most free is the one which is most heavily armed."
Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazereth (the Christian messiah)
"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe." (Luke 11:21)
"He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." (Luke 22:36)
Joseph Smith, Jr. (the Mormon prophet)
"We (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
believe that rulers, states, and governments have a right,
and are bound to enact laws for the protection of all citizens
in the free exercise of their religious belief;
but we do not believe that they have a right in justice
to deprive citizens of this privilege, or proscribe them in their opinions,
so long as a regard and reverence are shown to the laws and such religious
opinions do not justify sedition nor conspiracy..."
"We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government,
whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges,
and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied..."
"We believe that men should appeal to the civil law for
redress of all wrongs and grievances, where personal abuse
is inflicted or the right of property or character infringed,
where such laws exist as will protect the same;
but we believe that all men are justified in defending themselves,
their friends, and property, and the government, from the unlawful
assaults and encroachments of all persons in times of exigency,
where immediate appeal cannot be made to the laws, and relief afforded."
(D&C 134:11)
"We (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." (LDS Articles of Faith)
J.R.R. Tolkien
"Our women learned long ago that those who do not take up the sword may still die upon them."
--
Eowen, a character in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Dr. Sarah Thompson, MD
"Isn't it interesting that a person is a 'responsible citizen' if he keeps a cell phone, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit handy, but is presumed to be a criminal if he keeps a loaded firearm available for self-defense?"
Archie Bunker
"If everyone was allowed to carry guns, them hijackers wouldn't have no superiority. All you gotta do is arm all the passengers, then no hijacker would risk pullin' a rod [gun]."
Talk Radio Host "Intergalactic Radio"
"How easy for the President to say, 'we must protect the children,' as if children have some divine right of protection that is more important than our civil rights. Children are no more sacred than any other person, and I might add, it is each parent's responsibility to protect their children, NOT THE STATE."
Critically acclaimed author of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption
"If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."
John Locke
"Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience."
"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself."
Bob Curtis
Owner of www.sodabob.com
"The Internet is the Printing Press of the People."
"The whole "violence in schools" issue is really pissing me off. Everyone's looking for a scapegoat. Liberals say it's guns. Conservatives say it's the media and the entertainment industry. And both say these things in the same breath as a call for 'personal responsibility.' Well, which is it? Either "The guns/media/Hollywood/Doom (read "Devil") made them do it," or those wannabe-nazi brats at Columbine - and perhaps PARTIALLY their parents - are responsible for their own actions. Weapons and free speech do not cause violence. With which gun, and which media outlet, did Cain get the idea to murder his brother?"
"I have to laugh every time a media person shows some screen shots of Doom and claims that the game "teaches you how to shoot." I think I'm going to hook up a mouse and keyboard to my pistol next time I go to the range so I can shoot better."
"Controlling violence in entertainment is a tricky thing. Where should we start? And what is acceptable violence? Should we ban movies such as Die Hard? What about Saving Private Ryan?" And where's the line between? Then, once we've banned the video game Doom, the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Ice-T's Cop Killer, shouldn't we then turn to literature? The written word has been filled with violence since the beginning of history. To eradicate the 'sick and violent' from literature, we'd have to 'lose the efforts of Poe, Hawthorne, de Maupassant, and Kafka. But we will also be deprived of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, A Farewell to Arms, The Great Gatsby, Rememberance of Things Past, and hundreds of other titles that some regard as literary masterpieces... and - the complete works of William Shakespeare' (Robert Bloch, from essay Heritage of Horror). Then, perhaps the Bible should be the first on the Nazi-style burn pile - it's filled with violence from front to back, including war, famine, pestilence, plague, murder and human sacrifice to Jehovah (see Exodus 22:29, Judges 11:30-39 and Numbers 31:40), the capture and rape of virgins (see Numbers 31:13-18), violent abortion of children (see 2 Kings 15:16), and punishment by death of homosexuals and disobedient children (Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Matthew 15:3-4 and Mark 7:9-13)... with much of these crimes done by, or ordered done by, or approved by, the patriarchs - and even Jesus!"
