Great Quotes -- do you have them.... Post

[Lord Xar]

Hello,

I have seen many of the Ron Paul videos, and there are always great quotes -- I never write them down or remember them. There are also great quotes by Ron Paul himself. Quotes about Liberty and such.

POST THEM. I am working on a video.

POST THEM... cool founding father quotes and ron paul quotes....

[DeadheadForPaul]

"i don't think I've heard that before" - Rudy Giuliani, 2nd Republican debates. The quote that helped drive our campaign into stardom. Thanks Rudy!

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." - Thomas Jeffferson, Inaugural Address (March 4, 1801)

[nayjevin]

"The principles enshrined in the Constitution do not change. If anything, today's more complex world cries out for the moral clarity provided by a noninterventionist foreign policy."
Ron Paul

==========
FORCE
==========

"How soon we forget history... Gouvernment is not reason. Gouvernment is not eloquence. It is force."
George Washington

“Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.”
Thomas Jefferson

All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals.
Ron Paul

Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.
Ron Paul

===============
WAR / FOREIGN POLICY
===============

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
Thomas Jefferson

"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."
Thomas Jefferson

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
Thomas Jefferson

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
James Madison

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
James Madison

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
James Madison

"Freedom and prosperity cannot coexist with socialism and endless war. Yet socialism and endless war are exactly what most in Washington are promoting."
Ron Paul

Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.
Ron Paul

"The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people."
Ron Paul

War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.
Ron Paul

I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.
Ron Paul

I believe that when we overdo our military aggressiveness, it actually weakens our national defense. I mean, we stood up to the Soviets. They had 40,000 nuclear weapons. Now we're fretting day in and day and night about third-world countries that have no army, navy or air force.
Ron Paul

==============
LIBERTY vs SECURITY
==============

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin

Fear is the foundation of most governments.
John Adams

"Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens' lives. Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference."
Ron Paul

I have never met anyone who did not support our troops. Sometimes, however, we hear accusations that someone or some group does not support the men and women serving in our Armed Forces. But this is pure demagoguery, and it is intellectually dishonest.
Ron Paul

================================================
CONGRESS DECLARING WAR vs EXECUTIVE PRIVELEGE / U.N. RESOLUTION
================================================

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
James Madison

=======================
BIG GOVERNMENT vs SMALL GOVT
=========================

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others.
Thomas Jefferson

"If we ever hope to enjoy real and lasting prosperity in this country, we must redefine our view of the proper role of government. It is tempting during difficult times to demand that the government 'do something,' but a free society is defined by what its government does not do."
Ron Paul

"Can you name one government reform that actually improved anything? How many times has Social Security been reformed? How about public education? Health care? Let's not forget the IRS! In Washington,'reform' always means more spending, more taxes, more regulations, more bureaucrats, and less freedom."
Ron Paul

=========
BEARING 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.
Thomas Jefferson

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
James Madison

"The United Nations gun-grabbers don't care about our Constitution and they don't care about national sovereignty. The UN always wants to expand its power, and global gun control goes hand-in-hand with global government. Every American who cares about the 2nd Amendment should oppose this latest UN attempt to dictate our domestic laws. There is no question that the UN ultimately seeks to impose worldwide gun control, although it has no legal or moral authority to do so."
Ron Paul

==========================
GENERATION vs FUTURE GENERATIONS
==========================

Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
James Madison

Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.
Ron Paul

==========
MEN IN POWER
==========

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
James Madison

The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
John Adams

When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.
Ron Paul

=======
WELFARE
======

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.
Thomas Jefferson

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

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

"The problem is that government is not supposed to run the country - we're supposed to be free."
Ron Paul

============
FEDERAL RESERVE
============

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson

Never spend your money before you have earned it.
Thomas Jefferson

"No corporation on earth comes close to the accounting fraud practiced year after year
by the federal government."
Ron Paul

================
LEGISLATING MORALITY
=================

Having federal officials, whether judges, bureaucrats, or congressmen, impose a new definition of marriage on the people is an act of social engineering profoundly hostile to liberty.
Ron Paul

