They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin, 1755, to the Pennsylvania State Legislature

Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it. - Germaine Greer

In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was nobody left to speak up. - Reverend Martin Niemoller, Germany, 1930's

No constitution, no court, no law can save liberty when it dies in the hearts and minds of men. - John Perkins

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. - James Madison

In order for an act to be a crime, libertarians say, someone must be harmed -- there must be a victim. Anything that's peaceful, voluntary, and honest should be tolerated regardless of whether we agree with it. Part of the price of our own freedom is allowing others to be free. - Scott Banister, www.libertarian.org

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. - Voltaire

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain, Notebook 1904

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts. - Baruch Spinoza, "Ethics" (1677)

It's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it. - Unknown

You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one. - Rush Limbaugh, 17 Aug 1993

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years. - Niccolo Machiavelli

No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms.- Thomas Jefferson, proposal for Virginia's constitution of 1776.

There already are 20,000 federal gun laws and regulations on the books. If those laws haven't made America safe by now, why should we think 20,001 laws will suffice?- Harry Brown, Libertarian

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. - Edward Abbey

When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered. - Dorothy Thompson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. - Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Abigail Adams, Paris, Feb. 22, 1787

All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.- Edmund Burke

All warfare is based on deception. - Art of War, Sun-Tzu, Chapter 1, Paragraph 18.

There never was a good war or a bad peace. - Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), "Letter to Josiah Quincy, Sept. 11, 1773."

The catch-all phrase "the war on terrorism", in all honesty, has no more meaning than if one wants to wage a war against "criminal gangsterism". Terrorism is a tactic. You can't have a war against a tactic. It's deliberately vague and non-definable in order to justify and permit perpetual war anywhere and under any circumstance. - Congressman Ron Paul, Republican, 14th district Texas, from a speech given on the house floor, 2007

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. - Robert Orben

When we turn to the government to stop someone from ruining his life with drugs, we convert a personal tragedy into a national disaster. - Harry Brown, Libertarian Party

More Americans die in just one day in prisons, penitentiaries, jails, and stockades than have ever died from marijuana throughout history. Who are they protecting? From what? - Fred Oerther, M.D., Portland Oregon, September, 1986

A drug is neither moral nor immoral - it’s a chemical compound. The compound itself is not a menace to society until a human being treats it as if consumption bestowed a temporary license to act like an ***hole. - Frank Zappa

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber - Plato

To steal from one person is theft. To steal from many is taxation. - Daiell's Law (a take-off on Felson's Law)

Serfs in the Middle Ages had to give up 20% of their income yearly and that made them virtual slaves. Today the average American pays 47%. What does that make Americans? - Kenneth Prazak, Secretary of the Libertarian Party of Illinois (Apr 14, 2000)

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul. - George Bernard Shaw

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. - Thomas Jefferson