"God and/or religion has little to do with the U.S. governmental system, despite those who say that our nation was formed under the tenets of Judeo-Christian faith, that we should return to the days when there was prayer in school, etc. Though there are obvious ties between our basic laws and some of the 10 commandments, we musn't forget that 'Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,' that Benjamin Franklin was a deist, the republican form of government that we enjoy was originated by the polytheistic Greeks and Romans, that Christianity became 'popular' only when it became the established religion of the Roman Empire (and was spread thereafter due to conquest) and that the major monotheistic religions are actually monarchies with 'God' as the supreme 'King,' - as I remember, as told in the Jewish Torah (a.k.a. "Old Testament") the type of government that the deity Yahweh (a.k.a. God) chose for Israel was a monarchy, with David as King."
"Many people believe that advocates of the Second Amendment are anti-government, anti-establishment and anti-peace. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In reality, all true defenders of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms want nothing more than to preserve our general form of government. Those who fought on the side of Liberty during the American Revolution fought not to change a governmental system (as most people think of it) but to preserve the representative governments already established by the 13 colonies, to prevent those governments by the people from being changed by a distant, disconnected, arbitrary, non-representative and 'out of touch' monarchy. The Second Amendment protects, not establishes, an 'inalienable right' to defend against oppression, both foreign and domestic; Arms in the hands of the people are the last line of defense against tyranny after all other avenues to preserve or restore Freedom have failed. True advocates of the Second Amendment are not warmongers, but instead hold the hope that the mere threat of that 'last line of defense' will be enough of a deterrent to keep any potential despot in government from even attempting to strip us of our Liberties - thereby preserving not only those Liberties, but peace as well."
"People in the U.S. today say, 'We don't need to protect ourselves from tyranny; the Jewish Holocaust happened in the 1940's, and it is now the 21st Century - and besides, this is America, we Americans are more independent, people here would resist authority such as Hitler.' Well, I'd like to think this was true, too, but there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
"Even Communists and Fascists understand the power of the gun. The Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong said, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' The difference between his philosophy, and that of the authors and signers of the US Bill of Rights, is that Zedong wanted that power in the hands of the state; those who wrote, signed and ratified the Bill of Rights wanted that power in the hands of We The People"
"The U.S. Bill of Rights is the guard dog of the American People: the First Amendment is their Bark; the Second Amendment is their Bite."
Treaty of Tripoli, 1797
(merely 10 years after ratification of the Constitution)
"As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquillity of Messelmen, --and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohammedan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever interupt the harmony existing between the two countries."
Robert Green Ingersoll
"The most important thing in this world is liberty. More important than food or clothes -- more important than gold or houses or lands -- more important than art or science -- more important than all religions, is the liberty of man."
I am a believer in liberty. That is my religion
A man does not wish to belong to any church. How are you going to judge him? Judge him by the way he treats his wife, his children, his neighbors. Does he pay his debts? Does he tell the truth? Does he help the poor? Has he got a heart that melts when he hears grief's story? That is the way to judge him. I do not care what he thinks about the bears, or the flood, about bibles or gods. When some poor mother is found wandering in the street with a babe at her breast, does he quote Scripture, or hunt for his pocket-book? That is the way to judge. And suppose he does not believe in any bible whatever? If Christianity is true, that is his misfortune, and everybody should pity the poor wretch that is going down the hill. Why kick him? You will get your revenge on him through all eternity -- is not that enough?
What light is to the eyes, what love is to the heart, Liberty is to the soul of man. Without it, there come suffocation, degradation and death.
A minister says to me that I am going to hell -- that I am bound to be punished forever and ever -- and thereupon I say to him: "There is no hell; you are mistaken; your Bible is not inspired; no human being is to suffer agony forever;" and thereupon, with an injured look, he asks me this question: "Why do you hurt my feelings?" It does not occur to him that I have the slightest right to object to his sentence of eternal grief.
Freedom invents -- slavery forgets.
A slave is less than a man - a master less than a slave
-- Aug 19, 1876
"Every limitation is a master. Every finite being is a prisoner, and no man has ever yet looked above or beyond the prison walls. Our highest conception of liberty is to be free from the dictation of fellow prisoners."
