Interesting Quotes for Thinking People
(This list gets longer every day!)

Collected at the http://www.mouseguns.com website

"Life is truly like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it gets to
the end, the faster it goes."
Anonymous Genius

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,
it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security..."
The Declaration of Independence

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a
nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
liberties are a gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot
sleep forever."
Thomas Jefferson

"Greek Tragedy is the tragedy of necessity; i.e., the feeling aroused
in the spectator is ‘What a pity it had to be this way’; Christian
tragedy is the tragedy of possibility, ‘What a pity it was this way
when it might have been otherwise.’" 
W. H. Auden

"You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that
cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from
the Great Legislator of the Universe."
John Adams

"As my father used to say, Son, don't ever beg anybody to
take your money."
Stoky

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose." 
Ronald Reagan

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from
the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan 
  
"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have
looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."      
Ronald Reagan

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at
one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." 
Ronald Reagan

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a
nation gone under." 
Ronald Reagan

"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable
as the will and moral courage of free men and women." 
Ronald Reagan

"Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation
to break the law."
Henry David Thoreau 

"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out
the exact amount of injustice and wrong, which will be imposed upon
them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either
words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed
by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
Frederick Douglass, Aug. 4, 1857

"A NATION OF WELL INFORMED MEN WHO HAVE BEEN TAUGHT TO KNOW AND PRIZE
THE RIGHTS WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN THEM CANNOT BE ENSLAVED. IT IS IN THE
REGION OF IGNORANCE THAT TYRANNY BEGINS."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

"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

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

"Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from
the subjects of government. The history of liberty is a history of
resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of
government power, not the increase of it."
Woodrow Wilson - from a speech in New York City, September 9, 1912 

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty
when the Government's purposes are benificient....The greatest dangers
to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-mening
but without understanding."
Justice Brandeis in Olmstead v. U.S., 277 US 438, 479 (1927) 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 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 to 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."
The Declaration of Independence (1776)

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's
will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
Thomas Jefferson 

"A man's got to know his limitations."
Harry Callahan

"You just fulfilled the first rule of law enforcement: make sure when
your shift is over you go home alive. Here endeth the lesson."
Jim Malone in The Untouchables

"There are no dangerous weapons, there are only dangerous people."
Heinlein

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for."
Will Rogers 

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good
blaster at your side, kid."
Han Solo 

"Though defensive violence will always be a sad necessity in the
eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if
wrongdoers should dominate just men."
St. Augustine

"Gun control, the theory that 110lb. women should have to fistfight
with 210lb. rapists."
Chris Morton

"Socialism needs two legs on which to stand; a right and a left.
While appearing to be in complete opposition to one another, they
both march in the same direction."
Paul Proctor

"Nobody has to put up with aggression and surrender his right of
self-defense for fear of hurting somebody else, guilty or innocent.
When someone comes at you with a gun, if you have one ounce of
self-esteem, you will answer him by force, never mind who he is
or who is behind him. If he is out to destroy you, that is what
you owe to the sanctity of your own life."
Ayn Rand 

"We all know that at the end of the day, Blue Helmets on American
Soil are fair game."
Geekwitha45

"To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists
dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad
guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead.
Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em."
Ted Nugent

"There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. Any gun in the hands
of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent person
is no threat to anybody -- except bad people."
Charlton Heston 

"I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children
can be careless. But not men."
Vito Corleone

"Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and
gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm
always gonna have a gun."
Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, gangster 

"Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits
of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo
for his dishonesty."
John Joseph Bonforte, in "Double Star"

"No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law."
Robert Heinlein

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once."
Robert Heinlein

"The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed than
the citizenry. An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is the foundation
of civil freedom."
Robert Heinlein

"There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men."
R.A.Heinlein

"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you cannot make him think."
Robert Heinlein (Colonel Dubois in Starship Troopers)

"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine 'that violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure
up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and
let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury
might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon.
Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has
any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at
its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid
for it with their lives and freedom."
Robert Heinlein (Colonel Dubois in Starship Troopers)

"One way or another, any government which remains in power is a representative government. If your city government is a crooked machine,
then it is because you and your neighbors prefer it that way
-- prefer it to the effort of running your own affairs."
Robert Heinlein

"That a free citizen should have to go before a committee, hat in hand,
and pray for permission to bear arms - fantastic! Arm your daughter, sir,
and pay no attention to petty bureaucrats."
Robert Heinlein ("Doc" in Red Planet)

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how
he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and
productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs
to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
Suzanna Gratia Hupp, Texas State Rep.

