d90king
18th April 2009, 10:34
Stole this from another site and as a history buff I love to read many of the thoughts of our forefather's.
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of Independence ...
The third President of the United States ...
"If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence"
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them"
"The law of self-preservation is higher than written law"
"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day: But a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of Ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to Slavery"
"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"
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have .... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases"
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks"
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not"
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny"
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine"
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be... if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed"
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual"
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it"
"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security"
"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys"
"Our tenet ever was . . . that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action"
"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing ...
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure"
________
Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of Independence ...
The third President of the United States ...
"If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence"
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them"
"The law of self-preservation is higher than written law"
"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day: But a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of Ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to Slavery"
"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"
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have .... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases"
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks"
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not"
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny"
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine"
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be... if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed"
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual"
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it"
"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security"
"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys"
"Our tenet ever was . . . that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action"
"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing ...
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure"
________