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TAXES
=====

"The only legitimate purpose of our tax system is to raise revenues needed to run the government. It's not the government's job to determine how you should use your money."
Ron Paul

================================================== ========

"Let us be convinced that there is not enough hate or anger to silence the cries for liberty or to extinguish the flame of justice and truth. We must have faith that those who now are apathetic, anxious for security at all costs, forgetful of the true spirit of American liberty, and neglectful of the Constitution, will rise to the task and respond accordingly."
Ron Paul

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
John Quincy Adams

[quickmike]

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing. - Ronald Reagan.

not a founder, but a good quote.

[jcbraithwaite7]

When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. -- Jonathon Swift

[j650]

"We have a lot of goodness in this country and we should promote it, but never through the barrel of a gun." -Ron Paul

"Terrorism is a tactic. You can't have a war against a tactic." -Ron Paul

[glts]

Alliances

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none.”
- Thomas Jefferson

Conspiracy

“...in politics nothing is accidental. If something happens be assured that it was planned this way.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“A terrorist, massive, casualty-producing even will occur somewhere in the Western world - it may be in the United State of America - that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty -producing event.”
In Cigar Aficionado magazine, December 2003
General Tommy Franks quotes in an interview

Corruption & Power

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
Unknown

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."
George Orwell

"People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome."
George Orwell

“Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist." -
- Edmund Burke

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”
-George Washington

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
- James Madison

“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
- James Madison

“The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
- John Adams

“When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
- George Orwell

Defending Liberty

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

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."
- Samuel Adams

“If we all could join together, no matter belief systems or political systems to fight the real enemy, we would stand a chance, this works, only because it doesn’t matter what we believe in the enemy is still the same.”
Wes Penre

“When bad government destroys our freedoms, we the people have the right and duty to disobey civilly and resist.”
Thomas Jefferson

"All the talk about fighting terror and making America safer is meaningless without border security. It makes no sense to seek terrorists abroad if our own front door is left unlocked." - Ron Paul

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. ~ Dante Alighieri

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I know not what course others make take, but as for me: give me Liberty, or give me death." -
- Patrick Henry

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." -
-Daniel Webster

"We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately."
- Benjamin Franklin

"If 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."
- Samuel Adams

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
- Edward Abbey

“One man with courage is a majority.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“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

“The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
- James Madison

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."
- Samuel Adams

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
- Thomas Paine

Democracy

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

“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.”
- Thomas Jefferson


“Our real disease - which is democracy.”
- Alexander Hamilton

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
- John Adams

“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
- James Madison

“Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a very few.”
- John Adams

“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness [excessive license] which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.”
- Fisher Ames

Fear

“Fear is the foundation of most governments.”
- John Adams

“Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!”
-Thomas Jefferson

Freedom of the Press (Media)

“Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.”
- Thomas Jefferson


Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.
George Orwell


Freedom of Speech

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
- George Washington

Military Draft

A well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."
- James Madison

National Bank

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money,
first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will
grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property
until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing
armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."
- Thomas Jefferson

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments
by controlling the money and its issuance."
- James Madison

"The bold effort the present bank had made to control the government... are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it."
- Andrew Jackson

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
- Woodrow Wilson

"This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President [Wilson} signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized....the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill."
- Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr. , 1913

"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
- Henry Ford

"Every Congressman, every Senator knows precisely what causes inflation...but can't, [won't] support the drastic reforms to stop it [repeal of the Federal Reserve Act] because it could cost him his job."
- Robert A. Heinlein

"While boasting of our noble deeds were careful to conceal the ugly fact that by an
iniquitous money system we have nationalized a system of oppression which, though more refined, is not less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.
- Horace Greeley

"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States"
- Sen. Barry Goldwater (Rep. AR)

"If, as it appears, the experiment that was called “America” is at an end…then perhaps a fitting epitaph would be….”here lies America the greatest nation that might have been had it not been for the Edomite bankers who first stole their money, used their stolen money to buy their politicians and press and lastly deprived them of their constitutional freedom by the most evil device yet created---The Federal Reserve Banking System”
- G.D. McDaniel

