In 2020 I finally decided to stop identifying as an anarchist. My reasons are complex. I still hold a lot of the same values as before but I label them differently.
Here’s a bunch of quotes I picked up a number of years ago that I felt apply to anarchism at least in some way even if the people who said them aren’t anarchists. This list has been sitting around for years. I’m probably not going to do anything more important with it than put it in a blog post so I might as well just post it. I certainly cannot guarantee that the quotes are totally accurate as I gathered many of them from the internet, but they can still have meaning.
Though you know, I really don’t know how other anarchists really think and feel. Sometimes maybe I should stop calling it anarchism that I’m promoting so that people don’t have all these preconceptions and I’m not expected to follow the things the other anarchists say since the things I would want in a perfect society would be organized, but it would be an organization that evolved naturally and freely. I think many people see anarchists as promoting total anarchy, which I don’t believe is the case. Anyway, I’ll stop babbling. Here’s some quotes.
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“There can be no justice so long as laws are absolute.”
-Captain Picard
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The more you think you have to use physical force to control life, the less you control life.
-Cesar Milan (Dog Whisperer — season 6 episode 7 — Cesar Down Under)
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Well, what’s the matter little friend, you think this party is the pits
Enjoy it while you can, we’ll soon be blown to bits
The monkeys in the pentagon are gonna cook our goose
Their finger’s on the button, all they need is an excuse
It doesn’t take a military genius to see
We’ll all be crispy critters after World War III
There’s nowhere you can run to, nowhere you can hide
When they drop the big one, we all get fried
(Come on boys and girls, sing along, ok?)
-Weird Al Yankovic, Happy Birthday
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“I want to talk to you older folks about a little secret that we all share. It’s about a little thing called wisdom. You know what, we may not have as much of it as the young people think we do. Now, I know we all know the fastest route up to the cottage and we know the best kind of food and the best kind of music and the best tv shows… but that’s more a sign of our minds narrowing, not deepening.”
-Red Green
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To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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eatin’ meat is like havin’ kids;
the less you know about it,
the more likely you are to go ahead
-Red Green
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being unselfish is a natural high,
like hiking or paint thinner
-homer simpson
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if a path to the better there be,
it begins with a full look at the worst.
Thomas Hardy, 1887
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“The difference between knowing you’re wanted and knowing you’re not is quite big… It’s like going to a party where you know you’re not invited no matter how polite people are.”
-Absolutely Fabulous, (1992)
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“without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.”
Dune — 1984 version
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I watch every day what you are doing as a society. While you sit by and watch your Constitution being torn away from you, you willfully eat poisoned food, buy manufactured products no one needs and turn an uncaring eye away from millions of people suffering and dying all around you.
john titor www.JohnTitor.com
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“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.”
Albert Einstein
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“If you never encounter anything in your community that offends you, then you are not living in a free society.” — Kim Campbell
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It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Teddy Roosevelt
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“I have given you all the seed bearing herbs for you to use!”
Genesis 1:12;
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“If you take the tear from a crying eye, will the hurt just disappear?…
or put a weapon in the hands of a frightened man, will he show no fear?”
-Genesis
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“Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.”
-Noam Chomsky
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“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
-Noam Chomsky
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“Don’t gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold.”
-Bob Marley
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“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.”
-Bob Marley
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“Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.”
-Noam Chomsky
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“I was attracted to anarchism as a young teenager, as soon as I began to think about the world beyond a pretty narrow range, and haven’t seen much reason to revise those early attitudes since. I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled”
-unknown
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“All you read and hear or see on TV is a product begging for your fatass, dirty, dollar.”
-Tool
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increase the scope of human freedom. That includes political power, ownership and management, relations among men and women, parents and children, our control over the fate of future generations (the basic moral imperative behind the environmental movement, in my view), and much else.”
-Noam Chomsky
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“It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything.”
-Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
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“The things you own end up owning you.”
-Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
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“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we don’t need.”
-Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
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“The classroom is the last room to get the truth.”
-Zack De La Rocha (Rage Against The Machine)
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If the thrill is gone then it’s time to take it back
meatloaf
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It’s about coming up
and staying on top
and screaming “187 on the mother fucking cop!”
