Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.” KJV
George Washington
“The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitution of government. But the Constitution which at any times exists, ’til changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all.”
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
“Remember that it is the actions, and not the commission, that make the officer, and that there is more expected from him, than the title.”
“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. When firearms go, all goes.”
John Adams
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
“All the perplexities, confusions, and distress in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
“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.”
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
“Most bad government has grown out of too much government.”
James Madison
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
“We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.”
“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.”
Samuel Adams
“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
“Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.”
Thomas Paine
“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”
“Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.”
Patrick Henry
“United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
Alexander Hamilton
“The members of the Legislative department … are numerous. They are distributed and dwell among the people at large. Their connections of blood, of friendship, and of acquaintance embrace a great proportion of the most influential part of the society. … they are more immediately the confidential guardians of their rights and liberties.”
“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”
Abraham Lincoln
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
Noah Webster
“If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”
Daniel Webster
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.”
Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence
“Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”
John Adams
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God?”
George Washington
“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy”
John Adams
“Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it.”
John Adams
“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”
James Madison
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.”
John Adams
“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.”
Thomas Jefferson
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
George Washington
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter”
Benjamin Franklin
“Without Freedom of thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of speech”
“In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech”
Thomas Jefferson
“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”
James Madison
“Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust their people with arms”
Samuel Adams
“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms . . .”
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 pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.”
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 exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.”
Thomas Paine
“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”
Abraham Lincoln
“We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts–not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
George Washington
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world”
Calvin Coolidge
“We do not need to import any foreign economic ideas or any foreign government. We had better stick to the American brand of government, the American brand of equality, and the American brand of wages. America had better stay American”
from Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787
A lady asked Dr. Franklin (Benjamin) Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy — “A republic,” replied the Doctor, “if you can keep it.”
John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819
“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation”.
In Branzburg v. Hayes (1972)
“the U.S. Supreme Court described freedom of the press as “a fundamental personal right” that is not confined to newspapers and periodicals”
In Lovell v. City of Griffin (1938)
the Chief Justice of the Supreme court defined “press” as “every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion”
S.G. Tallentyre
“I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
George Orwell
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”
Bill Moyers
“If you think there is freedom of the press in the United States, I tell you there is no freedom of the press… They come out with the cheap shot. The press should be ashamed of itself. They should come to both sides of the issue and hear both sides and let the American people make up their minds”
Justice Anthony Kennedy
“The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.”
Frank Norris
“People have a right to the Truth as they have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Floyd Abrams
“It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on.”
Harry Truman
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
Noam Chomsky, speaking in a BBC television interview with John Pilger on The Late Show (1992)
“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
Adali E. Stevenson
“The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty”
Hugo Black
“The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have [to] bare the secrets of government and inform the people.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. “
Jerry W. Friedheim
“A free press was born when America was born. It was not handed down or inherited. The concept of press freedom was deliberately constructed by the framers of our Constitution to instill the spirit of independence as an absolute, crucial ingredient in the creation, existence and survival of a free society”.
Thomas Erskine
“The press must be free; it has always been so and much evil has been corrected by it. If government finds itself annoyed by it, let it examine its own conduct, and it will find the cause.”
James Madison
“Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused. A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power which knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
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 bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.”
Thomas Paine
“The duty of a Patriot is to protect his country from its government.”
Dr. Michael Ellner
“Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religions destroy spirituality.”
George Washington
“Americans would die on their feet rather than live on their knees.”
Samuel Adams
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. … May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
Julius Caesar
“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”
Thomas Jefferson
“A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny”.
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government”.
Benjamin Franklin
“This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. 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 religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.(big government)”
James Madison
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
Bruce Coville
“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”
Christopher Dodd
“When the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.”
John Lindsa
“Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order.”
E.B. Hall
“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
Noah Webster
“Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America’s basic text book in all fields. God’s Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.”
Samuel Adams Essay in the Public Advertiser, 1749
“The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”
Thomas Jefferson
“…the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.”
French economist, statesman and author Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
George Mason, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776
“That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”
Albert Gallatin, New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789
“The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals …. It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.”
John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814
“Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”
Winston Churchill
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.“
Frederick Douglass
“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; …. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. “
John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814
“Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873), English economist & philosopher, On Liberty, 1859
“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”
Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850)
“That the said Constitution shall never be 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 … “
Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188
“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”
Richard Henry Lee, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
“Whereas, 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; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.”
Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788
“Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American…[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.”
Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789
“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.”
George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380
” … to disarm the people – that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
Hubert H. Humphrey, Senator, Vice President, 22 October 1959
“Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms … The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard, against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible.”
Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, p. 3:746-7, 1833
“The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally … enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”
Abraham Lincoln
“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood … It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
Abraham Lincoln
“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.”
President Grover Cleveland 1888
“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear, or is trampled beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1902
“Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to serve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”
Teddy Roosevelt 1912
“We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.”
Thomas Jefferson to Larkin Smith, 1809
“The selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.”
Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
“A wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
James Madison, Essay on Property, 1792
“Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own.”
John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”
Thomas Jefferson
“I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements.”
Thomas Paine
“Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have”
Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of Banking & Currency Committee, in 1932
“The truth is the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the Government of the United States. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks government at will …”
George Washington
“If ever again our nation stumbles upon unfunded paper, it shall surely be like death to our body politic. This country will crash.”
Frederick Douglass
“Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the constitution is a Glorious Liberty Document!” – in an antislavery oration delivered July 5, 1852.
“Property will produce for us the only condition upon which any people can rise to the dignity of genuine manhood. … Knowledge, wisdom, culture, refinement, manners, are all founded on work and the wealth which work brings. … without money, there‘s no leisure, without leisure, no thought, without thought, no progress.”
Robert Dowlut
(J.D. 1979 Howard Univ., Attorney for the National Rifle Association) – “A written constitution is a reminder that governments can be unreasonable and unjust. By guaranteeing that ―[a] well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,‖ the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the citizens a means of protection against the unjust excesses of government.” – Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL‘Y REV. 25,25 (1997)
“Victims of genocide cannot expect other nations to come to the rescue. … Given the helpless position of these peoples, weapon control laws have been called ―gateways to victim oppression and genocide.‖ It matters little if the people could eventually be defeated by an oppres-sive government, because history teaches that ―armed citizens continue to give pause to far better armed governments even in the age of nuclear wea-pons and intercontinental missiles.‖ … Modern day civil wars demonstrate that an armed people can deter government oppression and successfully defend themselves.” – Arms: A Right to Self-Defense Against Criminals and Despots, 8 STANFORD L. & POL‘Y REV. 25 (1997).
Hugh Downs
(ABC News Correspondent) – “The NRA has a point about the inadvisability of simply taking guns away from the populace. If that were possible, it would not disarm that small percentage of the populace willing to break the law. . . . Punishing people who obey the law is backward thinking.” – April 5, 1995 ABC News Radio interview.
Lt. Lowell Duckett
(President of Washington D.C.‘s Black Police Caucus) – “Gun control has not worked in D.C. The only people who have guns are criminals. We have the strictest gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. It‘s quicker to pull your Smith and Wesson than to dial 911 if you‘re being robbed.” – made in reference to a meeting between police and city residents held to discuss what firearms were legal for self-defense within D.C. March 19, 1996; quoted in the WASHINGTON POST, front page, March 22, 1996.
Clint Eastwood
(Oscar winning Actor and Director) – “Abuse of power isn’t limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we’re not vigilant. … At Waco, was there really an urgency to get those people out of the compound at that particular time? Was the press going to make it look heroic for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms? At Ruby Ridge, there was one guy in a cabin at the top of the mountain. Was it necessary for federal agents to go up there and shoot a 14-year-old in the back and shoot a woman with a child in her arms? What kind of mentality does that? … Those in power get jaded, deluded, and seduced by power itself. The hunger for absolute power and, more to the point, the abuse of power, are a part of human nature.” – in an essay written for the January 12, 1997 issue of PARADE Magazine.
Richard M. Eberling
“Who is the fascist? Individualism and the political philosophy of limited government is not only inconsistent with but is the exact opposite of fascism and Nazism. Under fascism and Nazism, the state reigns supreme with absolute power over everyone and all forms of property. It can well be asked: who is the fascist, when the president of the United States and many Democrats and Republicans in congress call for expanded authority for the FBI and other federal security agencies to intrude into the lives of the American citizenry? Who is the fascist, when the call is made for increased power for the FBI to undertake ―roving wiretapping‖ or have easier access to the telephone and credit-card records of the general population? Who is the fascist, when the proposal is made to make it easier for the FBI to investigate and infiltrate any political organization or association because the government views it as a potential terrorist danger?” – The Oklahoma Tragedy and the Mass Media, THE TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL, 83 (Future of Freedom Foundation 1997).
