[PenultimateManStanding]

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" Sigmund Freud (or was that Bill Clinton who said that?)

[Agren]

Parafrased (and maybe not even accurate)

"If the meaning of life is not suffering, then our existence is the most meaningless in the universe"
Sören Kirkegaard

[k_semler]

"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not
warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure."

- Thomas Jefferson on the American revolution in his letter to William S. Smith Paris, Nov. 13, 1787

[k_semler]

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined,
but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a
status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them,
which would include their own government."

--George Washington

[k_semler]

"Those who are willing to sacrifice essential liberty,
for the promise of a little temporary security, deserve
neither."

--Benjamin Franklin

[k_semler]

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficient...The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."

--Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('John Trudell', 'W')ar Maker plans for war on stars.
Pretending we aren't stars too
isn't very bright.
Earth stars.
With jailbreak in our hearts

[BabyPeanut]

http://www.conelrad.com/atomicsecrets/s ... ecrets=e18
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')e reminded the Cabinet that in a real situation these will not be normal people – they will be scared, will be hysterical, will be "absolutely nuts". We are simply going to have to be prepared to operate with people who are "nuts". (Mr. Wilson at this point commented humorously that he could say he was used to working with people who were nuts.)

[k_semler]

"Are we at last brought to such umiliating and debasing degradationm that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?"
--Patrick Henry

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themseves against tyranny in government."
--Thomas Jefferson

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."
--George Mason

"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

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
--Thomas Jefferson

"To disarm the people (is) the best and most effectual way to enslave them..."
--George Mason

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms."
--Richard Henry Lee

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of 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."
--Noah Webster

EDIT:
"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government..."
--Alexander Hamilton

[k_semler]

"Government begins at the end of the gun barrel."
-- Chaiman Mao

"One man with a gun can control 100 without one. ... Make mass searches and hold executions for found arms."
--V.I. Lenin.

"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves."
--Joseph Stalin.

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. 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 pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
--Herman Goering

"We are taking the law and bending it as far as we can to capture a whole new class of guns."
--Jose Cerada

"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ..."
--Bill Clinton, (USA TODAY, 11 March 1993, page 2A)

"You must govern well. To govern well you need good propaganda. Good government without propaganda is unthinkable , as is good propaganda without good government."
--Dr. Joseph Goebells

[GD]

This one's a classic:
"That's the spirit, George. If nothing else works, then a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through."
General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Blackadder Goes Forth).

I don't think he's famous, but I thought this was a classic anyhow:
"Getting involved in anything Middle Eastern politics, is like trying to step in and fix a totally dysfunctional family: various factions sink their hooks into you, and you're done for."
GG3

[k_semler]

Research had been done to determine the longevity of many of the great civilizations, which have existed in world history. The conclusion was that those great civilizations had endured for an average close to two hundred years.

The historical cycle of great civilizations first progressed, then regressed as follows:

All civilizations began in bondage, then proceeded;
from bondage to great spiritual strength,
from great spiritual strength to freedom,
from freedom to abundance,
from abundance to complacency,
from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependence,
from dependence back to bondage

--Bound to be Free, L. Arthur Womer, Jr., Ph.D

Where is America in this cycle? Where is the EU in this cycle?

[EnviroEngr]

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Attributed for now to:
Michael_Allison


{Trace to: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1473538}

[maverickdoc]

Rome was built in a day

-unknown

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('maverickdoc', 'R')ome was built in a day
-unknown

[RiverRat]

Some ridiculous quotes from the maniacal dictator himself …

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic. – Joseph Stalin

Death solves all problems - no man, no problem. – Joseph Stalin

[maverickdoc]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('maverickdoc', 'R')ome was built in a day
-unknown

[PenultimateManStanding]

How about this, maverick, 'no roads lead to Rome'? Or how about 'a stitch in time saves not a goddam thing' or 'it really does help to cry over spilt milk'. 'The early bird should have slept in, screw the worm',
or 'early to bed, early to rise make a man a square'. or 'blessed be the meat, for it shall inherit the Earth.'

[maverickdoc]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'H')ow about this, maverick, 'no roads lead to Rome'?

[Kaminyu]

" To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or 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

"The last official act of any government is to loot the nation." -- Michael Rivero