Seeds of thought

First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I'm not a
Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because
I'm not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did
nothing because I'm not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but
by then there was no one left to help me. – Pastor Father Niemoller
(1946)

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

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and
car keys to teenage boys. – P.J. O'Rourke

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he
does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. –
Robert Heinlein

When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left
boot or a right boot is of no consequence. – Gary Lloyd

[On ancient Athens]: In the end, more than freedom, they wanted
security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all –
security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted
not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the
freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility,
then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. – Edward
Gibbon

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which
debt he proposes to pay off with your money. – G. Gordon Liddy

It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
independence. – Charles A. Beard

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. – Edward R.
Murrow

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as
are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to
say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor
breaks my leg. – Thomas Jefferson (1781)

The government was set to protect man from criminals – and the
Constitution was written to protect man from the government. –
Ayn Rand

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big
enough to take it all away. – Barry Goldwater (1964)

We 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 (1903)

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be
reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and
controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If
the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to
work, instead of living on public assistance. – Marcus Tullius
Cicero, 55 BC

Liberals want the government to be your Mommy. Conservatives
want government to be your Daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you
like an adult. – Andre Marrou

National Health Insurance means combining the efficiency of the
Postal Service with the compassion of the I.R.S. … and the cost
accounting of the Pentagon. – Louis Sullivan/Connie Horner
quoted by Novak in _Forbes_

When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they
let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress? – Marilyn
French

We are living in a sick society filled with people who would not
directly steal from their neighbor but who are willing to demand
that the government do it for them. – William L. Comer

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do
nothing. – Edmund Burke

Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the
record straight. – Proverbs 18:17

When the mass media in some foreign countries serve as
megaphones for the rhetoric of their government, the result is
ludicrous propaganda. When the mass media in our country serve as
megaphones for the rhetoric of the U.S. government, the result is
responsible journalism. – Norman Solomon

The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its
victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which
blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves. – Dresden James

It's illegal to say to a voter "Here's $100, vote for me." So what do
the politicians do? They offer the $100 in the form of Health Care,
Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Food Stamps, tobacco
subsidies, grain payments, NEA payments, and jobs programs. –
Don Farrar

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults
pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they
want and their kids pay for it. – Richard Lamm, former Gov of
Colorado

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. –
Martin Luther King Jr.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes
have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. –
George Eliot

A caged canary is safe but not free. – Walter Williams