On Democracy vs Liberty

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

    Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Lincoln and Political Correctness

"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

    Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
    Lincoln and Douglas fourth joint debate
    Charleston, September 18, 1858

On Judicial Activism

"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life if secured against all liability to account."

    Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Thomas Jefferson: The Founder's Wisdom

"Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?"

"Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"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."

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

"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."

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."

"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."

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government."

"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."