National Debt

No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.
- George Washington

...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 ...till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery. And the foreshores of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression. - Thomas Jefferson

"I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23

Priceless Freedom

"Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
- John Quincy Adams

"My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!"
- Jefferson, Thomas

Right to Bear Arms

"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people
to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
- Thomas Jefferson

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
- James Madison

"Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage of being armed,
which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation."
- James Madison

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."
- U.S. Constitution, Second Amendment

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions."
- Samuel Adams

Safety

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the
children of men as a whole experience it. . .Avoiding danger is no safer in
the long run than outright exposure. . . Life is either a daring adventure or
nothing."
~Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Self Reliance

"The constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness, you have to catch it yourself."
Franklin, Benjamin

Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.
~Davy Crockett

Trial By Jury

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”
- Thomas Jefferson

Vote on Principles

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
Adams, John Quincy

War

Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.
~Abraham Flexner

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
~Abraham Lincoln

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.
~Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
~Abraham Lincoln

Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
~Albert Einstein

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
~Alexander Hamilton

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.
~Alexander Pope

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
~Barbara Ehrenreich

"Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later." ~Benjamin Franklin

There never was a good war or a bad peace.
~Benjamin Franklin

A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.
~Benjamin Franklin

We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.
~Benjamin Harrison
About the quote: from an 1888 address to Congress

The voice of protest...is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum...is bidding all men...obey in silence the tyrannous word of command.
~Charles Eliot Norton

The failure to dissect the cause of war leaves us open for the next installment.
~Chris Hedges

War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.
~Congressman Ron Paul

Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.
~Congressman Ron Paul

We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.
~General Douglas MacArthur

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
~General Smedley Butler

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."
~George Orwell

The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.
~George Washington

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
~James Madison

The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.
~James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
~James Madison

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
~James Madison

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
~James Madison

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
~James Madison

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it.
~James Madison

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
~John F. Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
~John F. Kennedy

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
~John F. Kennedy

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
~John Quincy Adams

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.
~Plato

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
~Thomas Jefferson

It would be easier to subjugate the entire universe through force than the minds of a single village.
~Voltaire

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
~Voltaire

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."
George Orwell

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.
George Orwell

[glts]

Ron Paul Quotes

Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.

One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens pay nearly half of everything they earn to government.

The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation. It is this one-two punch-- Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Fed printing money to make up the difference-- that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars.”

A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank.

I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.

Let it not be said that no one cared, that no one objected once it’s realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy. A few have, and others will continue to do so, but too many—both in and out of government—close their eyes to the issue of personal liberty and ignore the fact that endless borrowing to finance endless demands cannot be sustained. True prosperity can only come from a healthy economy and sound money. That can only be achieved in a free society.

We need to understand that the more government spends, the more freedom is lost. Instead of simply debating spending levels, we ought to be debating whether the departments, agencies, and programs funded by the budget should exist at all.

"Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons." ~Ron Paul

Mr. Speaker, I once again find myself compelled to vote against the annual budget resolution for a very simple reason: it makes government bigger.

If we can't or won't define the enemy, the cost to fight such a war will be endless. How many American troops are we prepared to lose? How much money are we prepared to spend? How many innocent civilians, in our nation and others, are we willing to see killed? How many American civilians will we jeopardize? How much of our civil liberties are we prepared to give up?

All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals.

Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism.

Failure of government programs prompts more determined efforts, while the loss of liberty is ignored or rationalized away. Whether it’s the war against poverty, drugs, terrorism, or the current Hitler of the day, an appeal to patriotism is used to convince the people that a little sacrifice of liberty, here and there, is a small price to pay. The results, though, are frightening and will soon become even more so.

Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.

Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.

Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.

How did we win the election in the year 2000? We talked about a humble foreign policy: No nation-building; don't police the world. That's conservative, it's Republican, it's pro-American - it follows the founding fathers. And, besides, it follows the Constitution.

