some already imported 26.3.2005, but there are more below...
%start%%cat=Freedom,Happiness,Liberty,Responsibility, Wisdom//%quote%How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot.//%Author%Albert Einstein//%end%
%start%%cat=Freedom,Liberty,Responsibility//%quote%Perfect Freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his
own work, and in that work does what he wants to do.//%Author%R. G. Collingwood//%end%
%start%%cat=Government,Socialism//%quote%The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life.
//%Author%Adolph Hitler//%Source%My New World Order, Proclamation to the German Nation at Berlin, February 1, 1933//%end%
%start%%cat=Economics,Government,Military,Socialism//%quote%Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.//%Author%George F. Kennan//%Date%1987//%Who%Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study and former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union.//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility//%quote%I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations. //%Author%Mary Wortley Montagu//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility, Proverbs//%quote%If you believe everything you read, you better not read. //%Author%Japanese Proverb//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility//%quote%At the bottom of a good deal of bravery... lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion. //%Author%E.H. Chapin//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility//%quote%He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. //%Author%Albert Einstein//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility//%quote%Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.//%Author%Oscar Wilde//%Source%De Profundis, 1905//%end%
%start%%cat=Honesty,Integrity,Responsibility//%quote%The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. //%Author%Anne Morrow Lindbergh//%end%
%start%%cat=Honor,Wisdom,Responsibility//%quote%When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.//%Author%Indian Saying//%end%
%start%%cat=Reason,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. //%Author%Edmund Burke//%Source%Second Speech on Conciliation, 1775//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility//%quote%If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. //%Author%Bishop Desmond Tutu//%end%
%start%%cat=Responsibility//%quote%Never ruin an apology with an excuse.//%Author%Kimberly Johnson//%end%
%start%%cat=Proverbs,Responsibility//%quote%Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped. //%Author%African Proverb//%end%
%start%%cat=Wisdom//%quote%Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. //%Author%Thomas Mann//%end%
%start%%cat=Truth//%quote%Ring out the old, ring in the new,/Ring, happy bells, across the snow:/The year is going, let him go;/Ring out the false, ring in the true.//%Author%Alfred, Lord Tennyson//%Date%1850//%end%
%start%%cat=Faith//%quote%Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all. //%Author%Emily Dickinson//%end%
%start%%cat=Faith,Sanity//%quote%Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be. //%Author%Don Quixote//%end%
%start%%cat=Democracy,Responsibility//%quote%I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. //%Author%Alexander Woollcott//%end%
%start%%cat=Independence,Responsibility//%quote%I am not an Athenian or a Greek, I am a citizen of the world. //%Author%Socrates//%end%
%start%%cat=Humor,Science//%quote%The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. //%Author%Douglas Adams//%Source%Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy//%end%
%start%%cat=Proverbs, Peace, War, Wisdom,Responsibility//%quote%The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war. //%Author%Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit//%end%
%start%%cat=Liberty,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch. //%Author%James Baldwin//%end%
%start%%cat=Arms,Defense,Power,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%"Those who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people."//%Author%Aristotle//%Source%quoted by John Trenchard (1662-1723) and Walter Moyle (1672-1721), "An Argument, shewing; that a standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy," (London, 1697)//%end%
%start%%cat=Arms,Defense,Power,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%"Here, every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this authority, I do not deny the inhabitants had a right to arm themselves at that time, for their defense, not for offense..."//%Author%John Adams//%Source%opening argument for the defense in_Rex. v. Wemms,_a 1770 case arising from the actions of a British soldier in the Boston Massacre, in Lyman H. Butterfield and Hilda B. Zobel, eds., _The Legal Papers of John Adams,_ vol.III, p.248 (MacMillan, 1965)//%end%
%start%%cat=Arms,Defense,Power,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%"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."//%Author%Andrew Fletcher (1655-1716)//%Source%quoted by James Burgh (1714-1775), in "Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses," (London, 1774-1775)//%end%
%start%%cat=Arms,Defense,Power,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%"It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control."//%Author%Samuel Adams//%Source% letter to Elbridge Gerry, October 29, 1775//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%
"His Lordship[ the Lord Sandwich]'s plan [...] amounts to this.
[The Americans, quoth this Quixote of modern days, will not
fight; therefore we will.] These people are either too
superstitiously religious, or too cowardly for arms; they either
cannot or dare not defend; their property is open to any one
who has the courage to attack them. Send but your troops and
the prize is ours. Kill a few and take the whole. Thus, the
peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile
and abandoned while they neglect the means of self-defense.
The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on
the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and
the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world, as well as
property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same
balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms,
for all would be alike; but since somewill not, others dare not
lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them
down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief
would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them;
for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man,
the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every
age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little
arguments when they prove themselves."
