Fr. Frog's Favorite Sayings
(Words of wisdom on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)

Being a student of history Fr. Frog has collected many wise and witty sayings from both the famous and infamous of our past and present. These words of wisdom deal with life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the field of weaponcraft. All are applicable to modern life, and all are guaranteed to be politically incorrect.

Note: I have not tried to verify any of the quotes as to authenticity, but even if they are not authentic the sentiments stated therein are genuine.

I will try to update this section on a regular (well OK, so it's irregular) basis.  Hopefully they'll appear January, March, May, July, September, and November.

If you have some gems of wisdom that you think should be included in the big list you can email them to Fr. Frog by clicking here. All submissions will be gladly accepted but your only reward will be in helping to raise the educational level of those who browse here. I hope you enjoy and profit from them.

Stout heart and good cheer!

Fr. Frog

Sayings
Issue #59 & 60 Posted June 30, 2009
(Includes the May and July issues.  My apologies for forgetting to update the May issue)

Issue #59

"If you are able to vote, then do so. There may be no candidates or issues you want to vote for... but there will certainly be someone or something to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong." -- Lazarus Long

"Governments derive... their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, (absolute power or influence of any kind) it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." -- US Declaration of Independence

"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own."

"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready." -- Theodore Roosevelt

"A young man should be computer literate, and moreover should know Hemingway from James Joyce. He should know how to drive a car well - such as is not covered in "Driver Ed". He should know how to fly a light airplane. He should know how to shoot well. He should know elementary geography, both worldwide and local. He should have cursory knowledge of both zoology and botany. He should know the fundamentals of agriculture and corporate economy. He should know how to manage a motorcycle. He should be comfortable in at least one foreign language, and more if appropriate to his background. He should be familiar with remedial medicine. "These things should be available before a son leaves his father's household." -- Jeff Cooper

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country." -- Theodore Roosevelt

"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

"As there is no constraint in combat, so there should be as little as possible in training in preparation for it." -- Teyud from the story In The Courts of the Crimson King, by S M. Stirling

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion." -- James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: Or, an Inquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses, 1774-1775

"A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness." -- Lao-Tzu

Stereotypes get to be stereotypical because they've usually got a big kernel of truth.

"Before a standing army can rule the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States." — Noah Webster, An Examination of The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms...The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." — Thomas Jefferson, Letter from Thomas Jefferson to William Smith, Paris, November 13, 1787

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty-so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator-and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the quality alone ought to suffer? 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 unarmed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree." — Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in "On Crimes and Punishment", 1764

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." — Thomas Jefferson, (source unknown)

"Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense." — John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787-88

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." — Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

"A free people ought . . . to be armed . . ." — George Washington, speech of January 7, 1790, printed in the Boston Independent Chronicle, January 14, 1790.

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun." — Patrick Henry, spoken during Virginia's ratification convention, June 14, 1788

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" — Patrick Henry, (source unknown)

"if the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no recourse left but the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all forms of positive government." — Alexander Hamilton, writing in The Federalist Paper No. 28

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large, is that they be properly armed." Alexander Hamilton — The Federalist Papers , 184-8

"...if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist." — Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers No. 29

James Madison, in The Federalist No. 46, confidently contrasted the federal government of the United States to the European despotisms which he contemptuously described as "afraid to trust the people with arms." He assured his fellow citizens that they need never fear their government because of "the advantage of being armed." (The actual quote is: "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.")

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." — James Madison, Virginia Convention speech, June 16, 1788

Many years later, James Madison stated that "[A] government resting on a minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; 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's version of what would later be the Second Amendment

"(The Constitution should 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 when necessary for the defence 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 their grievances: or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures." — Samuel Adams, U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788; as reported in "Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer", August 20, 1789

"One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purpose without resistance is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms..." — Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

In his influential Commentaries on the Constitution, Joseph Story emphasized the importance of the Second Amendment. He described the militia as the "natural defence of a free country" not only "against sudden foreign invasions" and "domestic insurrections," but also against "domestic usurpations of power by rulers." He went on to state that "[t]he right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."

"Whenever, therefore, the profession of arms becomes a distinct order in the state . . . the end of the social compact is defeated . . . . No free government was ever founded, or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the characters of the citizen and the soldier in those destined for the defence of the state . . . . Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen." — Richard Henry Lee, Senator, First Congress, (source unknown)

"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." — Richard Henry Lee, Senator, First Congress, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer 53 (1788)

At Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention in 1788, George Mason argued the importance of the militia and right to bear arms by reminding his compatriots of England's efforts "to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them . . . by totally disusing and neglecting the militia." On June 1, 1788, he also clarified that under prevailing practice the militia included all people, rich and poor. "Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." Mason is generally acknowledged to be the author of the Second Amendment.

