IF ANYONE HAS ANY GOOD FREEDOM QUOTE SUGGESTIONS CONTACT DON WASSON sfrt@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.us - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." (Thomas Jefferson) "The word politics is derived from the words "poly" meaning many and "ticks" meaning blood sucking parasites" (Anonymous) "The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this --- that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot." (Lysander Spooner) "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Ben Franklin) "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force" (George Washington) "A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves" (Juvenal) "The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves" (Dresden James) "In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to return among the latter is not to degrade but to promote them" (Ben Franklin) "A congressman is a pig. The only way to get his snout from the trough is to rap it sharply with a stick" (Henry Adams) "Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue where the law abiding deprived the use of them." (Thomas Paine) "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule" (Menken) "The right to be left alone...the right most valued by civilized men" (Louis Brandeis) "Sooner or later all politicians die swallowing their own lies" (Claire Luce) "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any public official, save exactly to the degree he himself stands by the country." (Theodore Roosevelt) "Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!" (Thomas Jefferson) "Their nature...is to argue and procrastinate, yet we persist in electing lawyers to Congress" (Ben Franklin) "Liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them" (Lenny Bruce) "Most stupid people are conservative, but not all conservatives are stupid" (John Stuart Mill) "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and prepare for it. (Patrick Henry) "Our acts of liberty are our strongest propaganda" (Paul Goodman) "Americans are so enamoured of equality they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom" (Alexis de Tocqueville) "Education - compulsory schooling, compulsory learning - is a tyranny and a crime against the human mind and spirit. Let all those escape it who can, any way they can" (John Holt) "To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive" (Robert Louis Stevenson) "There is no such thing as a majority right. Only those who understand and act according to this principle can promote true freedom" (Harry H. Hoiles) "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax" (Albert Einstein) "Democracy is a form of religion, it is the worship of jackals by jack asses" (H. L. Menken) "Peace, commerce, and honest freindship with all nations - entangling alliances with none" (Thomas Jefferson) "Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it's worst an intolerant one" (Thomas Paine) "No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (Thomas Jefferson, proposal Virginia Constitution, June 1776) "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..." (Samuel Adams) "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (Voltaire) "You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence." (C. A. Beard) 70216 dw Additional quotes added locally: Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -Louis Dembitz Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941)