What is Your Favorite Patriotic Quote?

[Son of Isaac]

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism."  Teddy Rosevelt

continued...

"When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.

This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic." 

12 October 1915  Teddy Roosevelt

[Sprocket]

60 replies and no one has quoted Levi Preston...

"Young man what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this:  We always governed ourselves and we always meant to.  They didn't mean we should."

[blackswamp becky]

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

Ronald Reagan

In politics the middle way is none at all.

John Adams

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

Thomas Jefferson

[Roundhouse]

If only one has a why at the center - a vigorous, robust why, one which he recognizes and owns - then he can survive any how - Victor Frankl

May not be directly American-patriotic, but it's certainly what I look to when the going gets tough.

[Son of Isaac]

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
~ Mark Twain

[TaosGlock]

This:
The Loyalist Bradford brothers, Philadelphia printers, wrote the following story which appeared in the London Chronicle on August 17, 1775: "This province has raised 1,000 riflemen, the worst of whom will put a ball into a man's head at a distance of 150 or 200 yards, therefore advise your officers who shall hereafter come out to America to settle their affairs in England before their departure".
I often use it to frame up the Redcoat. It is from the Bradford brothers who were Tory loyalists/Philadelphia printers who owned a newspaper.

I often use it to frame up the Redcoat. It is from the Bradford brothers who were Tory loyalists/Philadelphia printers who owned a newspaper.

[B-Line]

This one is a little mushy, but a favorite. I even used it in a recent Best Man Speech.
"There is no Greater Hapiness for a Man, than approching a door at the end of the day, knowing someone on the other side of the door, is someone waiting for the sound of his footsteps." --Ronald Reagan

[Old Dog]

This one struck me as fitting in here on the forum, considering the misunderstandings and hurt feelings we sometimes see.

"You and I ought not to die before we explain ourselves to each other."

John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 15, 1813

Even when working for the same ends there can be misunderstandings.

[desertrat144]

Another couple of goodies, that may have been presented:

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall e directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation." George Washington

"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

[PHenry]

America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. Alex DeTocqueville

[scuzzy]

60 replies and no one has quoted Levi Preston...

"Young man what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this:  We always governed ourselves and we always meant to.  They didn't mean we should."

I quote ol' Levi whenever I tell the strikes. I like that story about him being asked 'Why did you fight?'

That and John Adams about 'When was the American Revolution won?' I always start my strikes story, no matter what strike, with that question.

Answer: Before the first shot was fired. It was won in the hearts and minds of the colonists before that day in Lexington.

[sear]

This one struck me as fitting in here on the forum, considering the misunderstandings and hurt feelings we sometimes see.

"You and I ought not to die before we explain ourselves to each other."

John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 15, 1813

Even when working for the same ends there can be misunderstandings.

Quoted For Truth, but also to ask if you've found a collection of Adams's letters to Jefferson.

I downloaded the collection of Jefferson's letters (in four files) from Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/j#a1638

Unfortunately neither this site nor the Library of Congress site has collections of Adams's letters.

[Shoot Squirrel Yes]

"Nuts!" - Anthony C. McAuliffe

[CSHR]

I see many of my favorites have been presented, so I offer these:


"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." J.B.Books/John Wayne in The Shootist.


"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves." --William Pitt


"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money"-Alexis de Tocqueville

" The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero ~ 55 BC

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrongs which will be imposed on them. Fredrick Douglass

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. (George Bernard Shaw)



Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.--Winston Churchill


You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.   
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.   
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
                  ~Abraham Lincoln~


If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. (Mark Twain)

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. (Winston Churchill)



9th: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

10th: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.



"To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow." Jeff Snyder


"The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always win and cheat if necessary." Clint Smith

"If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not loadin', you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna cut your head off and put it on a stick." Clint Smith

"If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If you have a gun, what in the hell do you have to be paranoid for." Clint Smith

"If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck." Clint Smith


"It is interesting to hear certain kinds of people insist that the citizen cannot fight the government. This would have been news to the men of Lexington and Concord, as well as the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The citizen most certainly can fight the government, and usually wins when he tries. Such fighting is horrible to contemplate, but will continue to dominate brute strength." --Col. Jeff Cooper


and finally........

Youth and exuberance are always outdone by old age and treachery.

Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

CSHR

[NewMOe]

Mine are,,
"Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors." --John Adams, letter to the young men of the Philadelphia, 1798

"A free people ought to be armed."
- George Washington
"Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth."
- George Washington
"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
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
- Thomas Jefferson
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
- Thomas Jefferson (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria)
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks." - Thomas Jefferson
"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
- Thomas Jefferson
"On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
- Thomas Jefferson

and a story of George Washington

July 9th, 1755
Monongahela river battle
French Indian War

The cheif scorned the foolish British soliers as they marched in perfect rank before his well hidden warriors. While the troops whom never broke ranks were good fodder for his marksmen, it was the officers that were sought out for their behavior. Riding on horse back, well exposed, bright red uniforms, yes these were the targets of a true warrior.
As the ambush raged on over 1,000 of the 1,459 British troops remained while only 30 of the Indian warriors were injured. The chief ordered his
Riflemen to aim at the  foolish one on horse back, soon only one remained.

