Confucius
"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."
Curran, John Philpot--Speech upon the Right of Election (1790)
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.".
Douglas, Frederick--Civil Rights Activist, 1857
"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
Edison, Thomas
"Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."
Hitler, Adolf
"1935 will go down in history! For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead in the future!"
Jefferson, Thomas
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themsleves against tyranny in government."
Kissinger, Henry--In an address to the Bilderberg organization meeting at Evian, France, May 21, 1992. Transcribed from a tape recording made by one of the Swiss delegates.
"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."
Lincoln, Abraham
"If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own - that thing is the preservation of their own liberties and institutions."
Rockefeller, David--Speaking at the June 1991 Bilderberger meeting in Baden Baden, Germany (a meeting also attended by then Governor Bill Clinton and Dan Quayle).
"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years." He went on to explain: "It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries."
Swinton, John--Former Chief of Staff at The New York Times, who was asked to give a toast before the prestigious New York Press Club in 1953. Swinton was admiringly called "the dean of his profession" by other newsmen. He made this candid confession:
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. "
Tucker, Henry St. George--In Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England."
"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."
Washington, George
"Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."