 Quote > ... it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed ...The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. Continued at top
Owned by Unordained - Created on 07/31/2008 - Never edited 12/25/06 :: Folder :: Government & Politics11/01/05 :: Folder :: Freedom & Responsibility11/01/05 :: Folder :: Law & Justice08/01/05 :: Folder :: Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution 09/29/05 :: Quote :: Robert H. Jackson, US Supreme Court JusticeThe very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submi [...] 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Victor HugoWhen dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Patrick HenryThe Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Woodrow WilsonLiberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.  11/16/05 :: Quote :: Louis D. Brandeis, US Supreme Court JusticeThe greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. 07/08/05 :: Quote :: GhandiI believe that no government can exist for a single moment without the co-operation of the people, willing or forced, and if people suddenly withdraw their co-operation in every detail, the government will come to a standstill. 02/01/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations)01/08/06 :: Reference :: (link) :: UK report upcoming on psychosis effects of cannabis (pot) 11/23/05 :: Quote :: Henry David ThoreauAny fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. 11/23/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: Guerrilla News Network10/03/05 :: Quote :: John MiltonHere the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and
punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.
09/04/03 :: Quote :: O'RourkeOne of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license. 08/01/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonEnlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. 08/01/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonThe care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Patrick Henry [disputed]Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! 05/12/06 :: Quote :: AristotleA tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Patrick HenryThe liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Samuel AdamsIf ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. 09/29/05 :: Quote :: Robert FrostA civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity. 08/26/07 :: Article :: Support the troops! :: Opposing a war is more difficult than it sounds08/01/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonThe spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.
[I rarely see the second part quoted, but I think it's important to realize that Jefferson knew the implications of wha [...] 04/26/07 :: Quote :: Albert EinsteinThe significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them. 03/15/07 :: Quote :: O'RourkeWhen buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.   06/29/04 :: Article :: Freedom and Authority :: Shedding light on America's political system02/16/04 :: Article :: Memogate :: Ready the black helicopters02/12/04 :: Article :: Boobygate :: New and improved! Now easier to skim and ignore!!11/06/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: A Vindication of Moral Liberty10/31/07 :: Article :: On education :: Teaching, testing, certifying09/10/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: Political Compass09/04/03 :: Quote :: O'RourkeThere's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. 09/04/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: A Deadly Franchise07/02/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: Human Rights Watch06/09/05 :: Quote :: Frederick DouglassIf there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggl [...] 06/03/07 :: Reference :: (link) :: Papers portray Plot as more Talk than Action03/02/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: Civil Rights Act of 196402/18/04 :: Article :: Civil Disobedience and other meaningless buzzwords. :: The Los Angeles Gay Marriage Contraversy02/14/05 :: Article :: Inchoate :: That which is not yet done, is not yet done.02/11/05 :: Article :: Nuclear Proliferation :: This is almost funny.02/03/04 :: Article :: Attack of the Linux geeks! :: They're all a bunch of commie terrorists, out to get SCO, don't you know?12/06/04 :: Article :: Ensis' Reproachable Tactics :: More tips on how to convince idiots and kill dialog09/04/03 :: Quote :: Demonax, Roman philosopher circa 150 A.D.Probably all laws are useless; for good men do not want laws at all, and bad men are made no better by them. 09/04/03 :: Quote :: Mahatma GandhiFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. 07/01/04 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonA wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement. 03/31/04 :: Article :: Dark future for the law? :: 02/17/04 :: Article :: Justice and Power ...and nearly Powerless Justice :: Almost nobody is looking out for you02/17/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: Hnida's story02/13/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: The Leaky Wing gets the squeeze?01/25/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: Can competitive law work?01/06/06 :: Reference :: (link) :: Is Europe Ready for 'Whore Power'? 10/02/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: My Baby Boy's American Freedoms Vanish In Occupied Palestine09/04/03 :: Quote :: George OrwellIf liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.  03/30/09 :: Article :: The Abortion Debate Is Stupid. :: It seriously is.03/02/04 :: Article :: Equal opportunity :: Maybe we shouldn't always spell things out02/14/05 :: Article :: Having a reason for laws :: Because I said so! 08/12/06 :: Reference :: (link) :: AnswerMan responds to responses on lolicon04/13/04 :: Article :: Justice, law, morality, ethics :: What would you like?11/21/03 :: Article :: Knight to Cell block C3. :: Crack is the incorrect way to kill a fetus11/03/04 :: Reference :: (link) :: Benefits and obligations that come naturally with marriage 10/07/04 :: Article :: The Election :: Are we sick of the candidates yet?09/04/03 :: Quote :: Lyndon JohnsonYou do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered. 09/04/03 :: Quote :: Jean-Paul SartreWhen the rich make war it's the poor who die. 09/04/03 :: Quote :: O'RourkeIf government were a product, selling it would be illegal. 09/04/03 :: Quote :: Adolf Hitler (disputed)What luck for the rulers that men do not think! 08/29/08 :: Quote :: Harry S TrumanWhenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. 08/26/05 :: Reference :: (link) :: Inside Ronald Reagan08/22/06 :: Quote :: John Stuart MillIf mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind. 08/15/05 :: Quote :: R.S. Surtees (author)More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice. 08/01/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonSometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. 07/31/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonYet it is easy to foresee, from the nature of things, that the encroachments of the State governments will tend to an excess of liberty which will correct itself, while those of the General Government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day. 07/31/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonI would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. 07/31/05 :: Quote :: Thomas JeffersonAn honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. 07/05/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: U.S. Republican Party Platform (2000)07/05/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: U.S. Green Party Platform (current)07/05/03 :: Reference :: (link) :: U.S. Democratic Party Platform (2000)06/22/05 :: Reference :: (link) :: The Dangers of Safety06/07/05 :: Article :: Scalia on Constitutional Interpretation :: The living Constitution be damned06/02/04 :: Quote :: Lao-TzuA leader is best when people barely know that he exists.
Less good when they obey and acclaim him.
Worse when they fear and despise him.
Fail to honor people, and they fail to honor you.
But of a good leader, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
they will say, "We did this ourselves."
05/30/05 :: Reference :: (link) :: U.S. Libertarian Platform (current)05/28/06 :: Quote :: George Bernard ShawCriminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Patrick Henry [disputed]I know not what course others make take, but as for me: give me Liberty, or give me death. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: George Bernard ShawLiberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: John F. KennedyLet every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. 05/12/06 :: Quote :: Patrick HenryGuard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. 04/18/04 :: Quote :: Henry Stimson (Secretary of State)... gentlemen do not read each other's mail. 04/07/04 :: Quote :: Theodore RooseveltTo announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. 03/23/04 :: Article :: Rockets :: We don't need no stinking handcuffs!02/25/07 :: Quote :: Bertrand RussellThere is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. 02/10/07 :: Quote :: Sir Francis BaconSilence is the virtue of fools. 02/07/08 :: Quote :: C.P. SnowWhen you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. 02/05/04 :: Article :: An Ounce of Prevention :: What if The People don't want to do what is good for them?01/28/08 :: Quote :: Hannah ArendtThe most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution. 01/28/05 :: Quote :: Frederick DouglassNo man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. 01/24/05 :: Quote :: Charles de GaulleThe graveyards are full of indispensable men. 01/22/04 :: Article :: The Real Voodoo :: The Recession argument is conducted poorly01/09/05 :: Reference :: (link) :: Law as parent |