The warriors  Ottawa, Chippewa and Huron all focused their fire on this lone officer, twice his horse was shot from under him and twice he remounted another horse and continued to rally his dying troops. The Chiefs riflemen continued to fire still this officer remained unhurt. 12 15 20 more rounds were fired without any hitting their mark.

In disbelief the chief ordered his men to stop and pull away, the officer
surprised but thankful was able to form a retreat of the remaining troops and moved to safety. later that evening at the camp fire The Lt. Colonel found
17 holes in his uniform,

Fifteen years later this Lt. Colonel after serving his country moved back to pennsylvania when the Cheif that led the attack heard news of this, he arranged a meeting with this man who could not die.

When asked why the ambush stopped so abruptly and the Kings troops were
allowed to retreat, the chief answered all of my riflemen are well trained, they live by their gun they do not miss. You would not fall when all of my Braves fired upon You. I knew that there was God protecting the man who could not be shot with respect we left.

George washington thanked the Chief for his honesty. And for respecting
God.

[PHenry]

Here's my entire stash - attached.
PH

[JustJeff]

Here's my entire stash - attached.
PH

I like your compilation, and will be sharing them with my friends.  Please keep me apprised of any additions you make in the future.   Some day I'll be well enough read to have a compilation of my own...until then, I'm stealing yours.

[PHenry]

There is no stealing in Appleseeds. It's called mentoring and I am merely the product of mine. It began with Junior Birdman at my first event, where Fred told the history and Riflewoman did the check in. Dragonwood was there somewhere, although I did not meet her until my second event where she was sb. Then Atticus took me under his wing and showed me how to engage shooters on the line and which pocket to stuff my ego in (by example as he has none).

I stole, er, I mean borrowed my three strikes from DonD, along with several DOM stories, to which I added brave women. I learnt how to improvise from ColyCat and how to get the attention of shooters from Son of Martha. All I came with was some energy and a desire to serve. The rest I "stole" from others.

The more I read about the Founders, the more I realize that we the people are to blame for our current situation. They showed us the way long ago and warned us about all of the potential pitfalls into which we have allowed ourselves to fall. Their wisdom is need-to-know info for all Americans and it falls upon Appleseeders to spread the word.

Keep stealing and spreading the word. You are welcome to any info I have, from my three strikes to shoot boss kit list or position demo cheat sheets.

[aka Bodie]

My First Pick (category: too long or a sound bite but clearly worth committing to memory):

"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worth cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Paragraph from Man In The Arena, cherished and posted by Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock USMC (ret.) on the wall of his "bunker" in the Land of Bad Things.

My Second Pick (category: short enough for a sound bite that "bites"):

"Why, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"

Major General John Sedgewick, Commander Union IV Corps, moments before his death from rifle fire from Confederate Riflemen, Spotsylvania, VA, MAy 9, 1864.

[Johnnyappleseed]

I believe this came from Sven via Minnesota .
I use it at every shoot --" Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
                                 
                                    Talent cannot: Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

                                Genuis cannot: Unrewarded genius is almost a cliche'.
                               
                           Education cannot: The world is full of educated dererlicts.
       Persistence and determination alone are invincible .The phrase "press on" has solved,and always will solve, the problems of the human race .
Calvin Coolige sp?
'

[Gordon]

"Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.

Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions.

The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them.

Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth."

-G. Washington, 2-July-1776

[Johnnyappleseed]

" No King, but King Jesus "       possibly Pastor John Muellenberg

Likely what went through Gen. Washington's mind when asked " will you now be King?"

[Stephen Lilley]

"A government which does not rest on the sympathies of its subjects, cannot long abide;...human institutions, when not connected with human prosperity and progress, must fall...by violence from within, if not without.  And who shall lament their fall?"
--William H. Prescott

Prescott wrote this in reference to the surpisingly rapid fall of the mighty Aztec Empire, but it could as easily apply to our own American Revolution or dozens of other historical situations.

[DesertDog]

"Give me Liberty, or I'll get up and take it!"  On a t-shirt I saw recently

[Son of Isaac]

Here's my entire stash - attached.
PH

Just took a moment to read through your "stash"  Thanks for the great contribution!

[MrHappy]

Give me Liberty or Give me Death...
I'm a black and white kinda guy.

[StoneDog]

How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.  - Adolf Hitler

I came across this one a few minutes ago.  Not exactly patriotic but it is thought provoking.  

[Son of Isaac]

How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.  - Adolf Hitler

I came across this one a few minutes ago.  Not exactly patriotic but it is thought provoking.  

Agreed.  Very thought provoking.  I just watched "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:  A History of Nazi Germany" on the History channel this week.  The seires took particular time to document the life of the German civilian during the reign of Hitler.  Facinating.

~TravelPatriot

[sashok.privetov]

There are three reasons to own a gun: To protect yourself and your family, to hunt dangerous and delicious animals and to keep the King of England out of your face.

      ~ Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski (Krusty the Clown)

I love this.  I never thought the simpsons could have this much common sense.

Speaking of sense--
TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.  The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.  The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." ("General Introduction to Psychoanalysis," S. Freud)

[Son of Isaac]

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." ("General Introduction to Psychoanalysis," S. Freud)

This quote is very unique, indeed.    

~TravelPatriot