"I could, literally, die any second. When you live with the idea
a while, it isn't scary, anymore. How you draw your last breath
is more important than when."
Anonymous

"Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders
itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

"Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills."
Gunnery Sargeant Hartman, R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket

"A master is one who, after studying a thousand techniques, finds
three he can use any time, and to perfection."
Shaolin adage. 

"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state
but from the hand of God."
John F. Kennedy

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent
of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States 

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."
Confucius

"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times
of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."
Dante 

"That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not
only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to
the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them
to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The winner of gunplay was the one who took his time. I would shun
flashy trick-shooting, grandstand play, as I would poison. In all
my life as a frontier peace officer, I did not know a single
proficient gunfighter who had anything but contempt for the
gun-fanner or the man who shot from the hip."
Wyatt Earp 

"Death before dishonor is a stupid, boastful vainglorious thing for
people to say unless the people who say it really mean it, in which
case you had better immediately get out of their way!"
Winston Churchill

"Free men do not ask permission to bear arms."
Anonymous 

"I have yet to hear anyone afflicted with the gun control disability
dial 9-1-1 and specify, Now please be sure to send the kind of cops
who are disarmed. If you can't do that, we'd rather you not send
anyone at all to stop the men who are holding my daughter at knifepoint,
because in this household we don't believe that guns ever solve anything." VIN SUPRYNOWICZ

"If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then
be prepared to accept barbarism."
Thomas Sowell

"If you are unwilling to defend even your own lives, then you are
like mice trying to negotiate with owls. You regard their ways as
wrong. They regard you as dinner."
John Farnam 

"If you look like a rabbit, and act like a rabbit, you will be
treated like a rabbit -- prey for all predators."
Stony Loft

"When you need to shoot, shoot; don't talk."
Eli Wallach as Tuco, in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away
from the people who didn't do it."
William Burroughs

"The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns,
we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise
they will win and the decent people will lose."
James Earl Jones, actor

"One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not
agree that "violence begets violence."  I told him that it is my
earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would very much like to
ensure-and in some cases I have-that any man who offers violence
to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return
than he can enjoy."
Col. Jeff Cooper, from "Cooper vs. Terrorism," Guns & Ammo Annual, 1975

"Though defensive violence will always be a sad necessity in the eyes
of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers
should dominate just men. 
St. Augustine (354-430 AD)

"Never part with your weapons when you are in the field. You never
know when on some lengthy plain, you may suddenly need your spear."
Norse Saying from The Havamal

"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free."
A.E. Van Vogt

"If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."
Yiddish proverb

"An idea is like a bullet...No one knows how far it will travel
or what its effect will be..."
Louis L'Amour 

"Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes
be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms."
Andrew Jackson, 7th USA President

"We're not going to let you do that."
"Who's WE?"
"Smith, Wesson and ME."
Harry Callahan

"A gun, is one of the few things in the world, that if you NEED one,
nothing else will do. If you need one and dont have one you will
probably never need one again."

"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carry a war arm...
is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right
to keep and bear arms. 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."
Arkansas Supreme Court-1878 

"Necessity is the excuse for every infringement of human liberty.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
William Pitt

"It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of
vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion."

"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.
We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful."
C.S. Lewis

"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for
those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have
failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and
silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to
oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However
improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them
unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
Justice Alex Kozinski, US 9th Circuit Court, 2003

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every
form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Thomas Jefferson

"The legendary governor of Louisiana, Huey P. Long, when discussing
the political risks inherent in communications, once said, "Never
write what you can phone; never phone what you can say in person;
never say what you can wink." The governor was describing a continuum
of risk and security in communications. For the armed civilian, we
could come up with a parallel list: "Never shoot what you can baton;
never baton what you can spray; never spray what you can punch;
never punch what you can walk away from." Less is best."
Syd

Thomas Jefferson

"The gun... insures that the people are the equal of their
government whenever that government forgets that it is servant
and not master of the governed."
Ronald Reagan

"Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long,
which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing."
Judges 3:16
(Ehud was one of the "Judges" who delivered Israel
from foreign oppressors.)

