The Surreal Thread #2

[brinny]

No taxation without representation. ~Jonathan Mayhew

 

[brinny]

The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that -- however bloody -- can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave. ~Lysander Spooner

 

[brinny]

If our fathers, in 1776, had acknowledged the principle that a majority had the right to rule the minority, we should never have become a nation; for they were in a small minority, as compared with those who claimed the right to rule over them. ~Lysander Spooner

 

[brinny]

Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice. ~John Adams

 

[brinny]

Liberty cannot be caged into a charter or handed on ready-made to the next generation. Each generation must recreate liberty for its own times. Whether or not we establish freedom rests with ourselves. ~Florence Ellinwood Allen

 

[brinny]

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means push back a boundary-line and adding to one`s liberty. ~Henri Frederic Amiel

 

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Our lives improve only when we take chances -- and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. ~Walter Truitt Anderson

 

[brinny]

The first step to truly living a good and fearless life, is accepting responsibility for your actions. Accepting what part you had in any situation. Difficult, to say the least, but liberating. ~Jann Arden

 

[brinny]

The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies. ~Sir Francis Bacon

 

[brinny]

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty... and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? 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. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree. ~Cesare Beccaria

 

[brinny]

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. ~Edmund Burke

 

[brinny]

Never give in. Never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. ~Sir Winston Churchill

 

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We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. ~Sir Winston Churchill

 

[brinny]

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. ~Sir Winston Churchill

 

[brinny]

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free, and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.' ~Sir Winston Churchill

 

[brinny]

Communist Rules for Revolution:

1. Corrupt the young; get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial; destroy their ruggedness.
2. By specious argument cause the breakdown of old moral virtues; honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness.
3. Encourage civil disorders and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.
4. Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
5. Get people's minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books, plays, and other trivialities.
6. Get control of all means of publicity.
7. Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule and obloquy (disgrace).
8. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscation and leaving the population helpless.

 

[brinny]

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. ~Albert Einstein

 

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Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom. ~Marilyn Ferguson

 

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Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick

 

[brinny]

Freedom lies in being bold. ~Robert Frost