"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.” – Commonplace Book by Thomas Jefferson borrowing from Cesare Beccaria’s 1764 Dei delitti e delle pene ("On Crimes and Punishments")
"I, John Robbins, being of lawful Age, do Testifye and say, that on the Nineteenth Instant, the Company under the Command of Captain John Parker, being drawn up (sometime before sun Rise) on the Green or Common, and I being in the front Rank, there suddenly appear’d a Number of the Kings Troops, about a Thousand, as I thought, at the distance of about 60 or 70 yards from us Huzzaing, and on a quick pace towards us, with three Officers in their front on Horse Back, and on full Gallop towards us, the foremost of which cryed, throw down …
“Freedom is not a gift from heaven. It has to be fought for every day.” – Simon Wiesenthal
"Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for?" – William J. Bennett, lecture to the United States Naval Academy, November 24, 1997
“As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.” – Arthur C. Clarke
"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." – Thomas Jefferson
“I’m proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.” – Arthur Godfrey
"To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury. " – Benjamin Tucker, Instead of a Book
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” – Isaac Asimov
“If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t stupidity get us out? – Will Rogers
"We maintain [privately-owned] arms largely because we seek to prevent violence. Those that wish to disarm us do so that they may perpetrate it with impunity." – R. Murray
“A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.” – Winston Churchill
"Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders." – President Ronald Wilson Reagan
“So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobedience of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God’s grace, built this country.” – The Late Charlton Heston, from a speech to the Harvard Law School Forum, February 16, 1999
“There has been a decline in ethics and we’ve got to turn it around.” – Eliot Spitzer, quoted in 2007. (Spitzer was recently forced to resign his post as as New York Governor, after revelations about hiring prostitutes)