"I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;  but
You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to
shame.  In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your
name forever."
Psalm 44:6-8

"Government: A group of elected and unelected officials you pay to
make decisions for you that you'd never make for yourself."
Mark Driver

"Serenity is when you are at home at night with doors locked,
this is called Condition Green.  Condition Yellow is when you
are dodging 'incomings' --the annoyances of everyday life,
background; these can not be prevented, only avoided--
Condition Red is when you are returning incomings.
Problem with most people is that they walk around in
Condition Green..."
John D. Taylor

"Christian parents should aim to raise their children with
a warrior mindset in which they recognize the antithesis and
seek not to accommodate the enemies of God but to win them
by the proclamation of the word. 'For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ'
(2 Cor. 10:3-5). As the children learn to recognize falsehood,
they will be less likely to succumb to it. As they are busy
counteracting the lie, it will be more difficult for the lie
to influence them. Children who are trained to be spiritual
warriors are more likely to remain faithful as they become adults."
www.patriarch.com

"We are weapons -- rifles are mere tools."

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been
considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic." --U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, writing for the Court, 1833

"My life is simple, my food is plain, and my quarters are
uncluttered. In all things, I have sought clarity. I face
the troubles and problems of life and death willingly. Virtue,
integrity and courage are my priorities. I can be approached,
but never pushed; befriended but never coerced; killed but
never shamed."
Yi Sunshin, Last letter to an old friend.
 
"You can prevent your opponent from defeating you through
defense, but you cannot defeat him without taking the offensive."
Sun Tzu

"From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half
were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers
posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the
wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and
held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at
his side as he worked."
Nehemiah 4:16-18

"Protecting your home is not vigilantism."

"To fight and conquer in one hundred battles is not the highest
skill. To subdue the enemy with no fight at all, that's the
highest skill."
Sun Tsu

"So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword."
Exodus 17:13

"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men
stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
George Orwell

"If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he
must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the
sheep.  If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he
dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed;  but if it happens
after sunrise, he is guilty of bloodshed.  A thief must certainly make
restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his
theft."
Exodus 22:1-3

"Those who seek power are not to be trusted with it."

"Chance favors the prepared mind....."

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for
its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which
they defend."
J.R.R.Tolkien, The Two Towers

"Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. 
May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in
their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the
peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles
of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the
glory of all his saints."
Psalm 149:5-9

"I did not venture down that dark alley - might have been a couple of
dudes with a baseball bat."

"You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive."

"Look! It is Solomon's carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the
noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in
battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of
the night."
Song of Solomon 3:7-8

"Refuse to be a sheep....be a sheepdog!"

"I mean, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, why would ANY civilian want
to carry a concealed firearm when the police are perfectly capable of
protecting us?!?"

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

"For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be
afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's
servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer."
Romans 13:4

"No tyrant should ever be allowed to die a natural death."

"You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before
you.  Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will
chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before
you."
Leviticus 26:7-8

"A gun in the hand beats a cop on the phone!"

"They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. If
only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their
end will be!"
Deuteronomy 32:28-29

"You can't argue logic with ignorance."

"(Jesus) 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

"Deception is a tactical weapon that is often ignored."

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able
to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell."
Matthew 10:28

"Never bring a knife to a gun fight.  Never bring a gun
to a knife fight.  Know the difference."

"Tomorrow's battle is won during today's practice."
Samurai maxim
 

"Trying to outdraw a man who already has pistol in hand is asking for
him to put holes in your hide."

"I didn't do it, but I thought about it. Next time I might."

"Better to know what you don't know than to think you know what you
don't know."

"All strangers are dangerous until proven otherwise."

"See what happens when a tax collection agency gets to decide what is
taxable?"

"Foster and polish
The warrior spirit
While serving in the world;
Illuminate the path
According to your inner light"

"Spring forth from the great earth;
Billow like great waves;
Stand like a tree, sit like a rock;
Use One to strike All.
Learn and forget!"

"At the instant
A warrior confronts a foe,
All things come into focus."
Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) Founder of Aikido

"Blessed be the LORD my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and
my fingers to fight."
Psalm 144:1

"It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. 
He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high
places.  He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken
by mine arms."
Psalm 18:32-34

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your
government when it deserves it."
Mark Twain

"A SUPERIOR SAILOR is one who uses his SUPERIOR JUDGEMENT
to avoid situations requiring the use of his SUPERIOR SKILLS."

"With over 5000 years of history behind us there
is no excuse, when fighting, not to fight well."

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone
under independence. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to
the present day, events occurences and tendencies prove that
to ensure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol
are equally indispenable. The very atmosphere of firearms
everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a
place of honor with all that's good."
George Washington

"Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective
way to enslave them."
James Madison

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must,
like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
Thomas Paine

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are
always ready to guard and defend it."
Daniel Webster

"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse
gets the cheese."