Albert Einstein
“The strength of the constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are constitutional rights secure.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Monarchy becomes despotism, aristocracy becomes oligarchy, democracy becomes mob rule, chaos and dictatorship”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants”
Edmund Randolph May 31, 1787 told his fellow members of the newly assembled Consitutional Convention that the reason the delegates had met was
“to provide a cure for the evils under which the United Sates Labored; that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and trials of democracy“
Elbridge Gerry
“The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want [that is] do not lack virtue, but are dupes pretended patriots.”
Alexander Hamilton June 21, 1788 Speech
” It had been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience had proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity”
“We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy“
James Madison
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
John Marshall who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835
“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos”.
Herbert Spencer
“The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this requires the highest type of human nature – a type nowhere at present existing”
Thomas Babington Macaulay
“I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.”
Benjamin Disraeli 1850 Speech to the British House Of Commons
“If you establish a democracy, you must in due time reap the fruits of a democracy. You will in due season have a great impatience of public burdens, combined in due season with great increase of public expenditure. You will in due season have wars entered into from passion and not from reason; and you will in due season submit to peace ignominiously sought and ignominiously obtained, which will diminish your authority and perhaps endanger your independence. You will in due season find your property is less valuable, and your freedom less complete.”
W.H. Seward
“Democracies are prone to war, and war consumes them”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors”
H.L. Mencken
“The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step.”
Ludwig Lewisohn
“Democracy, which began by liberating man politically, has developed a dangerous tendency to enslave him through the tyranny of majorities and the deadly power of their opinion.”
The Duke Of Northumberland 1931 booklet The History of World Revolution
“The adoption of Democracy as a form of Government by all European nations is fatal to good Government, to liberty, to law and order, and must eventually produce a state of chaos from which a new world tyranny will arise”
De Tocqueville
“If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event will arise from the unlimited tyranny of the majority”
1928 US Army Training Manual
“Democracy – A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any form of direct expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic – negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demagogism, license agitation, discontent, anarchy.”
William Penn
“True Godliness doesn’t turn men out of the World, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavors to mend it.”
“Government, seems to me to be a part of religion itself – a thing sacred in its institutions and ends.”
Franklin Pierce 1804 – 1869 the 14th President Of The United States Inaugural Address, March 4, 1853
“It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation’s humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.”
Daniel O’Connell 1775 – 1847 member of the English Parliament, 1829-1847
“Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong.”
North American Review 1867
“The American government and the Constitution is the most precious possession which the world holds, or which the future can inherit. This is true−true because the American system is the political expression of Christian ideas.”
New Haven Colony Charter April 3, 1644
“The Judicial laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses are to be a rule to all the courts in this jurisdiction.”
Sir Isaac Newton
“God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportion to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them.”
James McHenry 1753 – 1816 One of the signers of the Constitution of The United States
“In vain, without the bible, we increase penal laws and draw intrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong intrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience.”
William Holmes McGuffey 1800 – 1873 American educator and President of Ohio University
“The christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions.”
Jonathan Mayhew 1720 – 1766
“It is evident that the affairs of civil government may properly fall under a moral and religious consideration for, although there be a sense, and a very plain and important sense, in which Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, His inspired apostles have nevertheless, laid down some general principles concerning the office of civil rulers, and duty of subjects, together with the reason and obligation of that duty.”
Matthew Fontaine Maury 1806 – 1873 scientist and pioneer hydrographer
“I have always found in my scientific studies, that, when I could get the Bible to say anything on the subject it afforded in the ladder by which I could safely ascend. As four knowledge of nature and her laws has increased, so has our knowledge of many passages of the Bible improved. The Bible called the earth ” the round world,” yet for ages it was the most damnable heresy for Christian men to say that the world is round; and finally sailors circumnavigated the globe, and proved the Bible to be right, and saved Christian men of science from the stake”
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts 1774
“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual….Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.”
George Mason 1725 – 1792 was the Father of the Bill of Rights who insisted the first ten amendments be added to the Constitution
“The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.”
Martin Luther 1483 – 1546 Leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany
“I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advised no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.”
“In his life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live; in his death, he is a sacrifice, satisfying our sins, in his resurrection, a conqueror, in his ascension, a king; in his intercession, a high priest.”
