Amendment 13 Quotes

• The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic.

  Joseph Story

  Gun, Liberty, Second Amendment

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.708

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.

  George Mason

  Gun, People, Second Amendment

  10 Copy quote

• Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.

  Noah Webster

  Country, Army, Gun

  Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... and include all men capable of bearing arms.

  Richard Henry Lee

  4th Of July, Men, Gun

  Richard Henry Lee, Mercy Otis Warren (1962). “An Additional number of letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican, leading to a fair examination of the system of government, proposed by the late Convention: to several essential and necessary alterations in it; and calculated to illustrate and support the principles and positions laid down in the preceding letters. Together with Oberservations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions by a Columbian patriot”

  49 Copy quote

  Show source

• A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

  George Washington

  Wisdom, Military, Independent

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1837). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.8

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Gun, Law

  343 Copy quote

• Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Freedom

  'The Soul of Man under Socialism'

  131 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well for one, the 13th amendment to the constitution of the US which abolished slavery - did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.

  Angela Davis

  Slavery, Constitution, Crime

  25 Copy quote

• To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Gun, Strong Arms, People

  Richard Henry Lee (1978). “Letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican”, Univ of Alabama Pr

  105 Copy quote

  Show source

• Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.

  Thomas Paine

  Gun, Order, Law

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.4, Yale University Press

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, Gun

  Letter toWilliam Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

  76 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

  George Mason

  Strength, Peace, Gun

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1788.

  110 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Gun, Rights, People

  "The Federalist Papers". Book by Alexander Hamilton, essay No. 69, 1787 - 1788.

  246 Copy quote

  Show source

• A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. - Second Amendment to the Constitution An armed society is a polite society.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Gun, Libertarian Party, Assault Weapons

  52 Copy quote

• A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

  James Madison

  Gun, Libertarian Party, Assault Weapons

  James Madison, Gaillard Hunt, James Brown Scott (1999). “The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: Which Framed the Constitution of the United States of America”, p.690, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  58 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.

  Samuel Adams

  Gun, Strong Arms, People

  Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788.

  98 Copy quote

  Show source

• Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

  Abraham Lincoln

  4th Of July, Patriotic, America

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863.

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• For an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Men, Strong Arms

  19 Copy quote

• The powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress has no power to disarm the militia.

  Tench Coxe

  Gun, Second Amendment, Arms

  The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised by an artful man [Sir William Keith], who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.

  George Mason

  Men, Gun, America

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1788.

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. [...] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Gun, Men, Strong Arms

  71 Copy quote

• Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an Americans.

  Tench Coxe

  Men, Gun, Soldier

  76 Copy quote

• A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.

  George Washington

  Freedom, Gun, People

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.222

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Law, Strong Arms

  53 Copy quote

• Of the people, by the people, for the people.

  Sun Yat-sen

  4th Of July, Patriotic, Democracies Have

  123 Copy quote