"He who dies with the most possessions is still dead."

"Don't you meddle with old unloaded firearms.  They are
the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been
created by man...A youth who can't hit a cathedral at
thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three-quarters of an
hour can take up an old empty musket and bag his grandmother
every time at a hundred."
Mark Twain "Advice to Youth" speech, 1882

"Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice."

"All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from
the flintlock of your musket."

"Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the
one you lose."

"Never give a bad guy the first shot.  Never give a bad
guy a fair chance.  Never turn your back on a bad guy."

"Always draw on a drawn gun, and do it quick."

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there
is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."
Mark Twain

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
Benjamin Franklin

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those
who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better
for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than
to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked
with greater confidence than an armed man."
Thomas Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting
from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist
Cesare Beccaria, 1764

"A gun in the hand beats a cop on the phone."

"Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
Latin: "A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the
killer's hand."
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius

"Every good communist should know that political power
grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Mao Tse Tung

"The best way to survive a gun fight is to avoid it
to begin with."
Grayfox

"The right to bear arms is inherent in the right of self defense,
defense of the family, and defense against tyranny, conferred
on the individual and the community by our Creator to safeguard
life, liberty, and property, as well as to help preserve the
independence of the nation.  The right to keep and bear arms is
guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution; it may
not properly be infringed upon or denied.  The Constitution Party
upholds the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms. We
oppose attempts to prohibit ownership of guns by law-abiding
citizens, and stand against all laws which would require the
registration of guns or ammunition.  We emphasize that when guns
are outlawed, only outlaws will have them. In such circumstances,
the peaceful citizen's protection against the criminal would be
seriously jeopardized.  We call for the repeal of all federal
firearms legislation, beginning with Federal Firearms Act of 1968.
We call for the rescinding of all executive orders, the prohibition
of any future executive orders, and the prohibition of treaty
ratification which would in any way limit the right to keep
and bear arms."
The Constitution Party Platform

"We oppose all laws at any level of government restricting,
regulating or requiring the ownership, manufacture, transfer
or sale of firearms or ammunition. We oppose all laws
requiring registration of firearms or ammunition. We support
repeal of all gun control laws. We demand the immediate
abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms."
Libertarian Party Platform

"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."
Noah Webster

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be
to allow the subjected people to carry arms."
Adolph Hitler

"Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and
plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world.
Horrid mischief would ensue were the good deprived
of the use of them."
Thomas Paine

"When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

"The right of the citizen to bear arms is just one more
safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in
America, but which historically has proved to be always
possible."
Hubert H. Humphrey

"I think you can make better use of iron than forging it
into chains. If you must have the metal, put it into
Sharpe's rifles. It is a great deal better used that
way than in fetters." (1859)
Wendell Phillips

"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature.
When the right of the people to keep and bear arms is,
under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited,
liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink
of destruction."
St. George Tucker, in his edition of Blackstone's "Commentaries"

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to
protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent.
Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of
their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to
liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal,
well-meaning but without understanding."
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
Dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 479 (1928)

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.
Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties
of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia,
in order to raise an army upon their ruins."
Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Signer of the
Declaration of Independence, VP of the United States 1813-1814,
spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment,
I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789

"It is not the function of the government to keep the
citizen from falling into error; it is the function of
the citizen to keep the government from falling into
error."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

"Gun Control is life insurance for those Government Officials
scheming to steal the rest of your Bill of Rights."
SaveOurGuns.Com

"There is only one guarantee if you are disarmed -
the Government, military,  and criminals will have weapons
and guns.  They will be the exclusive holders of force.
As such, they will control you (they will OWN you and
your family).  With force, at their whim, they will decide
what is to be done with you."
SaveOurGuns.Com

"If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child
may have peace."
Thomas Paine

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending
too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree
of it."
Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791

"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world.
It is God's gift to humanity.”
George W. Bush

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"If nothing changes....nothing changes."

"Where law ends -- tyranny begins."

"Today's mighty oak is just another nut that held its ground."