//%Author%Thomas Paine//%Source%"Thoughts on Defensive War,"
in The Pennsylvania Magazine, July 1775
//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
//%Author%Thomas Jefferson//%Source%motto found among his papers
and on his seal, c.1776 < >
"It is certainly of the last [or, ultimate] Consequence to
a free Country that the Militia, which is its natural Strength,
should be kept upon the most advantageous Footing. A standing
Army, however necessary it may be at some times, is always
dangerous to the Liberties of the People. Soldiers are apt to
consider themselves as a Body distinct from the rest of Citizens.
They have their Arms always in their hands. Their Rules and
their Discipline is severe. They soon become attach[e]d to their
officers and dispos[e]d to yield implicit Obedience to their
Commands. Such a Power should be watched with a jealous Eye.
I have a good Opinion of the principal officers of our Army.
I esteem them as Patriots as well as Soldiers. But if this War
continues, as it may for years yet to come, we know not who
may succeed them. Men who have been long subject to military
Laws and inured to military Customs and Habits, may lose the Spirit
and Feeling of Citizens. And even Citizens, having been used
to admire the Heroism which the Commanders of their own Army
have display[e]d, and look up to them as their Saviors may be
prevail[e]d upon to surrender to them those Rights for the
protection of which against Invaders they had employ[e]d and
paid them. We have seen too much of this Disposition among some
of our Countrymen. The Militia is compos[e]d of free Citizens.
There is therefore no Danger of their making use of their Power
to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to
invade them.
I earnestly wish that young Gentlemen of a military Genius
(& many such I am satified there are in our Colony) might be
instructed in the Art of War, and at the same time taught the
Principles of a free Government, and deeply impress[e]d with a
Sense of the indispensible Obligation which every member is under
to the whole Society. These might be in time fit for officers in
the Militia, and being th[ourough]ly acquainted with the Duties
of Citizens as well as Soldiers, might be entrusted with a Share
in the Command of our Army at such times as Necessity might require
so dangerous a Body to exist."
//%Author%Samuel Adams//%Source%letter to James Warren, January 7, 1776
"We hold these Truths to be Self evident; that all Men are
created equal and independent; that from that equal Creation
they derive Rights inherent and unalienable; among which are the
Preservation of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness;
that to secure these Ends, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the governed; that
whenever, any form of Government, Shall become destructive of these
Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government..."
//%Author%Thomas Jefferson//%Source%original draft of the U.S. Declaration
of Independence, July 1776
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of
servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home
from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down
and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly
upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
//%Author%attributed to Samuel Adams//%Source%August 1, 1776
<>
//%end%
%start%%cat=Arms,Defense,Power,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms, -- never --never --never! You cannot conquer America."//%Author%William Pitt (Earl of Chatham)//%Source%speech in the House of Lords, November 18, 1777 //%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power,War//%quote%
"To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to
conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in
the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and
beneficent sentiments of peace; and, that to model our political
systems upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate
on the weaker springs of the human character."
//%Author%Alexander Hamilton//%Source%writing as "Publius," in
_Federalist No. 34,_January 5, 1788
"But, sir, the people themselves have it in their power
effectually to resist usurpation, without being driven to an appeal
of arms. An act of usurpation is not obligatory; it is not law;
and any man may be justified in his resistance. Let him be
considered as a criminal by the general government, yet only
his fellow-citizens can convict him; they are his jury, and if
they pronounce him innocent, not all the powers of Congress can
hurt him; and innocent they certainly will pronounce him, if the
supposed law he resisted was an act of usurpation."
//%Author%Theophilus Parsons//%Who%(1750-1813)//%Source%in the Massachusetts Convention
on the ratification of the Constitution, January 23, 1788,
in_Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the
Federal Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.2 p.94
(Philadelphia, 1836) <>
"Is it possible... that an army could be raised for the purpose
of enslaving themselves and their brethren? or, if raised, whether
they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize
liberty, and who have arms in their hands?"
//%Author%Rep. Theodore Sedgwick//%Who%(1746-1813)//%Source%in the Massachusetts
Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, January 24,
1788, in_Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption
of the Federal Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.2 p.97
(Philadelphia, 1836)
"The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and
accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army,
must be _tremendous and irresistable_. Who are the militia?
_[A]re 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 birth-right 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._"
//%Author%Tench Coxe//%Who%(1755-1824)//%Source%writing as "A Pennsylvanian," in
_Pennsylvania Gazette,_ February 20, 1788 [see_A Documentary
History of the Ratification of the Constitution_(Kamiski and
Saladino, eds., 1981) p.1778-1780]
"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."
//%Author%Patrick Henry//%Source%in the Virginia Convention on the
ratification of the Constitution, June 5, 1788, in_Debates in the
Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.45 (Philadelphia, 1836)
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the
freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments
of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations."