John Locke wrote The Second Treatise on Civil Government 1690
“Human Laws are measures in respect of Men whose Actions they must direct, albeit such measures they are as have also their higher Rules to be measured by, which Rules are two, the Law of God, and the Law of Nature; so that Laws Human must be made according to the general Laws of Nature, and without contradiction to any positive Law of Scripture, otherwise they are ill made”
Congress of the Confederation July 13, 1787
“Article III Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.”
Stephen Grover Cleveland 1837 – 1908, served as both the 22nd and 24th President of The United States
“The citizen is a better business man if he is a Christian gentleman, and, surely, business is not the less prosperous and successful if conducted on Christian principles. All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship. Those who manage the affairs of government are by this means reminded that the law of God demands that they should be courageously true to the interests of the people, and that the Ruler of the Universe will require of them a strict account of their stewardship.”
Francis Marion Cockrell 1834 – 1915, a U.S. Senator from Missouri five consecutive terms declared in 1875
“Christianity is a reality, not an appearance. Were it a myth devised by cunning impostors, it would have come to naught before this. It has done more to fraternize the races than all human systems of religion together. The Bible is supreme over all books. Besides it there is none other. Its Divine truths meet the wants of a world wide humanity.”
Tom Campbell Clark 1899 – 1977, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
“The Founding Fathers believed devoutly that there was a God and that the unalienable rights of man were rooted not in the state, nor the legislature, nor in any other human power but in God alone.”
Cassius Marcellus Clay 1810 – 1903 A statesman and a diplomat to Russia under President Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant
“The Bible, the record of Divine Revelation, is the one Book of religion and morals. Of all religious systems the Christian is most in unison with the law of God and the needs of man. The spirit of God inspires all living things. Jesus Christ is the leading inspiration, and is, therefore Divine.”
Rufus Choate 1799 – 1859, was a lawyer, Congressman and U.S. Senator
“No lawyer can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”
Samuel Chase 1741 – 1811, who was appointed Justice on the United States Supreme Court by George Washington & signer of the Declaration of Independence
“By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty.”
Lewis Cass 1782 – 1866, was a American soldier, lawyer, politician and diplomat
“Independent of its connection with human destiny hereafter, the fate of republican government is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian religion, and a people who reject its holy faith will find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions and of arbitrary power.”
George Washington Carver 1939 was awarded the Roosevelt Medal, with the declaration:
“To a scientist humbly seeking the guidance of God and a liberator to men of the white race as well as the black.”
“The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, [“In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path”].”
James Gillespie Blaine 1830 – 1893, was the Secretary of State under President James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison, and the Speaker of the House and a congressman for 20 years
“No proverb ever supplanted the patience of Job or the wisdom of Solomon. Moses has never been surpassed in statesmanship. A scientific theology is pointing out the footprints of the Creator to common sense. The brotherhood of man, the Fatherhood of God, is becoming the corner stone of religion, as revealed in Christ, and as clearly traced in human history.”
Sir William Blackstone 1723 – 1780, was the English jurist who had a leading role in forming the basis of Law in America. Blackstone expressed the presuppositional base for law:
“Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being…..And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his maker’s will….this will of his Maker is called the law of nature.”
“These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil…..This law of nature dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.”
Henry Ward Beecher 1813 – 1887, a famous American editor, abolitionist and clergyman
“Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and still man’s obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard.”
“If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.”
“A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school to Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.”
“The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on the rocks or bars.”
Lyman Beecher wrote in the newspaper, The Spirit of the Pilgrims:
“The government of God is the only government which will hold society, against depravity within and temptation without, and this it must do by the force of its own law written upon the heart. This is that unity of the Spirit and that bond of peace which can alone perpetuate national purity and tranquility—that law of universal and impartial love by which alone nations can be kept back from ruin. There is no safety for republics but in self government, under the influence of a holy heart, swayed by the government of God.”
John Quincy Adams 1767 – 1847, was the 6th President of The United States, son of John Adams, the 2nd President
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, t he principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity”
“From the day of the Declaration….they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.”
Noah Webster 1758 – 1843, was a statesman, educator, lexicographer and author of Webster’s Dictionary
“The bible was America’s basic text book in all fields”
“God’s Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct”
“The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion”
“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe free Constitutions of Government.”
“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be spuandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”
Daniel Webster 1782 – 1852, was a famous politician and diplomat
“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
“Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits. Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”
“Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”
“The Bible came with them. And it is not to be doubted, that to free and universal reading of the bible, in that age, men were much indebted for right views of civil liberty. The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of special revelation from God; but it is also a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man.”