"Where tyranny begins, government ends."
Samuel West (1776, Boston)

"No law of the civil magistrate can bind in opposition to
the Divine Law."
J. Buckley (1773, Connecticut)

"As oppression makes a wise man mad, so it makes a
righteous God angry."
J. Hancock (1772, Massachusetts)

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the
people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when
young, how to use them."
Richard Henry Lee (a signer of the Declaration of Independence)

"There are more deadly weapons per person in Switzerland than any
other nation, yet it is the freest, safest, most democratic
country on earth.  If guns were the problem, the Swiss should
all be dead."
Patrick and John Henry

"If we are not governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants."
William Penn

"He that has no sword wherewith to defend himself against robbers
and assassins will find a great want of it, and will wish that
he had sold his garment and bought a sword."
Matthew Henry

"Give me liberty, or give me death."
Patrick Henry

"The bottom line is that at a certain point there is not only the
right, but the duty, to disobey the State."
Francis Schaeffer in A Christian Manifesto

"The registration of all guns is ALWAYS a preparation
for their confiscation."
Patrick and John Henry

"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."
Chris Meissen

"Si vis Pacem, Para bellum - If you want Peace, prepare for War."

"Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those
who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise
win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win."

"We would not allow our subjects to have guns, why would we
let them have ideas of their own?"
Josef Stalin

"The inherent right of the people to reform their government,
I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist
unconstitutional laws without overturning the government."
Daniel Webster (1782-1852) US Senator

"There's only one principle of war, and that's this: hit the
other fellow as quick as you can and as hard as you can,
where it hurts him the most, when he ain't looking."

"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get
you killed."
Bruce Springsteen

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping
it will eat him last."
Prime Minister Winston Churchill

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for
something sometime in your life."
Sir Winston Churchill

"If you can breathe, thank God!  If you can read, thank a teacher!
If you are reading this in English, thank a Veteran!"

"You can afford to have a temper or you can afford to carry
a gun. You CAN'T afford both."
Goalie

"We have the right to defend ourselves from attackers
but not to terrorize the tourists."

"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of
the people who are evil, but because of the people who
don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men
to do nothing."

"If we could get everyone in the world to close their eyes and
imagine world peace for an hour, think about how serene it would
be until the looting started."

"Among other evils which being unarmed brings you,
it causes you to be despised."
Niccolo Machiavelli

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.
Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately,
nothing will preserve it but downright force.
Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined."
Patrick Henry, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify
the Constitution (1788)

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in
politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce
man:  brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds,
however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to
be a patriot."
Mark Twain

"Never do an enemy a minor injury."

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents,
more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.  On some
great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach
their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron."
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

"If a bullet expands and penetrates 6" and another bullet does
not expand, but penetrates 12", which one does more damage?"

"Three Fundamental Rules of Practical Firearms Safety--
The firearm is loaded until you personally have proved it is not.
Aim the firearm at nothing you do not intend to kill.
If you cannot accommodate rules 1 and 2, put the firearm down."

"Far better it is to dare mighty things than to take rank
with those poor timid spirits who know neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt (1899)

"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert A. Heinlein

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with
the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson

"A government that outlaws guns is an outlaw government." 

"Any government that fears arms in the hands of its citizens,SHOULD" 

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed." 

"Don't buy the lie! Gun control is PEOPLE control." 

"Free men do not ask permission to bear arms." 

"Gun Control works, ask any Communist Country!" 

"Gun control works. Ask Schindler's Jews." 

"Trust no government that wants to disarm its citizens." 

"Guns don't murder people, criminals murder people." 

"Have you ever heard of an armed robbery at a gun show?"

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India,
history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation
of arms, as the blackest."
Gandhi's Autobiography page 446

"All greatness of character is dependent on individuality.
The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes
in common with all around him, will never have any other
than an existence of mediocrity."
James Fenimore Cooper

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
Edmund Burke (1784)

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is
tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers
for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.
It works the same in any country."
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering

"If a man does his best, what else is there?"
General George S. Patton

"A shot never fired,is always a miss."

"There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.
It must be the core of Western policy that there be no
sanctuary for terror. Self-defense is not only our right,
it is our duty."
Ronald Reagan 1986

"Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a
lack of courage."
Confucius

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and will preserved body, but
rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally
worn out, and proclaiming...."WOW What a Ride!!"

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch."
Benjamin Franklin

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams

For a brief review: Newton's Law states that for every force, there must exist an equal and opposite force.

"The energy necessary to "knock a man down" when delivered from a
firearm would also knock down the person firing that round. Of course,
good firing stance and "anticipation" of the discharge can help the
shooter remain standing even if the round DOES have enough energy
delivery to knock the opponent down.  I'm reminded of the Dirty
Harry scene in the diner (where Harry gets too much sugar in his
coffee) when the bad guy is shot by Harry's S & W model 29. The
BG flies backward through the window while Harry fires ONE-HANDED."
Lee

Availability [You have to have it with you.]
Reliability [It has to 'go bang.']
Penetration [It has to reach important bits.]
Placement [You have to hit important bits.]