//%Author%James Madison//%Source%June 6, 1788, in the Virginia
Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, in_Debates in
the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.87 (Philadelphia, 1836)
<>
"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing
degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own
defence? Where is the difference between having our arms in our
own possession and under our own direction, and having them under
the management of Congress? If our defence be the_real_object of
having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more
propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
//%Author%Patrick Henry//%Source%June 9, 1788, in the Virginia
Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, in_Debates in
the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.168 (Philadelphia, 1836)
"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way
to enslave them."
//%Author%George Mason//%Source%June 14, 1788, in the Virginia
Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, in_Debates in
the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.380 (Philadelphia, 1836)
<>
"The great object is, that every man be armed. [...] Every one
who is able may have a gun."
//%Author%Patrick Henry//%Source%in the Virginia Convention on the
ratification of the Constitution, June 14, 1788, in_Debates in the
Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.386 (Philadelphia, 1836)
"I ask, Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole
people, except for a few public officers."
//%Author%George Mason//%Source%in the Virginia Convention on the
ratification of the Constitution, June 16, 1788, in_Debates in the
Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.425 (Philadelphia, 1836)
<>
//%end%
%start%%cat=Arms,Defense,Power,Freedom,Independence,Responsibility//%quote%"Whenever, therefore, the profession of arms becomes a distinct order in the state... the end of the social compact is defeated... No free government was ever founded, or ever preserved its liberty without uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state... Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen."//%Author%M. T. Cicero//%Source%in Charleston_State Gazette,_ September 8, 1788//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be
infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the
best security of a free country; but no person religiously
scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military
service in person."
//%Author%James Madison//%Source%I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789
<>
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly
before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces
which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might
pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the
people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep
and bear their private arms."
//%Author%Tench Coxe//%Source%writing as "A Pennsylvanian," in "Remarks
On The First Part Of The Amendments To The Federal Constitution,"
in the _Philadelphia Federal Gazette,_ June 18, 1789, p.2 col.1
<>
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are
left in full possession of them."
//%Author%Zachariah Johnson//%Source%in the Virginia Convention on
the ratification of the Constitution, June 25, 1788, in_Debates
in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal
Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.646 (Philadelphia, 1836)
"This declaration of rights, I take it, is intended to secure
the people against the mal-administration of the government; if
we could suppose that, in all cases, the rights of the people would
be attended to, the occasion for guards of this kind would be
removed. Now, I am apprehensive, sir, that this clause would give
an opportunity to the people in power to destroy the constitution
itself. They can declare who are those religiously scrupulous,
and prevent them from bearing arms.
What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Now, it
must be evident, that under this provision, together with their
other powers, Congress could take such measures with respect to a
militia, as make a standing army necessary. Whenever Government[s]
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. This was actually done by Great Britain at the
commencement of the late revolution. They used every means in
their power to prevent the establishment of an effective militia
to the eastward. The Assembly of Massachusetts, seeing the rapid
progress that [the British] administration were making to divest
them of their inherent privileges, endeavored to counteract them
by the organization of the militia; but they were always defeated
by the influence of the Crown."
//%Author%Rep. Elbridge Gerry//%Source%Annals of Congress,
vol.I, p.750, August 17, 1789
[in _The Bill of Rights: A Documentary History,_ Schwartz, ed.]
<>
//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"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..."
//%Author%Samuel Adams//%Source%in_Debates and Proceedings in the
Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,_ pp.86-87,
(Pierce & Hale, Boston, 1850), also in Philadelphia_Independent
Gazetteer,_ August 20, 1789
//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%
"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under
independence. The church, the plow, the prarie wagon, and
citizen's firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the
Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and
tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness,
the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner
of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 99/100 percent of
them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands.
The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains
evil interference; they deserve a place with all that's good.
When firearms, go all goes; we need them every hour."
//%Author%George Washington//%Source%falsely attributed, address to the
second session of the first U.S. Congress
<>
"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."
//%Author%Thomas Paine//%Source%conclusion,_Dissertation on First
Principles of Government,_(Paris, July [4?,]1795) <>
//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"If, for example, a law be passed by congress, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates, or persuasions of a man's own conscience; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to assemble peaceably, or to keep and bear arms; it would, in any of these cases, be the province of the judiciary to pronounce whether any such act were constitutional, or not; and if not, to acquit the accused from any penalty which might be annexed to the breach of such unconstitutional act."//%Author%Henry St. George Tucker//%Who%(1780-1848)//%Source%ed., _Blackstone's Commentaries: with Notes of Reference, to the Constitution and Laws of the Federal Government of the United States; and of the Commonwealth of Virginia,_vol.1 p.357 (Philadelphia, 1803)//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier, and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so."//%Author%Thomas Jefferson//%Source% letter to Thomas Cooper (from Monticello, September 10, 1814)//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"Next to having stout and friendly comrades, a man is chiefly emboldened by finding himself well armed in case of need."//%Author%Sir Walter Scott//%Source%(1771-1832)//%Source%The Fortunes of Nigel, 1822//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"Tho[ugh] aware of the danger of universal suffrage in a future
state of Society such as the present state in Europe: he [Madison]
would have extended it so far as to secure in every event and change
in the state of Society a majority of people on the side of power.
