“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

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

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.

Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

If I’d known Ashton wanted my attention at any point I would have pushed Nicole aside and given her my undivided attention. But most of the time she was wrapped in Sawyer’s arms and I needed the distraction Nicole provided.

Beau’s arms slipped around my waist. I knew I should step away but I couldn’t make myself. This was home. Being in his arms like this was where I found peace.

With Woods arms wrapped around me and the beat of his heart pressed against my chest, I knew he would hold me steady. If I ever fell, I’d have him to catch me.

The unarmed power of naked truth.

Christian soldiers armed with virtue- hearts afire with blind obsession, cannot see the difference ‘twixt compassion and oppression

My anxious self always melted in your arms, then. Now your grin from another screen telling me “its going to be okay” works just the same.

I don’t mind getting a black eye or broken arm for a girl as long as she’s there to kiss it after.

You’re not going to see your dreams come true if you don’t put wings, legs, arms, hands, and feet on ’em.