"The truth is that the greatest foes of our right to keep and bear
arms are the masses of timid, soft, thoughtless, fearful citizens
of whatever religion who wish to abdicate the responsibility of
self-defense, wh' wish to remain children forever and to turn over
all guns to the "adults' in positions of authority: politicians,
the police, the military. If these sad creatures don't grow up,
we are in for very bad times indeed."
Brian Puckett

"The good man has both right and need for arms; no law would
dissuade the invader and the plunderer from having them.  Since
some will not, others dare not lay arms aside.  Horrid mischief
will ensue if the law-abiding are deprived of the use of arms.
The weak will become a prey to the strong."
Thomas Paine

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real
advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would
take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may
drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction.
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature.
They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to
commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage
to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of
the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which
can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed,
would put an end to personal liberty - so dear to men, so dear to
the enlightened legislator - and subject innocent persons to all
the vexations that the quality alone ought to suffer? Such laws
make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants;
they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an
unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed
man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful
of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated
facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences
and advantages of a universal decree."
Cesare Beccaria

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people
of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their
own arms."
Samuel Adams, Massachusetts’ U.S. Constitution ratification
convention in 1788

"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under
independence. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present
day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure
peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally
indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere
restrains evil interference—they deserve a place of honor
with all that's good."
George Washington, Jan. 7, 1790, speech to Congress

"The highest number to which a standing army can be carried in any
country does not exceed one hundredth part of the souls, or one
twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This portion
would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than
twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed
a militia amounting to near half a million citizens with arms
in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves,
fighting for their common liberties and united and conducted
by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It
may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could
ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Besides
the advantage of being armed, it forms a barrier against the
enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which
a simple government of any form can admit of. The governments
of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did,
the people would surely shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America
did. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America
with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the
rights of which they would be in actual possession than the
debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs
from the hands of their oppressors."
James Madison

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people.
The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and
a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another,
must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms.
But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call
his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses;
else he lives precariously, and at discretion."
James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into
Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses [London, 1774-1775]

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed
and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks
that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing
for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important
than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no
chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of
better men than himself." 
John Stuart Mill

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion:
the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases,
while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage
of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by
brute force."
Ayn Rand, The Nature of Government

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things
have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night
to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive
and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of
mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a
quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in
their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs
door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they
had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs
hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, polkers,
or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time
that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you
could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of
a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on
the street with one lonely chauffeur -- what if it had been driven
off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have
suffered a shortage of officers and transport and,
notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would
have ground to a halt!  If... if... We didn't love freedom enough.
And even more -- we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent
ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried
to submit. We submitted with pleasure! ........... We purely and
simply deserved everything that happened afterward."
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956

"That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or
labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job
to see that it stays there."
George Orwell

"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 constitutional privilege."
Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878

"A Golf Course is the willful and deliberate misuse of a
Perfectly good Rifle Range!"

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even
his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty
he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine

"One may speak of peace only with those who are peaceful.
To talk peace with he who holds a drawn sword is foolish,
unless one is unarmed, and then one must talk very fast
indeed."
Louis L'Amour

" To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world
incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death.
How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How
unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic."
Ted Nugent

"Why would anyone believe that a person who would ignore laws
against murder, would obey gun laws?"
Gary Conway

"If you don't understand weapons you don't understand fighting.
If you don't nderstand fighting you don't understand war. If you
don't understand war you don't understand history. And if you don't
understand history you might as well live with your head in a sack."
Colonel Jeff Cooper

"As to liberty, the heroes who signed the great document pledged
themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is never
unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of
patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural
human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least
likely to be cheap and is never free of cost."
Robert Heinlein

"A reasonable working assumption is that the guy who comes to
collect your guns on Monday will be back for your person on Tuesday."