A Government resting on a minority, is an aristocracy not a Republic,
and could not be safe with a numerical [and] physical force against it,
without a standing Army, and enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."
//%Author%James Madison//%Source%from an autobiographical sketch,
ca. 1831-1836, published as "James Madison's Autobiography,"
in_William and Mary Quarterly,_3rd series, vol. 2, p. 208, (1945)
<>
"[S] 1889. The next amendment is: '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.'
[S] 1890. The importance of this article will scarcely be
doubted by any persons who have duly reflected upon the subject.
The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden
foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations
of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people
to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time
of peace, both from the enourmous expenses, with which they are
attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and
unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the
rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear
arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties
of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the
usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even
if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people
to resist and triumph over them. And yet, though this truth would
seem so clear, and the importance of a well regulated militia would
seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised, that among the American
people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia
discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of its burthens,
to be rid of all regulations. How is it practicable to keep the
people duly armed without some organization, it is difficult to
see. There is certainly no small danger, that indifference may
lead to digust, and disgust to contempt; and thus gradually
undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national
bill of rights.
[S] 1891. A similar provision in favour of protestants (for to
them it is confined) is to be found in the bill of rights of 1688,
it being declared, 'that the subjects, which are protestants, may
have arms for their defence suitable to their condition, and as
allowed by law.' But under various pretences the effect of this
provision has been greatly narrowed; and it is at present in England
more nominal than real, as a defensive privilege."
//%Author%U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story//%Who%(1779-1845)//%Source%"Commentaries
on the Constitution of the United States; With a Preliminary Review
of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States before the
Adoption of the Constitution" pp.746-747 (Boston, 1833)
//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."//%Author%Daniel Webster//%Who%(1782-1852)//%Source%speech, June 3, 1834//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed
and degraded sense of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks
nothing _worth_ a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere
human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the
service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades
a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical
injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and
good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose
by their free choice, --is often the means of their regeneration.
A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing
which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety,
is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made
and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long
as justice and injustice have not terminated _their_ ever-renewing
fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be
willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other."
//%Author%John Stuart Mill//%Who%(1806-1873)//%Source%"The Contest In America," Fraser's
Magazine, February 1862 [reprinted in Mill's_Dissertations and
Discussions, vol.1 p.26 (1868)] <>//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%
"I am not hurt."
//%Author%Ulysses S. Grant//%Who%(1822-1885)//%Source%to his family and officers after
accidentally discharging a new breechloading rifle into his own hand
(the only gunshot wound the general suffered in his entire military
career), February 25, 1866
//%end%
%start%%cat=Learning,History,Power//%quote%"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand."//%Author%Susan B. Anthony//%Who%(1820-1906)//%Source%speech in San Franscisco, July 1871//%end%
"I was armed to the teeth with a pitiful little Smith & Wesson's
seven-shooter, which carried a ball like a homeopathic pill, and it
took the whole seven to make a dose for an adult. But I thought it
was grand. It appeared to me to be a dangerous weapon. It had only
one fault-- you could not hit anything with it."
//%Author%Mark Twain//%Source%Roughing It, (1872)
"The right of the people to peaceably assemble for lawful
purposes existed long before the adoption of the Constitution.
In fact, it is, and always has been, one of the attributes of
citizenship under a free government. It 'derives its source,' to
use the language of Chief Justice Marshall... 'from those laws whose
authority is acknowledged by civilized man throughout the world.'
It is found wherever civilization exists. It is not, therefore,
a right granted to the people by the Constitution. The government
of the United States when established found it in existence, with
the obligation on the part of the states to afford it protection.
As no direct power over it was granted to Congress, it remains...
subject to State jurisdiction. Only such existing rights were
committed by the people to the protection of Congress as came
within the general scope of the authority granted to the national
government. * * *
The second and tenth counts [of the indictment] are equally
defective. The right there [in the Second Amendment] specified
is that of 'bearing arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right
granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent
upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment
declares that it shall not be infringed; but this, as has been
seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress.
This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to
restrict the powers of the national government, leaving the people
to look for their protection against any violation by their fellow-
citizens of the rights it recognizes, to what is called... the
'powers which relate to merely municipal legislation, or what was,
perhaps, more properly called internal police,' [powers] 'not
surrendered or restrained' by the Constitution of the United
States."
//%Author%Justice Morrison R. Waite//%Who%(1816-1888) U.S. Supreme Court Chief
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