Great quotes - freedom, liberty, and tyranny

[pax]

more...

"Without either the First or Second Amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it!" -- Andrew Ford

"The price of liberty is, always has been, and always will be blood: the person who is not willing to die for his liberty has already lost it to the first scoundrel who is willing to risk dying to violate that person's liberty. Are you free?" -- Andrew Ford

The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants. -- Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (1755–1841)

Man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. – Ronald Reagan, farewell address, 1/11/89

________________

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. – Milton Friedman
_____________________

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. – George Eliot

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day. But a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing us to slavery. – Thomas Jefferson

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. – Plato circa 400 B.C.

The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves. – Dresden James

pax

Quoting: the act of repeating erroneously the words of another. -- Ambrose Bierce

 

[Carbon_15]

"A well-crafted pepperoni pizza, being necessary to the preservation of a diverse menu, the right of the people to keep and cook tomatoes, shall not be infringed." I would ask you to try to argue that this statement says that only pepperoni pizzas can keep and cook tomatoes, and only well-crafted ones at that. This is basically what the so-called states rights people argue with respect to the well-regulated militia, vs. the right to keep and bear arms. – Bruce Tiemann

I have a new Fav.
thanks

 

[OF]

No kidding! Nice catch, dev_null.

- Gabe

 

[Seawolf]

Great post. Should be archived somehow.

 

[Drjones]

My two faves:

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.

- Adolph Hitler


"The associations of the national revival, SA, SS, and Stahlhelm, offer every decent citizen the opportunity to join their ranks in the struggle. Anyone who does not belong to one of the above named organizations and nonetheless keeps his weapon without permission, or indeed conceals it, must be regarded as an enemy of the national government, and will be brought to account without compunction and with the utmost severity."

- Nazi Germany, 1934

 

[Drjones]

"Congress shall never disarm any citizen unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion." - New Hampshire's request for a Bill of Rights, June 21, 1788


What does this mean? That citizens engaged in rebellion will be disarmed????

 

[Drjones]

"It is thus necessary that the individual should come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole ... that above all the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual. .... This state of mind, which subordinates the interests of the ego to the conservation of the community, is really the first premise for every truly human culture .... we understand only the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow man."

- Adolph Hitler, 1933


Fascist ethics begin ... with the acknowledgment that it is not the individual who confers a meaning upon society, but it is, instead, the existence of a human society which determines the human character of the individual. According to Fascism, a true, a great spiritual life cannot take place unless the State has risen to a position of pre-eminence in the world of man. The curtailment of liberty thus becomes justified at once, and this need of rising the State to its rightful position.

- Mario Palmieri, "The Philosophy of Fascism" 1936

 

[Drjones]

"Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all."

- Nikita Khrushchev , February 25, 1956 20th Congress of the Communist Party

"All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all."

- Vladimir Lenin, as quoted in "Not by Politics Alone.â€


Compare those with:


We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society."

- Hillary Clinton, 1993


"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ..."

- President Bill Clinton, USA Today, March 11, 1993, Page 2A


"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."

- Ayn Rand

 

[BigG]

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of tyrants and patriots. It is its natural manure.

Thomas Jefferson

 

[Nanook]

"A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie." -- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms." --Aristotle

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarms only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... --Thomas Jefferson

Always Remember:
A firearm is only an instrument. It contains no evil, no conscience, and no ability. It is strictly the intent, competence, and character of its user that decide the outcome of any and all actions taken with it.
(I don't know whom to credit but I like the quote.)

"The unarmed man is not merely defenseless - he is also contemptible."
-Machiavelli

And here's one for those who believe the National Guard, created in 1903, is the militia referred to in the Second Amendment, from 1787:
"The modern National Guard was specifically intended to avoid status as the Constitutional militia."
-- HR Report No. 141, 73rd congress, 1st Session,
February 5, 1933

 

[sgtredleg]

My favorite; Read below.

 

[pax]

sgtredleg, I'm more fond of what Patrick Henry said just before the famous line:

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? -- Patrick Henry.

He answered with a thundering, Forbid it, Almighty God!

*sigh* Most people in America today are answering that same question with, "Well, um, yes."

Thus the Homeland Security nonsense, and cameras all over public places, and national ID cards in the works, and people being held without bail, without trial, and without access to a lawyer, and random searches in various locales...

Apparently, life is so dear and peace so sweet that slavery is no longer evil.

pax

 

[Nanook]

Pax, his entire speech gives me goose bumps, but that ending is killer. I've read that to people who couldn't care less about what we're fighting for and I've watched their eyes tear up. It always has the same effect on me.

 

[Drjones]

Could someone please post the Ben Franklin quote about temporary safety and the like...

