"In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace. The art of war is of
vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road to
safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected."
-Sun Tzu, "The Art of War", ~500BC
"Anarchism says, Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be
free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you
will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor
liberty license"; and they will define and define freedom out of existence. Let
the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we
shall have no need of paper declarations. On the other hand, so long as the
people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will
do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the
name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon
sleeping men."
-VDC, "Anarchism & American Traditions", 1909
"Do not try to be a social reformer and a respected possessor of Things at the same
time. Do not preach the straight and narrow way while going joyously
upon the wide one. /Preach the wide one,/ or do not preach at all; but
do not fool yourself by saying you would like to help usher in a free
society, but you cannot sacrifice an armchair for it. Say honestly, "I
love arm-chairs better than free men, and pursue them because I choose;
not because circumstances make me. I love hats, large, large hats, with
many feathers and great bows; and I would rather have those hats than
trouble myself about social dreams that will never be accomplished in my
day. The world worships hats, and I wish to worship with them."
-VDC, "The Dominant Idea", 1910
"Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political
parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound
truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure
wind."
-George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language", 1946