"Four Laws of Firearm Safety
1) All firearms are loaded. - There are no exceptions. Don't pretend
that this is true. Know that it is and handle all firearms
accordingly. Do not believe it when someone says: "It isn't loaded."
2) Never let the muzzle of a firearm point at anything you are not
willing to destroy. - If you would not want to see a bullet hole in
it do not allow a firearm's muzzle to point at it.
3) Keep your finger off the trigger unless your sights are on the
target. - Danger abounds if you keep your finger on the trigger when
you are not about to shoot. Speed is not gained by prematurely placing
your finger on the trigger as bringing a firearm to bear on a target
takes more time than it takes to move your finger to the trigger.
4) Be sure of your target and what is behind it. - Never shoot at
sounds or a target you cannot positively identify. Know what is in
line with the target and what is behind it (bullets are designed
to go through things). Be aware of your surroundings whether on
a range, in the woods, or in a potentially lethal conflict."
Jeff Cooper

"Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a
guitar makes you a musician."
Jeff Cooper

"Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is doing it. Right is right,
even if nobody is doing it."
St. Augustine

"This is a free country: and I have the permits, licenses, stamps,
tags, stickers, background checks and tax receipts to prove it."

"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye 
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go."

"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for
those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have
failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and
silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to
oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However
improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them
unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
Justice Alex Kozinski, US 9th Circuit Court, 2003

“Molon Labe: A Response to Tyranny”
“Go and tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie."

In the 5th century BC, mankind was still living the way he had been
since the dawn of history. Existing in either scattered tribal villages
or in kingdoms and empires ruled by god-kings. All except for one rocky corner of the Mediterranean world where a new idea had taken root: the concept of free citizens who owed allegiance to their nation and not
a king. They were imperfect, true; women’s rights were, well, a
non-concept and although racism was largely unknown, equal-opportunity slavery was widespread. Still and all, though, they enjoyed a measure
of freedom unknown in the stagnant empires of the Nile, Yangtze, Indus,
and Tigris-Euphrates river valleys. They were not subjects, they were
the world’s prototypical citizens. Unfortunately, just across the
Aegean Sea the largest empire in the known world was looking Westward
with greedy eyes. When word reached them that Emperor Xerxes of Persia
was crossing the Dardanelles with an army of as many as 250,000 men, prospects for their continued freedom looked grim indeed.

It would take time for the scattered city-states to raise their armies
of citizen-soldiers, so those that could sent what contingents were
available to serve in a ‘Multinational Field Force’ commanded by one
of the two elected kings of Sparta, Leonidas. With its backbone
provided by Leonidas’ bodyguard of 300 Spartan soldiers, the force
numbered some 4,000. Leonidas positioned this group at
the ‘Hot Gates’; Thermopylae, a narrow place on the coast road
from the north, to hold back the Persian advance and buy time
for the rest of the city-states to issue the call to arms. Manning
a hastily-constructed wall across the narrow strip between mountains
and sea, it was not long before the Greeks faced the massive Persian
host assembled on the thin strip of coast ahead of them. When the
defenders were not impressed into surrender by the sight of his army,
Xerxes sent forth a herald offering simple terms “Lay down your
weapons, and you will be allowed to live.” Leonidas responded with
the only answer a free citizen can give to that question:

“Molon Labe”; ancient Greek for “Come and get them”.

To the brave men in that narrow pass so long ago, freedom was more
important than anything; even their lives. May we ever remember that
fact should we be issued the same degrading terms."

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only
prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of
freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing
to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."
John F. Kennedy

"Never part with your weapons when you are in the field.
You never know when on some lengthy plain, you may suddenly
need your spear."
Norse Saying from The Havamal

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous
that these people have these weapons at all."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his
enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes
a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed
and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks
that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing
for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important
than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no
chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of
better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Mao Tse-tung

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people
of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping
their own arms."
Samuel Adams

"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords,
and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the
birth-right of an American."
Tench Coxe 2/20/1788

"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state
but from the hand of God."
John F. Kennedy

"How we burned in the prison camps later thinking: What would things
have been like if every security operative, when he went out at night
to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive?"
Alexander Solzhenitzyn, Gulag Archipelago

"Only a coward supports gun control, you know how to stop car jacking?
Shoot the carjacker. If someone is going to kill me for my Buick,
I'm gonna shoot until I'm out of ammo, and then I'll call 911."
Ted Nugent, People Magazine, 1994

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Winston Churchill

"Turkey established gun control in 1911. From 1915 through 1917,
1.5 MILLION Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
up and exterminated.  The Soviet Union established gun control in 1929.
From 1929 through 1953, 20 MILLION political dissidents, unable
to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.  Germany
established gun control in 1938. From 1939 through 1945, 13 MILLION
Jews, Gypsies, HOMOSEXUALS, the mentally ill, and other "mongrolized"
people, were rounded up and exterminated.  China established gun
control in 1935. From 1949 through ???, 20 MILLION political
dissidents and others, unable to defend themselves, have been
rounded up and exterminated.  Cambodia established gun control in 1956.
From 1975 through 1977, 1 MILLION "educated people", unable to
defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.  Guatemala
established gun control in 1964. From 1964 through 1981, 100,000
native Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
up and exterminated.  Uganda established gun control in 1970.
From 1971 through 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend
themselves, were rounded up and exterminated."