Sublime
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This book is dedicated to all who teach peace and resist violence
-Javascript, The Definitive Guide, 4th edition
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A friend in need is a friend indeed
A friend with weed is better
-Placebo
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You see reverend Maynard,
Tomorrow is harvest day
And to them, it is the holocaust.
-Tool
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I talk of freedom
You talk of the flag
-Live
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you belong somewhere you feel free
-Tom Petty
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The less I have the more I gain.
-Metallica
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All Indians
No chiefs
-Tool
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Always move forward
Going “straight” will get you nowhere
-greenday
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You’ve gotta fight for your right to party
-beastie boys
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Love and pain become one and the same in the eyes of a wounded child
-pat benatar
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We can’t afford to be innocent.
Stand up and face the enemy
-pat benatar
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This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start showing
Just where our lives are going
-Genesis
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We’re gonna change the world no matter what they say.
-POD
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The more things you get, the more you want.
-Van Halen
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I’m more than just a little curious how you’re planning to go about making your amends…
To the dead…
with your halo slipping down to choke you.
-A Perfect Circle
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Leave me alone. I’m not asking a lot. I just don’t want to be controlled.
-The Offspring
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Let me hear you make decisions, without your television
-Depeche Mode
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To err is human, to forgive is divine
-?
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…ask myself how much I let the fear take the wheel and steer.
-incubus
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It’s a turf war, on a global scale.
I’d rather hear both sides of the tale.
Michael Jackson
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“America may be the land of the free, but there are definitely more ignorant people there. Most of the population are semi-retarded.”
-Kurt Cobain
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“we live in a society of victimization, where people are much more comfortable being victimized than actually standing up for themselves”
-Marilyn Manson
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i get shocked by people smoking cigarettes sometimes. i get shocked by watching talk shows. people’s moralities are so far below what i would consider standard.
-Marilyn Manson
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Excellence can be achieved if you . . . risk more than others think is safe, love more than others think is wise, dream more than others think is practical, and expect more than others think is possible.
— Anon
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Treat a man as he is; he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be; and he will become as he can and should be.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.
— Arnold H. Glasgow
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There is no end to the great things we can accomplish if we don’t worry about who gets the credit.
— Anon
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Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
— Thomas Edison
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“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”
– Dresden James
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“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither” — Thomas Jefferson
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“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves” — Ronald Reagan
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“The people’s right to change what does not work is one of the greatest principles in our system of government” — Richard M. Nixon
“In the 1920s, we thought the problems associated with alcohol could be solved by police and jails. Prohibition taught us we were wrong. The strategy of the present drug war is Prohibition redux.” — Rodney S. Quinn, Secretary of State of Maine
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“Drug Prohibition does exactly the opposite of what it was intended to do. Drug Prohibition creates violence; it creates more addicts; it creates more dysfunction in society.” — Constable Gil Puder, Vancouver City Police
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“A tidal wave of support for medicinal marijuana has begun in the western United States; the future of many federal officials depends, in large part, on whether they ride that wave into the future or, standing in the way, are rendered irrelevant by the voters.” — Senator John Vasconcellos
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“Understand that legal and illegal are political, and often arbitrary, categorizations; use and abuse are medical, or clinical, distinctions.” — Abbie Hoffman
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“Drug use is an acknowledged fact of life in every prison in the country. If we can’t stop prisoner’ use of drugs, how can we rationally expect to stop average free citizens from using them?” — author unknown
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“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U. S. and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.” — Harry Anslinger
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“Every marijuana cigarette is loaded with immorality, debasing perversions, hatred, brutality, sex crimes, sadistic murder, insanity, and suicide.” — The Assassin of Youth
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“From a public health point of view, the immediate effects of marihuana intoxication on the individual’s organs or bodily functions are of little significance. No conclusive evidence exists of any physical damage, disturbances of bodily processes or proven human fatalities attributable solely to even very high doses of marihuana.” — Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (The “Shafer Comission”) (US, 1972)
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“Consumption of marijuana is relatively harmless compared to the so-called hard drugs including tobacco and alcohol. There exists no hard evidence demonstrating any irreversible organic or mental damage from the consumption of marijuana.” — Ontario Justice J.F. McCart
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“When an innocent Californian millionaire gets killed by a drug squad trying to seize his house with a bogus search warrant, people better ask themselves if they really want to turn their cops into money-makers.” — Vancouver Police Const. Gil Puder
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“What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.” — Thomas Sowell
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“The law is the collective organization of the individual’s right to lawful defense of his life, liberty and property. When it is used for anything else, no matter how noble the cause, it becomes perverted and justice is weakened. Thus, the law has become perverted by stupid greed and false philanthropy.” — Frederic Bastiat
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“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”
– Tolstoy
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“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.” — H.L. Mencken
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“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind” — J.S. Mill
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“Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.”
– DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young
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“Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself” — Jimmy Carter
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“If nothing else, Sept. 11 should have taught us that freedom has real enemies and that college kids sitting in their dorm room sharing a joint and listening to Pink Floyd aren’t remotely among them.” — Bradley R. Gitz, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2002
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“One has to multiply thoughts to the point where there aren’t enough policemen to control them” — Stanislaw Lec
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“When the day comes that it is time to adopt the alternative of lifting punishment for consumption of drugs, it would have to come all over the world. Humanity some day will see that it is best in that sense.” — Mexican President Vicente Fox
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“Cannabis is not risk-free, but it is certainly not more harmful than alcohol or tobacco” Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction.
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“They used to burn witches. Today we laugh at them. Today we jail people for marijuana. Tomorrow they’ll laugh at us.” — Robert “Rosie” Rowbotham
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“About 140 million people-nearly 2.5% of the world’s population-smoke marijuana.” — Associated Press, “U.N. Estimates Drug Business Equal to 8 Percent of World Trade,” (1997, June 26)
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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” — Thomas Jefferson
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“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” — Benjamin Franklin
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“Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse — for both the addict and the rest of us.” — Milton Friedman
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“To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of men.” — Abraham Lincoln
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“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” — Thomas Paine
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“Insanity … Continuing to do the same things and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein
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“Freedom is that faculty that enlarges the usefulness of all other faculties.” — Immanuel Kant
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“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage.” — Thucydides
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“When war is declared, truth is the first casualty” — Arthur Ponsonby
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“It has ever been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues” — Abraham Lincoln
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“Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they are meant to serve” — Clarence Darrow
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“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws” — Tacitus, Annals III 27
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A life predicated on being obedient and taking orders is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one’s own need to think.” — Adolf Eichmann
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“A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation.” — Thomas Jefferson
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“The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along.” — Clarence Darrow
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“When you feel that fear to speak out, that’s the time to speak or we won’t have that right anymore” — Valerie Gremillion
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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does” — Margaret Mead
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“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi
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“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.” — Abraham Lincoln
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“WASHINGTON — House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002.” — Reuters (May 1998)
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“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” — George Washington
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“What are politicians going to tell people when the Constitution is gone and we still have a drug problem?” — William Simpson
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“There ought to be limits to freedom.” — Texas Gov. George W. Bush
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“Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally on our planet, to say marijuana is against the law is like saying God made a mistake.” Bill Hicks
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“They lie about marijuana. They tell you pot smoking makes u unmotivated, LIE! When ur high u can do everything u normally do u just realize its just not worth the fucking effort.” Bill Hicks
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“Nicotine, alcohol, GOOD drugs! Coincidently TAXED drugs, ooo how’s this fucking work?” Bill Hicks
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“Pot is a better drug than alcohol, u may stop ur internal dialogue. ‘B-but Bill alcohol is an acceptable form of-‘ SHUT THE FUCK UP, UR WRONG, K? K.” Bill Hicks
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“If ur going to have a war on drugs, have them against ALL drugs, including alcohol, the number one offender.” Bill Hicks
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“…to be peaceful without being stupid, to be interested without being compulsive, to be happy without being hysterical… smoke grass.” Ken Kesey
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“The smoking of cannabis even long term is not harmful to health.” The Lancet, 1995
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“Dope will get u through times of no money better than money will get u through times of no dope.” The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
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“They’ve putlawd the number one vegetable on the planet.” Timothey Leary
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Originally published at kalinbooks.com.