Category: Quote of the Day

“The primary fear we entertain today is that our “slaves” (machines) may be about to run out of “food” (oil) and our intricate civilization will come sputtering to a stop. There are lots of arguments about this, with wide differences of opinion about when the oil will run out, how fast we are using it up, and how much unknown oil remains hidden in the Earth’s crust. It really doesn’t matter. No one argues that the oil will not, in fact, run out sooner or later. It will. Certainly no one disputes that the Arabs, who have the largest reserves …

Sow seed-but let no tyrant reap; Find wealth-let no impostor heap; Weave robes-let not the idle wear; Forge arms-in your defense to bear. – Percy Bysshe Shelley, Song to the Men of England, 1819

Tappan’s universal rule of law: “The nobler the language, the more nefarious the purpose [of] any legal instrument.” – Mel Tappan

“Although we give lip service to the notion of freedom, we know that government is no longer the servant of the people but, at last, become the people’s master. We have stood by like timid sheep while the wolf killed – first the weak, then the strays, then those on the outer edges of the flock, until at last the entire flock belonged to the wolf.” – Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery

“Don’t believe them, don’t fear them, don’t ask anything of them.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

“I’d rather be over trained than under trained.” – Bruce Lee

“If you draw your sword against ‘your’ prince you must be prepared to throw away the scabbard.” – Machiavelli

Reader “LG” sent us this: Fed’s rescue halted a derivatives Chernobyl. JWR’s comment: I think “delayed” would have been a more accurate word than “prevented”, for the headline    o o o KAF flagged this Reuters article: Cities grapple with surge in abandoned homes    o o o RBS found a piece that is probably already “old news” to most SurvivalBlog readers: Cell Phones–FBI Can Listen In, Even When Phone is Turned Off    o o o Bee plague worsening, anxious keepers say

“[Recognition of] Peak Oil will never catch on in any major way, at least no more than the folks in the Tower of Babel economy ever caught on to the big flaw in their economic model. We’ve got 50 years invested in suburban buildout economy, 150 years invested in industrial living, and 500 years invested in the age of expansion to come to understand just what this means for us, at least in the aggregate.” – Matt Savinar, Editor of Life After The Oil Crash (LATOC)

“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meanings.” – Benjamin Franklin

"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." – Thomas Paine, "Common Sense", 1776

"Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the housetops" – Jesus, in Matthew 10:26, 27

“Men are expendable; women and children are not. A tribe or a nation can lose a high percentage of its men and still pick up the pieces and go on… as long as the women and children are saved. But if you fail to save the women and children, you’ve had it, you’re done, you’re through! You join Tyrannosaurus Rex, one more breed that bilged its final test.” – Robert A. Heinlein, “The Pragmatics of Patriotism” address at the U.S. Naval Academy, April 5, 1973, later published in the book “Expanded Universe” (1980)

"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." – Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States", Vol. 3, pp. 746-7, 1833

“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law 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 from Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.” – John Adams, A Defence of the Constitution of the United States Against the Attacks of M. Turgot, 1787