If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -- James Madison

'When the government fears the people it is a democracy....when the people fear their government it is tyranny...' --- Thomas Jefferson

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.– Thomas Jefferson

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. – James Madison

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. – Herman Goering

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. – James Baldwin

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. – Voltaire

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. – William Ellery Channing

"if there be one principle more deeply written than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." -- Thomas Jefferson

Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government. – Sen. Robert Taft, (R) Ohio

Fascism will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible. ~ Sinclair Lewis 1935

"patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." - Samuel Johnson

"If the American people ever allow the banks to control issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied." -Thomas Jefferson

"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." -J. Edgar Hoover, former head of the FBI

BEWARE THE LEADER WHO BANGS THE DRUMS of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know ? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

-- Anonymous