I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don't need a national ID card.

I believe that when we overdo our military aggressiveness, it actually weakens our national defense. I mean, we stood up to the Soviets. They had 40,000 nuclear weapons. Now we're fretting day in and day and night about third-world countries that have no army, navy or air force.

I have never met anyone who did not support our troops. Sometimes, however, we hear accusations that someone or some group does not support the men and women serving in our Armed Forces. But this is pure demagoguery, and it is intellectually dishonest.

The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.

The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.

War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.

Something has gone terribly wrong with our foreign policy when we feel we must take almost 21 billion dollars out of the pockets of the American taxpayer and ship it overseas.... The trillions of dollars we have shipped overseas as aid, and to influence and manipulate political affairs in sovereign countries, has not made life better for American citizens.

Under the United States Constitution, the federal government has no authority to hold states "accountable" for their education performance. In the free society envisioned by the founders, schools are held accountable to parents, not federal bureaucrats.

The requirement that law enforcement officials obtain a warrant from a judge before searching private documents is one of the fundamental protections against abuse of the government's power to seize an individual's private documents.

However, monitoring the transactions of every American in order to catch those few who are involved in some sort of illegal activity turns one of the great bulwarks of our liberty, the presumption of innocence, on its head. The federal government has no right to treat all Americans as criminals by spying on their relationship with their doctors, employers, or bankers. In fact, criminal law enforcement is reserved to the state and local governments by the Constitution's Tenth Amendment.

Perhaps the most onerous example of a proposal that creates the illusion of security (yet really promotes servitude) is the plan to force all Americans to carry a national ID card. A uniform national system of identification would allow the federal government to inappropriately monitor the movements and transactions of every citizen. History shows that when government gains the power to monitor the actions of the people, it inevitably uses that power in harmful ways.

Finally, there is a compelling moral argument against war in Iraq. Military force is justified only in self-defense; naked aggression is the province of dictators and rogue states. This is the danger of a new "preemptive first strike" doctrine.

The gun control debate generally ignores the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the Second amendment. The Second amendment is not about hunting deer or keeping a pistol in your nightstand. It is not about protecting oneself against common criminals. It is about preventing tyranny. The Founders knew that unarmed citizens would never be able to overthrow a tyrannical government as they did. They envisioned government as a servant, not a master, of the American people. The muskets they used against the British Army were the assault rifles of that time. It is practical, rather than alarmist, to understand that unarmed citizens cannot be secure in their freedoms.

I think the goal is one world government - we have not only the U.N. - we have the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, then we have all the subsidiaries like NAFTA and hemispheric governments, highways coming in.

We have behind the scenes a plan for a North American Union, that's the part that the American people are starting to wake up to, although we have a long way to go to wake up Washington. It's amazing to me how many people outside of Washington are very much aware of the plans with this North American Union, at the same time they are in total denial in Washington, except for the few behind the scenes who are laying the plans and providing the finances.

[Oddball]

Giving money and power to gubmint is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

~~P.J. O'Rourke

[beerista]

Here are the few that I always think of first when I consider the words of great men on government.

In matters of power let no more be heard of the confidence in man but bind them down from mischief by the chains of the constitution. - Thomas Jefferson

Sometimes 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 form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. - Thomas Jefferson

The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money. - Alexis de Tocqueville

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. - George Washington

[Oddball]

Gubmint is the great fictional entity by which half of the population attempts to live off the other half.

~~Frederic Bastiat

[LibertyEagle]

bump

[Thom1776]

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for enough good men to do nothing."

Sir Edmund Burke

[zMtLlC]

This has to be my favorite Ron Paul quote:

"We should have a strong President. Strong enough to resist the temptation of taking power which a President shouldn't have."
- Ron Paul

Though neither a founding father nor Ron Paul, Kurt Vonnegut has two quotes that are really relevant to Dr. Paul:

"We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away."
- Kurt Vonnegut

"The highest treason in the USA is to say that Americans are not loved no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing there."
- Kurt Vonnegut