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"As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at peril of being judged not to have lived." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln Now I understood for the first time that all these problems are caused by a race asleep and thrashing about in its panicked nightmares. There will be wars and holocausts and genocides as long as God is portrayed and thought of as a tight-minded legislator, a feudal lord, an offended King, a hypersensitive Artisan - even if church managers condescendingly tack onto that ridiculous list the not-very-convincing footnote that He is also loving. As long as people dream that they are insecure and needy in some sort of eternal jeopardy, there will be atrocities. But as the human race grows up spiritually, and as individuals gain a personal experience of the God they have been worshipping in fear, they will recognize that much of their theology and philosophy is built on nightmares. That will be the day of peace. I suddenly found myself unwilling to sit it out in the mountains of Utah. I wanted to play an active role in the process of the world's awakening - George Fowler, "Dance of a Fallen Monk" "Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends be defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers." Martin Luther King "The Irish do not lend themselves to psychoanalysis." S. Freud Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people. -- Welsh Proverb "Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here, that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?" --Woodrow Wilson, 1919 And, in honor of his life, these quotations from Martin Luther King: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." MLK "I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." MLK "The time is always right to do what is right" MLK "Most of the things that can be measured are over valued and most things that can't be measured are undervalued" Albert Einstein " I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights. " - Abraham Lincoln after he enacted the first tax on income in the United States. "Peace, to have meaning for may who have only known suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education, as well as freedom and human dignity" Ralph Johnson Bunche " Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of Hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature placed in our power. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone: it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. "- Patrick Henry "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 THE AMERICAN'S CREED "I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies." - William Tyler Page April 13, 1918 "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan, president of the United States "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Dr. Martin Luther King The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems. Mohandas Ghandi The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute inquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814 Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. Omar N. Bradley Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782 Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814 In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814 "Many great and good men sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found, whose ambition would inspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! Think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? -- Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. -- It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs." Abraham Lincoln, 1838, at the Springfield, Illinois Boy's Lyceum "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." - Mark Twain "Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain " Let 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, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge - and more. To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do - for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder." -Pres. John F. Kennedy, The Capitol, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 1961 (excerpted from his Inaugural Speech) "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." -Thomas Jefferson, from "Query XVIII" of his "Notes on the State of Virginia", 1781. (From "America's God and Country, Encyclopedia of Quotations" By William J. Federer; FAME Publishing, Inc.; USA; 1996). "Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you." - Abraham Lincoln (Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11,1858) "A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.... If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." -- Thomas Jefferson, June 4, 1798, in a letter to John Taylor of Philadelphia, after passage of the Alien and Sedition Act "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." --Abraham Lincoln, November 12, 1864 "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military- industrial complex." --President Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961 Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.- Benjamin Franklin (From his "Maxims and Morals") The palest ink is better than the best memory. -- Chinese Proverb "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude" "If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...we [will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for another till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery. "And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that and in its train wretchedness and oppression." - Thomas Jefferson -Author of The Declaration of Independence, Founding Father and Third U.S. President " In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. " President Dwight Eisenhower January 1961 " The liberties of our country, are worth defending at all hazards. We have received them from our worthy ancestors: They purchased them for us with toil, treasure and blood. It will bring an everlasting infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us...or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men "- Samuel Adams 1771 " History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose. " Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 " In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America Declaration of Independence "The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it." - Felix Frankfurter Graves vs. New York; 1939 "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963 " If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves. " Thomas Sowell " The 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. " -Patrick Henry " Discipline without freedom is tyranny, freedom without discipline is chaos " Cullen Hightower " A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government. " -George Washington " Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties." Abraham Lincoln "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." Thomas Jefferson "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865) "Where, after all, do human rights begin? In small places, close to home..." Eleanor Roosevelt "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" Aristotle "In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved" Franklin D. Roosevelt "The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not war" Ralph Waldo Emerson "There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one." &endash; Machiavelli &endash; 1513 An honest man can feel no Pleasure in the excercise of power over his fellow citizens Thomas Jefferson "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." John F. Kennedy "Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices." Voltaire "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell "Information is the currency of democracy." Thomas Jefferson "Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act." Albert Einstein "...it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.." Samuel Adams As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence Automatically liberates others. Nelson Mandela 1994 Inaugural Speech "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." Mahatma Gandhi "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr. "To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors." Alexander Solzhenitsyn "Throughout history totalitarian regimes have attempted to justify their acts by designating individuals as 'enemies of the state' who were unworthy of any legal rights or protections. These tactics are no less despicable, and perhaps even more so, when they occur in a country that purports to be governed by the rule of law." And George W. Bush regularly intones his allegiance to "the rule of law." Harold Tyler, a former federal judge, and deputy attorney general under President Gerald Ford, who brought him in to cleanse the Justice Department after Watergate. "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all." Dale Carnegie " Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" Martin Luther King, Jr. "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer "The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." Walter Lippman "The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools." Herbert Spencer "The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing." Herbert Spencer "The biggest part of reporting the truth is the news agenda itself. What we choose to put on the air, what we think is a page one story, what our priorities are. I would not be fooled by the old myth that reporting is about objectivity. Deciding what is news is the most subjective of acts and it is probably the most important thing that we do." Carl Bernstein " There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it… The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; To lie outright; To pervert; To vilify; To fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race 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 for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and or lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." John Swinton, former Chief of Staff, The New York Times, circa 1880 " The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers, which are cited to justify it." President John F. Kennedy Address to newspaper publishers April 27, 1961 " I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. " Thomas Jefferson, inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C " There is no more cruel tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of law, and with the colors of justice." Montequier De L'Espirit Des Lois,(1748) (quoted in United States v. Jannottie, 673 F.2d 578, 614 (3rd Cir. 1982). " The will, or the pretended will, of the majority, is the last lurking place of tyranny at the present day." Lysander Spooner, Trial By Jury. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) 'Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool." Plato "The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves." Plato "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." George Washington "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both." James Madison (Fourth President of the United States) "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross." Dwight D. Eisenhower A friend sent me a message from Hopi elders in Arizona. It said: "It is time to speak your truth, each of you. Do not look outside yourself for the leader. There is a river flowing very fast. Trust the river has its destination. You must let go of the shore, push off into that river. Keep your eyes open and your heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves. We are the ones we have been waiting for...." "The last time anyone listened to a Bush their people wandered in the desert for 40 years" Joe Kmel "Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, for a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." Herman Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief, at the Nuremberg trials "When the people fear the government you have tyranny....when the government fears the people you have liberty." Thomas Jefferson "Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double edged sword. It emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, they will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. I am Julius Caesar" From an anonymous contributor "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin " That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices between nations, it becomes the more unpardonable " Thomas Paine, "The Rights of Man", circa 1792 Many of the new security measures proposed by our government in the name of fighting the "war on terror" are not temporary. They are permanent changes to our laws. Even the measures that, on the surface, appear to have been adopted only as long as the war on terror lasts, could be with us indefinitely. Because, as Homeland Security director Tom Ridge himself has warned, terrorism is a "permanent condition to which America must . . . adjust. American Civil Liberties Union, January 29, 2003 "This is not the time to be giving up our rights. Once they are gone there is no getting them back." Helen Thomas White House Correspondent 5-28-02 " He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." Thomas Paine " Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech." Benjamin Franklin " A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." James Madison |