Dr Martin Luther King Jr 1929 – 1968, was a social justice crusader, and a baptist preacher. He fought for civil rights, which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“We in the West must bear in mind that the poor countries are poor primarily because we have exploited them through political or economic colonialism.”
“A religion true to its nature must also be concerned about man’s social conditions.”
“A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.”
“Any religion which professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a dry-as-dust religion.”
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
“In order to be true to one’s conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.”
“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.”
“Laws only declare rights; they do not deliver them. The oppressed must take hold of laws and transform them into effective mandates.”
“How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”
“there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Marcus Mosiah Garvey 1887 – 1940, was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur
“There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all effort to surround himself throughout life with the evidence of it; as of the individual, so should it be of the nation.”
” Great principles, great ideals, know no nationality.”
“Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.”
“We must give up the silly idea of folding our hands and waiting on God to do everything for us. If God had intended for that, then he would not have given a mind. Whatever you want in life, you must make up your mind to do it yourself.”
“Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.”
“A man’s bread and butter is only insured when he works for it.”
“I have come across so many weaklings who profess to be leaders and in the test I have found them but the slaves of a nobler class. They perform the will of their masters without question”
“Never forget that intelligence rules the world and ignorance carries the burden. Therefore, remove yourself as far as possible from ignorance and seek as far as possible to be intelligent.”
“There is nothing in the world that you want that you cannot have so long as it is possible in nature and men have achieved it before. The greatest men and women in the world burn the midnight lamp. That is to say, when their neighbors and household are gone to bed, they are reading, studying and thinking.”
“The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.”
“The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no futher than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.”
“Ideals of liberty, freedom and righteousness do not prosper in the 20th century except they coincide with oil, rubber, gold, diamond, coal, iron, sugar, coffee, and such other minerals and products desired by the privileged, capitalist and leaders who control the system of government.”
“Every student of political science, every student of political economy, every student of economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation; that the race can only be save through political independence. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race and you have a slave race.”
“The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.”
“This propaganda of dis-associating Western Negroes from Africa is not a new one. For many years white propagandists have been printing tons of literature to impress scattered Ethiopia, especially that portion within their civilization, with the idea that Africa is a despised place, inhabited by savages, and cannibals, where no civilized human being should go, especially black civilized human beings. This propaganda is promulgated for the cause that is being realized today. That cause is COLONIAL EXPANSION for the white nations of the world.” ( In 1884, a time when most of Africa had yet to be colonized, 13 European countries and the United States met in Berlin to divide Africa up among themselves. At the conference, geometric borders were drawn across Africa, completely ignoring the continent’s cultural differences. Though the borders were established over 100 years ago, they still exist today and are responsible for much of the turmoil and trauma among the now independent African countries)
Malcolm Little 1925 – 1965, was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement
“I do not pretend to be a divine man, but I do believe in divine guidance, divine power, and divine prophecy. I am not an educated man, nor am I an expert in any particular field but I am sincere, and my sincerity is my credential.”
” I want to be remembered as someone who was sincere. Even if I made mistakes, they were made in sincerity. If I was wrong, I was wrong in sincerity. I can deal with a person who was wrong, as long as they were sincere.”
“I could spend the rest of my life reading. Just satisfying my curiosity because you can hardly mention anything I’m not curious about.”
“Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from.”
“Be a man. Earn what you need for your own family. Then your family respects you. They are proud to say that’s my father. She is proud to say, that’s my husband. Father means you’re taking care of your children. Husband means you’re taking care of your wife. You are accepting the responsibilities of manhood.”
“The media’s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
“Of all our studies, it is history that is best qualified to reward our research.”
“I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based on the color of the skin.”
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
“I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation. Every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such regardless of their color.”
“If your not careful. The newspapers will have you hating the people who being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
“Concerning nonviolence; it is criminal to teach people not to defend themselves, when they are the victims of constant brutal attacks”
“Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”
“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you cant face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.”
“Speaking like this doesn’t mean that we’re anti-white, but it does mean we’re anti-exploitation, we’re anti-degradation, we’re anti-oppression.”
“Once I was (racist), yes. But now I have turned my direction away from anything that’s racist.”
“The price of freedom is death.”
“We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.”
“When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won’t do to get it, or what he doesn’t believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn’t believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire or preserve his freedom.”
“What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.”