Writing after the ratification of the Constitution, but before the election of the first Congress, James Monroe included "the right to keep and bear arms" in a list of basic "human rights" which he proposed to be added to the Constitution.

Zachariah Johnson told the Virginia convention their liberties would be safe because "The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. The government is administered by the representatives of the people, voluntarily and freely chosen. Under these circumstances should anyone attempt to establish their own system [of religion], in prejudice of the rest, they would be universally detested and opposed, and easily frustrated. This is the principle which secures religious liberty most firmly. The government will depend on the assistance of the people in the day of distress." — 3 Elliot, Debates at 646

2009-3

Issue #60

"Congress shall have no power to disarm the milita. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American...The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." — Tench Coxe, writing as "the Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 1788

"What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this." -- Roman Philosopher Epictetus

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -- Albert Einstein

"I am not afraid to go unarmed...I simply detest being unarmed. It is a contemptible and undignified condition in which to find oneself." -- anon. Gunsite graduate

"Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!" -- Jeff Cooper

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. 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

"...[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property...Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them." — Thomas Paine, Thoughts On Defensive War, 1775

"Danger is nature's way of eliminating stupid people." -- Don Heaton

Know Guns, Know Peace, Know Safety. No Guns, No Peace, No Safety

"What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty." — Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Aug. 17, 1789, Annals of Congress, I:750

"The common man, finding himself in a world so excellent, technically and socially, believes it has been produced by nature, and never thinks of the personal efforts of highly endowed individuals which the creation of this new world presupposed. Still less will he admit the notion that all these facilities still require the support of certain difficult human virtues, the least failure of which would cause the rapid disappearance of the whole magnificent edifice." -- Jose' Ortega y Gasset

"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

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion." — Andrew Fletcher (1655-1716), quoted by James Burgh (1714-1775), Political Disquisitions: Or, an Inquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses, 1774-1775

"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny." - Unknown

"I teach my guys in CQB that the only real issue about breathing is that YOU are breathing at the end of the encounter and your opponent is not." -- Jim Higginbotham

"Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself." - Tom Wilson

"The right of citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurption and arbitraty power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." — Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries On The Constitution, 1883

"Laws are for the guidance of wise men, and the blind obedience of fools." -- Solon, the Law-maker of Athens, d. 559 BC

"The right of the people to bear arms in their own defence, and to form and drill military organizations in defence of the State, may not be very important in this country, but it is significant as having been reserved by the people as a possible and necessary resort for the protection of self-government against usurpation, and against any attempt on the the part of those who may for the time be in possession of State authority or resources to set aside the constitution and substitute their own rule for that of the people." — 19th Century Judge Thomas M. Cooley, The General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States of America

"The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world... The first step -- in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come -- is to teach men to shoot!" — President Theodore Roosevelt's last message to Congress

"In the event of central tyranny, state governments could do what colonial governments had done in 1776: organize and mobilize their Citizens into an effective fighting force capable of beating even a large standing army." — Constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights as a Constitution, Yale Law Journal, 1991 (Amar then goes on to quote Madison's Federalist No. 46 writings as one example).

"The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner." — Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session, Feb 1982

"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." — Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minnesota)

"Rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon -- so long as there is no answer to it -- gives claws to the weak." — George Orwell, You and the Atom Bomb, 1945

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." — Mahatma Ghandi

"By calling attention to 'a well regulated militia', the 'security' of the nation, and the right of each citizen 'to keep and bear arms', our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason, I believe the Second Amendment will always be important." — Senator John F. Kennedy, 1960

"You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered." — Lyndon Johnson

"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised as Americanism." — Huey Long

"If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type legislation should have no difficulties drawing upon long lists of crime rates reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying--that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 - establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime." — Sen Orrin G. Hatch, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution

"Contemporary scholars have little explored the preconditions of genocide. Still less have they asked whether a society's weapons policy might be one of the institutional arrangements that contributes to the probability of its government engaging in some of the more extreme varieties of outrage. Though it is a long step between being disarmed and being murdered—one does not usually lead to the other— it is nevertheless an arresting reality that not one of the principal genocides of the twentieth century, and there have been dozens, has been inflicted on a population that was armed." — Daniel D. Polsby, Washington University Law Quarterly, Volume 73, Number 3, Fall 1997

"When the history of the 20th century is finally written, one of its key features will be the wanton slaughter of more than 170 million people, not in war, but by their own government. The governments that led in this slaughter are the former USSR (65 million) and the Peoples Republic of China (35-40 million). The point to remember is that these governments were the idols of America's leftists. Part of the reason for these and other tyrannical successes was because the people were first disarmed." — Walter E. Willaims, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, in a commentary for the April 2001 issue of America's First Freedom.

