You [should] not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will
convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it
would do and the harm it would cause if improperly administered
-- Lyndon Johnson, former President of the U.S.
Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of
authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was
made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There
are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to
govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.
-- Daniel Webster
“America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,
but too early to shoot the bastards.” -- Claire Wolfe
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any
member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm
to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient
warrant. -- John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty", 1859
“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
Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils.
-- General George Stark.
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. -- Attributed to Charles Austin Beard (1874-1948)
The United States is in no way founded upon the Christian religion
-- George Washington & John Adams, in a diplomatic message to Malta.
A true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business;
supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state; supports the
National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon. -- Edward Abbey
The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably
by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for
the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot
be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime
in this country is closely connected with this.
-- Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", 1921
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may
be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons
than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may
sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those
who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they
do so with the approval of their consciences.
-- C. S. Lewis
[W]hat country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time that [the] people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms...The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Col. William S. Smith, 1787
Government: If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be
confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested.
If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against
clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of
Law. -- Edward Abbey
The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing
that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder.
-- Frederick Bastiat
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.
Find out just what 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, August 4, 1857
“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits
drawn around us by the equal rights of others.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
Government should be weak, amateurish and ridiculous. At present, it
fulfills only a third of the role. -- Edward Abbey
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a
troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left
to irresponsible action.”
-- George Washington, in a speech of January 7, 1790
No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound
to enforce it. -- 16 Am. Jur. Sec. 177 late 2d, Sec 256
“...The Bill of Rights is a literal and absolute document. The First
Amendment doesn't say you have a right to speak out unless the
government has a 'compelling interest' in censoring the Internet. The
Second Amendment doesn't say you have the right to keep and bear arms
until some madman plants a bomb. The Fourth Amendment doesn't say you
have the right to be secure from search and seizure unless some FBI
agent thinks you fit the profile of a terrorist. The government has no
right to interfere with any of these freedoms under any circumstances.”
-- Harry Browne, 1996 USA presidential candidate, Libertarian Party
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable.”
-- John F. Kennedy
All forms of government are pernicious, including good government.
-- Edward Abbey
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one
who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it
but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are
inevitably ruined.” -- Patrick Henry, speech of June 5 1788
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the
pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
-- Barry Goldwater (actually written by Karl Hess)
When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to
Washington as the center 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." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821
“Say what you like about my bloody murderous government,” I says,
"but don't insult me poor bleedin' country." -- Edward Abbey
Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law
places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the
service of the plunderers, and treats the victim -- when he defends himself --
as a criminal. -- Frederic Bastiat, "The Law"
What, then is law [government]? It is the collective organization of
the individual right to lawful defense."
-- Frederic Bastiat, "The Law"
The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
-- R. Buckminster Fuller