Quotation Collection: What's your favorite?

I found the following quotation, and have been thinking of the best way to share it with the crowd.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And . . . moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
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The quote is from Barry Goldwater circa 1964. Anybody care to comment, or better yet, care to list one of your favorite quotes? I think this should be a fun topic . . . we'll see (although it isn't khukuri related, I feel it does have relevance for our ranks).

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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
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C

coyote

Joined
Jul 8, 1999
Messages
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Craig. Well put. But then I am not given to moderation. Moderation often is an excuse to mediocraty in my opinion.

Here's one that might be fun.

"Among the many misdeads of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms the blackest."
Mahatma Ghandi

Would you believe it the the great pacifist Ghandi was the one who said that. It seems he just used the tools he had. I read this to mean that if he would have had proper weapons at his disposal he would have used them.
 
Coyote: I'll definitely put that one in my bag of rhetorical tricks! How about:

Tyrranies are just tired deomcracies. The people, having grown tired of the eternal vigilance required for the preservation of freedom, have entrusted their safety to others upon the watchtowers to stand guard whilst they sleep.
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That's GK Chesterton, and he suggests the terrible price to pay for a large government "nanny state."

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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
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I have a few quotes you might find interesting.

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle! Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will."
-- Frederic Douglass, August 4, 1857

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own 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

"We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Lafayette [April 2, 1799]

X-Head

[This message has been edited by X-Head (edited 01-10-2000).]

[This message has been edited by X-Head (edited 01-10-2000).]
 
"A principal source of errors and injustice are false ideas of utility. For example: that legislator has false ideas of utility who considers particular more than general convenincies, who had rather command the sentiments of mankind than excite them, and dares say to reason, 'Be thou a slave;' who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt; and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it. The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance?" -Marquis Beccaria, _An Essay on Crimes and Punishments_
 
"...What is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies..."
"To see them driven before you..."
"To hear the lamentation of their women!"
-Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan from the movie, "Conan the Barbarian"
It is my reserve unit motto as well.

-Redleg out.

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"Blessed is the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle..." excerpted from Psalms 144.
 
Berk: Again, a very useful, and very obscure (for me) quote that I will put in my bag of rhetorical tools.



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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
In light of the negative connotations spun onto the word "Patriot" by the media, I offer this:

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man and brave, hated and scorned.
When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
-- Mark Twain

"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. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."
--Theodore Roosevelt

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels, men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine."
-- Dwight Eisenhower


[This message has been edited by X-Head (edited 01-11-2000).]
 
Question: Are topics like these inappropriate for the GH forum? I consider them "get to know you" questions, and ones that spark interesting dialogue, and evey shared knowledge. Any objections?



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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
I think this is a great topic. You can tell a lot about people by the words they choose to keep in their notes, in their diaries, on their bumper-stickers or their helmets.

Some of my favorites:

It is a doctrine of war not to assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one's readiness to meet him; not to presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one's self invincible. When the world is at peace, a gentleman keeps his sword by his side.
-Sun Tzu 400 B.C.

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
-Dean William Inge

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

You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it.
-Clint Smith

Blackdog

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Craig,
I'm a 13E00 (Cannon Officer) I was an FSO, FIST team leader, 13F(Forward Observer--Big Hoo-AHH!) and XO.
-Redleg out.

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"Blessed is the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle..." excerpted from Psalms 144.
 
If you pile up money for your descendants, be certain they will waste it.
If you collect books for them, Be certain they won't read a word.
It is better to accumulate hidden virtue, for that will last a long time.

Outside of the mind - there is no enemy.
Yamaoka Tesshu.
 
Can't remember right off who said it:
An armed society is a polite society.
And one of my faverites from Kansas, Dust in the wind:
" and all your money won't another minute buy."
 
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