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A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.

— Thomas Jefferson

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I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

I have ever deemed it more honorable and profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.

Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

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From the first I saw no chance of bettering the condition of the freedman until he should cease to be merely a freedman and should become a citizen.

Frederick Douglass The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)

The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy.

Edward Abbey Abbey's Road (1979)

Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Zedong

Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat.

Hermann Göring Radio broadcast (1936)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Jefferson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.