 

[Nanook]

Just what the doctor ordered:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
---Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

 

[Butch]

Don't know that this qualifys as a quote but I've never read better.


[back]
"Metal and Wood"
by Dennis Bateman


The following essay was originally published at www.TheFiringLine.com

It is a rare person who does not attach some sort of value or emotion to some physical object or to an event. A home becomes more than a building. A statue of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix, a flag or a song, or even a photograph can stir emotions greater than the value of the material item.

I have a piece of paper showing I served in the military until I was discharged honorably. But, oh, the memories that piece of paper conjures up. The friends, the fun times. The bad times. The times when we were bound closer to strangers than to our own families and, in frightening chaos, our lives hung by a thread.

Many of our friends died far from home. Ask us about the feeling of "American soil" upon returning to the land we loved. Ask those returning soldiers about America.

Remember the old, faintly humorous band of American Legionnaires, wearing out-dated military uniforms straining at the buttons. But, God how proudly they marched. Grinning, waving to friends and families, and always, always "The Flag!" Ask them if the flag is mere cloth, I dare you.

See the elderly lady sitting in a lawn chair watching the fourth of July parade. Three flags carefully folded some forty years ago into triangles now rest in her lap - one for each lost son. Ask her if those flags are mere cloth, I dare you.

Look at the old man quietly crying, leaning against the Iwo Jiima Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. As he turns to you, smiles with some embarrassment, and says in a choked whisper, "I was there." Ask him, "Is it just metal and clay?" Ask him. I dare you.

The Wall. My God, the Wall. See the young man lightly tracing the name of his father there inscribed. Ask him if its just rock. Ask him. I dare you.

My guns? They’re of little real value compared to my family and my home. They are toys, or tools, or both. But what those guns represent to me is greater than all of us, greater than myself, my family, indeed greater than our entire generation. What could be of such value?

The freedom of man to live within civil, self-imposed limitations rather than under restrictions placed upon him by a ruler or a ruling class.

Imagine the daring, the bravery of a few men to declare they intended to create a new country, independent of the burden of their established Rulers!

Those men we call our forefathers were brilliant men. They could have maneuvered themselves into positions of influence within the structure of the times, but they did not. They struggled to free themselves from tyranny. They wrote the Declaration of Independence. And they backed up their words and ideals with metal and wood.

They knew the dangers of such dreams and actions. They knew it was a frightening and dangerous venture into the unknown when they dared reach beyond their grasp for a vision - for an ideal. But they dared to dedicate themselves to achieve Liberty and Freedom for their children, and their children’s children, through the generations.

Imagine the dreams and yearnings of centuries finally being reduced to the written word. The Rights of "We the People!" instead of the "Powers of the Monarchy."

Our forefathers dared to create a new government - a new form of government. And they knew that any organization has, as its first and foremost goal, its continued existence. Second only to that it strives to increase its power. It plots, it devises, it maneuvers to achieve control over its environment - over its subjects.

Our Forefathers decided to make America different from any country, anywhere, at any time in the entire history of the entire world. This country, this new nation of immigrants, would be based upon the concept that people could rule themselves better than any single person or small group of persons could rule them.

Other countries have had outstanding documents with guarantees for its citizens - but the citizens have become enslaved. How, these great men pondered, can we ensure this new government will remain subject to the will of the People?

They wanted limits upon this new government. Therefore, our forefathers wrote limitations into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And one of those Rights was that metal and wood, as the final power of the people, would secure this country for the future generations.

Metal and wood were the means by which we won our freedom.

Metal and wood were the means by which we kept our freedom.

Metal and wood may be the means by which we regain our freedom.

Metal and wood are the final power of the people. Take away the metal and wood and the people become powerless - they can only beg, they supplicate for favors.

We are unique in our ability to rule ourselves but we are letting it slip away. Today we compromise. We try to appease man’s insatiable appetite for power by throwing him bits of our freedoms. But the insatiable appetite for power can not be appeased. The freedoms we feed him only make us weaker and him stronger. We must conquer him and again ensure the "Blessings of Liberty" won for us by our forefathers.

We must be ready to use metal and wood again, for if we are ready, truly ready, we may be able to conquer the monster with words - for in its heart it is a coward. But if we continue to feed the monster our freedoms, we will become too weak to win, to weak even to fight, and we will become a conquered people. We will have sold ourselves and our future generations into servitude.

If words fail us, we will use metal and wood, we will regain what we have lost, we will achieve what we seek, we will guarantee the America of our forefathers for the future generations.

So you see, our guns are more than metal and wood. They are our heritage of freedom. They are the universally understood symbol that the government, no matter how big and strong it may be, answers to us! They are the tools we will use to prevent tyranny in the land of our forefathers and our children. So, ask me what my guns mean to me. Ask my children what our guns mean to them. Ask us. I dare you.