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than
has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking
at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always
paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

"Laws don't stop criminals. People do."

“Little boys need three things—a dog, a gun and a dad...
Get him a gun. Not a play gun, but a real gun. Play guns are
the most dangerous guns in the world.”      
Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be
reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." 
His Holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
Bertrand de Jouvenel

"The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed
than the citizenry. An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is
the foundation of civil freedom."
Robert Heinlein

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything
that counts can be counted."
Albert Einstien 1879-1955

"There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. Any gun in the
hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent
person is no threat to anybody -- except bad people."
Charlton Heston

"The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know
anything about the subject."
Marcus Aurelius

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting that vote."
Benjamin Franklin

"There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand;
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand."
Herman Melville "The Martyr"

"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom,
that it must steal in upon them by degrees and must disguise
itself in a thousand shapes in order to be received."
David Hume,1742

"Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness
for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle
than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar."
Sir Winston Churchill

"This is the law.  The purpose of fighting is to win.
There is no possible victory in defense.  The sword is more
important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.
The final weapon is the brain.  All else is supplemental."
John Steinbeck

"The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle
anywhere, anytime, and with utter recklessness."
Robert Heinlein

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the
minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate
and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an
habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity,
and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue.
If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy,
they will grovel all their lives."
John Adams

Excerpt from The Weapon Shops of Isher

Lucy Rall smiled and shook her head. "You don't understand," she said.
"The Weapon Shops were founded more than two thousand years ago by a man
who decided that the incessant struggle for power of different groups was insane and the civil and other wars must stop forever. It was a time when
the world had just emerged from a war in which more than a billion people
had died and he found thousands of people who agreed to follow him. His
idea was nothing less than that whatever government was in power should
not be overthrown. But that an organization should be set up which would
have one principal purpose-to ensure that no government ever again obtained complete power over its people. A man who felt himself wronged should be
able to go somewhere to buy a defensive gun. You cannot imagine what a
great forward step that was. Under the old tyrannical governments it was frequently a capital offense to be found in possession of a blaster or a gun." Her voice was taking on emotional intensity now. It was clear that
she believed what she was saying. She went on earnestly. "What gave the founder the idea was the invention of an electronic and atomic system of control which made it possible to build indestructible Weapon Shops and to manufacture weapons that could only be used for defense. That last ended all possibility of Weapon Shop guns being used by gangsters and other criminals and morally justified the entire enterprise. For defensive purposes a Weapon Shop gun is superior to an ordinary or government weapon. It works on mind control and leaps to the hand when wanted. It provides a defensive screen against other blasters, though not against bullets but since it is so much faster, that isn't important."
She looked at Cayle and the intentness faded from her face. "Is that what
you wanted to know?" she asked.
"Suppose you're shot from ambush?" Cayle asked.
She shrugged. "No defense." She shook her head, smiling faintly. "You really don't understand. We don't worry about individuals. What counts is that many millions of people have the knowledge that they can go to a Weapon Shop if they want to protect themselves and their families. And, even more important, the forces that would normally try to enslave them are restrained by the conviction that it is dangerous to press people too far. And so a great balance has been struck between those who govern and those who are governed."
Cayle stared at her in bitter disappointment. "You mean that a person has to save himself? Even when you get a gun you have to nerve yourself to resist? Nobody is there to help you?"
It struck him with a pang that she must have told him this in order to show him why she couldn't help him.
Lucy spoke again. "I can see that what I've told you is a great disappointment to you. But that's the way it is. And I think you'll realize that's the way it has to be. When a people lose the courage to resist encroachment on their rights, then they can't be saved by an outside force. Our belief is that people always have the kind of government they want and that individuals must bear the risks of freedom, even to the extent of giving their lives."
A.E. Van Vogt

"The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes,
as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus,
and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world... The first step in the direction of preparation to avert war
if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come is to teach men
to shoot!"
Theodore Roosevelt