"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Seator Robert F. Kennedy, 1962 South Africa
"No man or country can be really free unless all men and all countries are free." Thomas Paine
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." President Abraham Lincoln
"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser - in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough." President Abraham Lincoln
"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon
constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes;
believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men
and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can
save it..." Judge Learned Hand
"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the
comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it
is violating all His laws." President John Quincy Adams
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of
government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow
operations, perverted it into tyranny." President Thomas Jefferson
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." President James Madison
"An elective despotism is not the government we fought for." President Thomas Jefferson
"I am the commander, see?" I do not need to explain why I say
things. - That's the interesting thing about being the President. -
Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I
don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation." President George W. Bush
"To inform the minds of the people and to follow their will is the
chief duty of those placed at their head." President Thomas Jefferson
(1816)
"We are no longer the world's leaders on matters of international
law and peace. . . A nation without credibility and moral authority
cannot lead, because no one will follow." Attorney Theodore Sorensen
(Counsel to President John F. Kennedy) (5/21/04)