Law is a growth -- it is a science. Right and wrong exist in the nature of things. Things are not right because they are commanded, nor wrong because they are prohibited. There are real crimes enough without creating artificial ones. All progress in legislation has for centuries consisted in repealing the laws of the ghosts... For my part I glory in the fact, that here in the New World, -- in the United States, -- liberty of conscience was first guaranteed to man, and that the Constitution of the United States was the first great decree entered in the high court of human equity forever divorcing church and state, -- the first injunction granted against the interference of the ghosts. This was one of the grandest steps ever taken by the human race in the direction of Progress... The discovery of America, whose shores were trod by the restless feet of adventure; -- that brought people holding every shade of superstition together; -- that gave the world an opportunity to compare notes, and to laugh at the follies of each other. Out of this strange mingling of all creeds, and superstitions, and facts, and theories, and countless opinions, came the Great Republic... Man has found that he must give liberty to others in order to have it himself. He has found that a master is also a slave; -- that a tyrant is himself a serf. He has found that governments should be founded and administered by man and for man; that the rights of all are equal; that the powers that be are not ordained by God; that woman is at least the equal of man; that men existed before books; that religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing; that all creeds were made by man; that everything is natural; that a miracle is an impossibility; that we know nothing of origin and destiny; that concerning the unknown we are all equally ignorant; that the pew has the right to contradict what the pulpit asserts; that man is responsible only to himself and those he injures, and that all have a right to think.
In 1776 our fathers endeavored to retire the gods from politics. They declared that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." This was a contradiction of the then political ideas of the world; it was, as many believed, an act of pure blasphemy -- a renunciation of the Deity. It was in fact a declaration of the independence of the earth. It was a notice to all churches and priests that thereafter mankind would govern and protect themselves. Politically it tore down every altar and denied the authority of every "sacred book," and appealed from the Providence of God to the Providence of Man. Those who promulgated the Declaration adopted a Constitution for the great Republic.
Noam Chomsky
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
John F. Kennedy
"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of America, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
David Hume
"It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once."
Mark Twain
"For in a Republic, who is "the country?" Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant - merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."
"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."
"The Head of every State and Sovereignty in Christendom and ninety percent of every legislative body in Christendom, including our Congress and our fifty State Legislatures, are members not only of the church, but also of the Blessings-of-Civilization Trust."
"Senator: Person who makes laws in Washington when not doing time."
"To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature Congressman."
"Public servant: Persons chosen by the people to distribute the graft."
"All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity."
"There is no country in the world... that pursues corruption as inveterately as we do. There is no country in the world whose presentatives try each other as much as ours do, or stick to it as long on a stretch. I think there is something great in being a model for the whole civilized world."
"Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the Voice of God."
"We can't reach old age by another man's road. My habits protect my life but they would assassinate you."
"I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being -- that is enough for me; he can't be any worse."
"It would not be possible for a humane and intelligent person to invent a rational excuse for slavery; yet you will remember that in the early days of the emancipation agitation in the North the agitators got but small help or countenance from any one. Argue and plead and pray as they might, they could not break the universal stillness that reigned, from pulpit and press all the way down to the bottom of society -- the clammy stillness created and maintained by the lie of silent assertion -- the silent assertion that there wasn't anything going on in which humane and intelligent people were interested."
"We easily perceive that the peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman is furthest apart -- and we consider this one of the signs of savagery. But we are so stupid that we can't see that we thus plainly admit that no civilization can be perfect until exact equality between man and woman is included."
"Suppose this library had been in operation a few weeks ago, and the burglars who happened along and broke into my house -- taking a lot of things they didn't need, and for that matter which I didn't need -- had first made entry into this institution. Picture them seated here on the floor, poring by the light of their dark-lanterns over some of the books they found, and thus absorbing moral truths and getting a moral uplift. The whole course of their lives would have been changed."
"Cain did his murder with a club; the Hebrews did their murders with javelins and swords; the Greeks and Romans added protective armor and the fine arts of military organization and generalship; the Christian has added guns and gunpowder; a few centuries from now he will have so greatly improved the deadly effectiveness of his weapons of slaughter that all men will confess that without Christian civilization war must have remained a poor and trifling thing to the end of time."
"I would teach patriotism in the schools, and teach it this way: I would throw out the old maxim, 'My country, right or wrong,' etc., and instead I would say, 'My country when she is right.'"