"People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically 'right.' Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work. Wear a gun to someone else's house, you're saying, 'I'll defend this home as if it were my own.' When your guests see you carry a weapon, you're telling them, 'I'll defend you as if you were my own family.' And anyone who objects levels the deadliest insult possible: 'I don't trust you unless you're rendered harmless'!" -- L. Neil Smith, The Probability Broach

"No matter how one approaches the figures, one is forced to the rather startling conclusion that the use of firearms in crime was very much less when there were no controls of any sort and when anyone, convicted criminal or lunatic, could buy any type of firearm without restriction. Half a century of strict controls on pistols has ended, perversely, with a far greater use of this weapon in crime than ever before." — Colin Greenwood in the study Firearms Control, 1972

"...The authors take Dodge City in 1871, as the archetype of lawlessness in American history. Yet its murder rate was only half that of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., in 1990, a rate of 80 per 100,000 annually, meaning that your chances of being murdered over a lifetime in the city are about 1 in 16. Indeed, among children under 12, murder is now the leading cause of death in Washington." — National Review Nov, 4 1991, Paul Johnson's review of the book by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, The Great Reckoning: How the World Will Change in the Depression of the 1990's

."..and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." — Jesus Christ, Luke 22:36 NKJV

"One of the ordinary modes by which tyrants accomplish their purpose without resistance is by disarming the people and making it an offense to keep arms." — Aristotle, The Politics 218, Thomas A. Sinclair translation, Penguin Books, 1962

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

"Those that beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those that don't." — Unknown

"(The 2nd Amendment) does not say 'shall not be infringed, unless the weapon in question is really scary.' They're SUPPOSED to be scary. The occupants of Washington City are supposed to go to bed every night, wondering if anything they've done today will get them what it got Charles the First in 1649, or Louis XVI in 1793." — Vin Suprynowicz, JFPO web site

"The society of late twentieth century America is perhaps the first in human history where most grown men do not routinely bear arms on their persons and boys are not regularly raised from childhood to learn skill in the use of some kind of weapon, either for community or personal defense - club or spear, broadsword or long bow, rifle or Bowie knife. It also happens to be one of the rudest and crudest societies in history, having jubilantly swept most of the etiquette of speech, table, dress, hospitality, fairness, deference to authority and the relations of male and female and child and elder under the fraying and filthy carpet of politically convenient illusions. With little fear of physical reprisal Americans can be as loud, gross, disrespectful, pushy, and negligent as they please. If more people carried rapiers at their belts, or revolvers on their hips, it is a fair bet you would be able to go to a movie and enjoy the dialogue from the screen without having to endure the small talk, family gossip and assorted bodily noises that many theater audiences these days regularly emit. Today, discourtesy is commonplace precisely because there is no price to pay for it." — Samuel Francis, Chronicles

"In its unanimous decision Friday, the Ohio First District Court of Appeals likened the city suit against gun makers to the 'absurdity' of suing the makers of matches because of losses from arson." — Newspaper account of the dismissal of a frivolous lawsuit against a gun manufacturer.

"Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue out because I might yell 'Fire!' in a crowded theater." — Peter Venetoklis

"Gun Control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins." — Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, Vanity Fair, 9/99 page 165

"A textual analysis of the Second Amendment supports an individual right to bear arms." — Ruling of federal district judge Sam R. Cummings, in U.S. v. Emerson, 2000

"The Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense." — Majority Supreme Court opinion in U.S. vs. Miller, 1939

(Other decisions by U.S. Courts of Appeals recognizing that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right include the First (Cases v. U.S., 1942), Fifth (U.S. v. Bowdach, 1977), Eighth (U.S. v. Hutzell, 2000), Tenth (U.S. vs. Swinton, 1975), and 11th Circuits (Gilbert Equipment Co., Inc. v. Higgins, 1990). Also, the U.S. Supreme Court recently recognized the Second Amendment as an important individual right in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 112 S.Ct. 2791, 2805, 120 L.Ed.2d 674, 696 (1992) and U.S. v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 265 (1991).)

2009-4

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Updated 2009-06-30