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What is Your Favorite Patriotic Quote?

Started by Son of Isaac, November 02, 2010, 11:29:11 PM

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Son of Isaac

I'm a big fan of quotes - especially patriotic quotes.  

I often find that the arguments I try to make have already been made by people who are smarter, more credible, and more historically significant than me.  I am particularly fond of quotes made by our founding fathers.  I am always impressed by the wisdom and foresight demonstrated by men who lived, fought, died and built this great nation more than 200 years ago.  

A good quote can inspire, strengthen resolve, or challenge a person's orientation on an issue.

I'm always on the hunt for great patriotic quotes.  

Can you please take a moment to post one or two of your favorites?

Son of Isaac

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."  Thomas Jefferson

Son of Isaac

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears its people, there is liberty."  Thomas Jefferson

Son of Isaac

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will work for those who do not."  Thomas Jefferson

Son of Isaac

"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

Son of Isaac

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."  Margaret Thatcher

Son of Isaac

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."  Thomas Jefferson

desertrat144

"I am a citizen by choice, not an accident of birth." Original author unknown.

and

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life." That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it."  Author Unknown
"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond it's limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." - President Ronald Wilson Reagan

Baminal

"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. Act worthy of yourselves." Joseph Warren, Boston Massacre Oration, 1775
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.  It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment.
Robert Maynard Hutchins, Educator (1899-1977)

Love you liberty and fight for it like men who know its value.  Once lost, it will never, never be regained.
Capt. Hugh Ledlie (1720-1798)

Camljr

"Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us." 

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

And last, but certainly not least....

"Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do."

Voltaire
96 SHOOTS SO FAR!

WSMR Instructor 03/10  -  SAPPER STEEL!

�The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection�   Thomas Paine

Proverbs 22:3  -  A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even when checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy, nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat".
Theodore Roosevelt

LayloPro

#10
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed? Patrick Henry, St Johns Church, MA. 3/23/1775

"The longer the firefight, the more shot you get...." Unknown

"Incoming fire always has the right of way..." Unknown

"I hope you make good use of it...." John Adams, 5/1775   O0 O0 O0 :bow: :bow: :bow:

"Just watch....." Hezekiah Wyman, 4/19/1775
"The truth only hurts if you're guilty." 

"Fast / cheap / good....you only get 2....Your choice."

"Amateurs talk hardware. Professionals talk software. It doesn't matter what's in your hand or between your legs. It matters what's in your heart and in your mind." Lt Col. Dave Grossman.

vmt193

TJ is probably my #1 favorite, but Reagan had some pretty good ones too.


'No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.' - Ronald Reagan   

'Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.' - Ronald Reagan

'Here's my strategy on the Cold War:   
We win, they lose.' - Ronald Reagan

henschman

#12
"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from the government."
-- Thomas Paine

"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood."
-- John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765

"With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves."
-- Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms, July 6, 1775

"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, 1759

"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

"A standing army is one of the greatest mischief that can possibly happen."
-- James Madison

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

"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principles of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819

Son of Isaac

Great stuff, guys.  I'm really enjoying the contributions.  Please keep them coming!

Jake

Piker

"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
"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

cswhitfield

"Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free."  D. Eisenhower

"There is no victory at bargain basement prices."  D. Eisenhower

"Every Marine is first, and foremost, a Rifleman.  All other conditions are secondary."  Gen Gray, USMC

"The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle."  Gen Pershing, US Army
... what counts ... is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our bursts nor the smoke we make.  ... it is the hits that count.

Son of Isaac

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  John Adams

Son of Isaac

"The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."   James Madison

Son of Isaac

"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country."  James Madison

EZ3

"To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers.  One who does not vote has no right to complain."  Louis L'Amour 
"You can't teach Liberty by practicing tyranny." -  Mr. Happy

Garand69

Not really a quote but more of a poem...

One man awake awakens another,
The second awakens his next door neighbor,
And three awake can rouse the town,
and turn the whole place upside down.
And many awake can raise such a fuss,
That it finally awakens the rest of us.
One man up with dawn in his eyes - multiplies.

Lawrence Tribble

Than one of my new favorites, seen on a sign while driving down the road....

Be not simply good...
....Be simply good for something
Garand69

42

WSMR 03-10 ...SAPPER STEEL!!!!

"Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." - General George S. Patton Jr

"One can covet success or one can covet being Right, but if he covets both, he will achieve neither" - Stimey


Do not fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have war......Let it start here.

God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right, even though I think it is HOPELESS.
-Chester W. Nimitz

Cooper

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves"
French philosopher Bertrand de Jouvenel
"This Appleseed thing doesn't look like it would be for everyone, but it really is." Zac, age 7  كافر
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." ~ Thomas Paine    "Cooper, you're an a**hole!" - recent Shoot Boss's compliment
"I don't know where "brave" leaves off and "foolish" picks up, but you've certainly got your share of courage." - FuzzyMath
"For the Rifle!, the Rifle!, in our hands will prove no trifle!" ~from the lyrics of "The Bennington Riflemen"
Understand the urgency of our mission; no amount of bailing can raise a sunken ship.
I don't want to be forced back into the darkness.
 

"Shut up and color." - slim

TruTenacity


"God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates, to be, under him, over the people, for his own glory, and the public good: and, to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evildoers." ~John Knox

"Citizens are responsible for the religious, ethical, moral policies of those elected to office." ~John Knox

"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time." ~John Knox

"Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know."
~William Cowper

"Nations grown corrupt
Love bondage more than liberty;
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty."
~John Milton
"We are fighting for our country, for posterity perhaps.  On the success of this campaign the happiness or misery of millions may depend."  Henry Knox

"Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."  Galatians 6:9

cswhitfield

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes."  T. Jefferson

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

"The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time wth the blood of patriots an tyrants."  T. Jefferson

"Some people spend an entire lifetime woneing if they made a difference in the world.  But, the Marines don't have that problem."  Pres. R. Reagan

"The Marines I have see around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen.  Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!" 
First Lady E. Roosevelt
... what counts ... is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our bursts nor the smoke we make.  ... it is the hits that count.

06en

#24
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Franklin's Contributions to the Conference on February 17 (III) Fri, Feb 17, 1775

Son of Isaac

Wow!  These quotes are truly rich in content and history.  Thank you, to everyone who has been contributing.  I hope this thread becomes a great resource for fellow Appleseed compatriots.

Jake

featherblue


                            "Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty." Thomas Jefferson



-fb

�Fear is the foundation of most governments.� -John Adams

Why there must be a test of knowledge before being allowed into the voting polls:  ... democracy, as defined by Mencken, is "...the worship of Jackals by Jackasses."

The Kid

I don't know if this is appropriate but this is my favorite quote of all time. The beauty in his writing and the power of what he was saying is remarkable.

" I pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memories of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be your to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom" 

TK
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." Lincoln

EZ3

That was Lincoln to the woman who had lost all her sons, wasn't it?
"You can't teach Liberty by practicing tyranny." -  Mr. Happy

asminuteman

#29
.
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." ~ Thomas Paine

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."~ Thomas Paine

I know of no way to judge the future, then by the past. -Thomas Paine