"There was a proposition in a township there to discontinue public schools because they were too expensive. An old farmer spoke up and said if they stopped the schools they would not save anything, because every time a school was closed a jail had to be built. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. He'll never get fat. I believe it is better to support schools than jails."
"I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."
"It is easier to stay out than get out."
"Sphere of Influence: A courteous modern phrase which means robbing your neighbor -- for your neighbor's benefit."
"There is no such thing as "the Queen's English." The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!"
"The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession, what there is of it."
"Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the 'universal brotherhood of man' -- with his mouth."
"I have traveled more than any one else, and I have noticed that even the angels speak English with an accent."
"The Gospel of the Monarchical Patriotism is: "The King can do no wrong." We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: 'Our Country, right or wrong!'"
"The old saw says, 'Let a sleeping dog lie.' Right. Still, when there is much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it."
"The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them."
"No public interest is anything other or nobler than a massed accumulation of private interests."
"It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.
"In a constitutional -- figurehead -- monarchy, a royal family of chimpanzees would answer every purpose, be worshipped as abjectly by the nation, and be cheaper."
"Wherefore being all of one mind, we do highly resolve that government of the grafted by the grafter for the grafter shall not perish from the earth."
"That government is not best which best secures mere life and property -- there is a more valuable thing -- Manhood."
"People seem to think they are citizens of the Republican Party and that that is patriotism and sufficiently good patriotism. I prefer to be a citizen of the United States."
"A man's first duty is to his own conscience and honor -- the party and the country come second to that, and never first."
"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death."
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.
Laura Ingraham
"Whenever both parties agree on something, watch your wallets."
Ayn Rand
"Man's life, as required by his nature, is not the life of a mindless brute, of a looting thug or a mooching mystic, but the life of a thinking being -- not life by means of force or fraud, but life by means of achievement."
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
"Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals - that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government- that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."
"The right of a nation to determine its own form of government does not include the right to establish a slave society (that is, to legalize the enslavement of some men by others). There is no such thing as "the right to enslave." A nation can do it, just as a man can become a criminal - but neither can do it by right."
Plato
"A tyrant...is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader."
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
"The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."
Neal Knox of the Firearms Coalition
"...Congress doesn't like being told what it cannot do -- which is why we have a Constitution."
Lech Walesa
(Leader of Poland's Solidarity union & President of Poland 1990-1995)
"You have never been invaded and never been under dictatorship. So like the frog in the boiling water you may not realize until it's too late that you've lost your capacity to think for yourselves and accept personal responsibility. That is the quiet danger facing America."
Sigmund Freud
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."
-- from General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Jeff Cooper
"The only acceptable response to the threat of lethal violence is immediate and savage counterattack. If you resist, you just may get killed. If you don't resist you almost certainly will get killed. It is a tough choice, but there is only one right answer."
Charles Austin Beard
(American historian/educator 1874-1948)
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence."
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (2 Cranch) 137 (1803)
"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."
Henry David Thoreau
"Make your life a friction to the machine"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The world exists, as I understand it, to teach the science of liberty."
Winston Churchill
"If you will not fight for 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 odds
against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a
worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because
it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
-- On the eve of Britain's entry into World War II
Elie Wiesel
(Holocaust survivor/Winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize)
"Spring 1944... People said 'The Russian army's making gigantic strides forward...
Hitler won't be able to do us any harm, even if he wants to.' Yes, we even doubted
that he wanted to exterminate us. Was he going to wipe out a whole people?
Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries?
So many millions! What methods could he use? And in the middle of the twentieth century!"
-- From his book Night
Henry Grady Weaver (author)
(from The Mainspring of Human Progress)
"Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own. The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional do-gooders, who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others - with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means."
Glenn Beck
(paraphrased) "How do you fight hate speech? Not by banning their speech. You fight hate speech with more speech."
Neal Boortz
(paraphrased) "I always default to liberty. Anyone should be able to do whatever they want so long as they do not deprive anyone else of life, liberty or property through force or fraud."
Marion Barry
Mayor of Washington, DC (where most if not all guns are banned).
"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."
The Blues Brothers
Elwood, in disgust: "Illinois Nazis."
Jake, perturbed: "I hate Illinois Nazis."