Sayings
Issue #12 posted
1999-12-20
Peace through excessive firepower.
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might" - Eccl 9:10
"Laws, like the spider's web, catch the fly and let the hawk go free." -- Spanish Proverb
Watching someone die from abject stupidity: "Think of it as evolution in action." -- Oath of Fealty, by Jerry Pournelle
"When the flame of powder touchest the soul of man it burnith exceedingly deep." -- Roger Bacon, 1242
It never troubles the wolf, how many the sheep may be.
"If the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court...the people have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal." -- Abraham Lincoln
"Do not try the patience of wizards for they are subtle and quick to anger"
"Just as a horse must have endurance and no defects, so it is with weapons. Horses should walk strongly, and swords and companion swords should cut strongly. Spears and halberds must stand up to heavy use: bows and guns must be sturdy. Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative." -- Miyamoto Musashi's book of Strategy, the "Ground Book", second year of Shoho, the fifth month, the twelfth day. (1645)
"You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly." -- Ibid
"The true way of the sword is the craft of defeating the enemy in a fight, and nothing other than this."-- Ibid
"Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws." -- Publius Cornelius Tacitus
O momentary grace of mortal men, which we more hunt for than the grace of God! Who builds his hope in air of your good looks, lives like a drunken sailor on a mast: ready, with every nod, to tumble down into the fatal bowels of the deep." -- Shakespeare's Richard III
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons since you are crunchy and taste great with catsup"
"In archery we have three goals: to shoot accurately, to shoot powerfully, to shoot rapidly." -- Byzantine general of the Sixth Century
"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." -- Samuel Adams
"A free and vigilant people should never have tolerated this for a minute. The income tax is an inherently communistic tax, because one of the prerequisites of freedom is a sphere of privacy. And if you destroy the material foundations of that sphere of privacy, you have destroyed the possibility of freedom." -- Alan Keyes
"That rifle on the wall of the laborer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there!" -- George Orwell, "Tribune" magazine, 1940.
"The lesson of history, and it's an important one, is that bureaucrats and political administrations left unchecked will eventually trample the rights of everyone. By virtue of what they are, they place a lower value on civil rights than their own self-interest. As they can become the downfall of any nation, it would be wise to learn from history." -- Kevin Avram
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it" -- Attributed to Thomas Jefferson
It's not the tool, it's the intent!
"Masculine republics decline to feminine democracies, and then decay to dictatorship" -- Attributed to Aristotle
"Although we give lip service to the notion of freedom, we know the government is no longer the servant of the people but, at last, has become the people's master. We have stood by like timid sheep while the wolf killed--first the weak, then the strays, then those on the outer edges of the flock, until at last the entire flock belonged to the wolf. -- Gerry Spence, "From Freedom to Slavery"
"In the various states of society armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by their love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy are animated by a sentiment of honor; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment." -- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." -- Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." -- John Shedd
"Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." -- Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100
"What you believe is more important than what you possess. What you live is more lasting than what you profess. Whom you inspire is more significant than whom you impress." -- Wm. Arthur Ward
"I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." - Henry David Thoreau
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.
"Ability without honor is useless." -- Cicero
"There is no short cut to civilization." -- Frederick Russel Burnham, Taking Chances
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate, and I can picture us attacking that world, because they would never expect it.
"How many times are we going to pay hundreds of dollars to learn to focus on our front sights?"
"Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity." -- The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Heinlein
The Rules of Combat
1. If the enemy is in range, so are you.
2. Incoming fire has the right of way.
3. Don't look conspicuous: it draws fire.
4. The easy way is always mined.
5. Try to look unimportant, they may be low on ammo.
6. Professionals are predictable, it's the amateurs that are dangerous.
7. The enemy invariably attacks on one of two occasions: a) When you're ready for them; b) When you're not ready for them.
8. Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy someone else to shoot at.
9. If you can't remember, the claymore is pointed at you.
9a. Claymores are labeled "This side toward enemy" for a reason.
10. If your attack is going well, you have walked into an ambush.
11. Don't draw fire, it irritates the people around you.
12. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
13. When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.
14. If it's stupid but works, it isn't stupid.
15. When in doubt empty the magazine.
16. Never share a fox hole with anyone braver than you.
17. Anything you do can get you shot. Including doing nothing.
18. Make it too tough for the enemy to get in and you can't get out.
19. Mines are equal opportunity weapons.
20. A Purple Heart just proves that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.
21. Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and don't ever volunteer to do anything.
22. The quartermaster has only two sizes: too large and too small.
23. Five second fuses only last three seconds.
24. It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.
Old men know things. Young men should associate with old men.
In order to be old and wise, one must have been young and stupid.
Experience is a good teacher...unfortunately, it often kills the student.
"Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting." -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." -- Ayn Rand- The Nature of Government'
There is nothing common about common sense.
To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated.
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president...." -- Theodore Roosevelt
"The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of cause." -- William James
Life is tough, then you die. -- Old Irish Saying
Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud.
"That's the way it is in war. You win or lose, live or die--and the difference is just an eyelash." -- Gen. Douglas MacArthur
"In war trivial causes produce momentous events." -- Julius Caesar
"The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes." -- Napoleon
"Don't delay: The best is the enemy of the good. By this I mean that a good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan next week. War is a simple thing, and the determining characteristics are self-confidence, speed and audacity. None of these things can ever be perfect, but they can be good." -- Gen. George S. Patton
"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim." -- George Santayana
"We should welcome the future, knowing that soon it will be the past...." -- George Santayana
"Blessed be the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle" -- Psalms 144:1
"The time to weep was when our arms were taken from us, our ships were burnt, and we were forbidden foreign wars ... You have no reason to believe that the Romans had any interest in your domestic peace, for peace can never stay for long in a great country. It will find an enemy at home if it lacks one abroad ..." -- Hannibal, speaking of the Carthaginian defeat by Rome in 201 BC and the politicians lament over having to pay reparations to Rome.
Please email comments to Fr. Frog at frfrog@sprynet.com