A Republic, if you can keep it

[Vexari]

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty

And the destiny of the republican model of government,

Are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally,

Staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands

Of the American people


~ George Washington ~ (1732-1799)

Founding Father, 1st US President, 'Father of the Country'

Source.. First Inaugural Address, 1789, Ref: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (462)


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No one’s ever been able to show me

Any difference between democracy and brute force

It’s just a majority ganging up on a minority

With the minority giving in

To avoid getting massacred


~ L. Neil Smith ~

American writer

Source.. Pallas, 425 (Ton Doherty Associates, Inc. 1993)


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The merit of our Constitution was

Not that it promotes democracy

But checks it


~ Horatio Seymour ~ (1810-1886)

Governor of New York


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I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society

But the people themselves

And if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion

The remedy is not to take it from them

But to inform their discretion


~ Thomas Jefferson ~ (1743-1826)

US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President; 1820

Source.. letter to William Charles Jarvis, 28 September 1820; The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (278)


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In the beginning of a change

The patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned

When his cause succeeds

The timid join him

For then

It costs nothing

To be a patriot


~ Mark Twain ~ (1835-1910)


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How I wish

That somewhere there existed an island

For those who are wise and of goodwill

In such a place

Even I would be an ardent patriot


~ Albert Einstein ~ (1879-1955)

Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921


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A patriot is an individual

Who is willing to stand up against one's own government

When the government is wrong


~ Ron Paul ~

quote @ 00.28


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The welfare of humanity

Is always the alibi of tyrants


~ Albert Camus ~ (1913-1960)

French Algerian author


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A Republic, Patriotism and the Human Condition