Slade Gorton Quotes

We are not safe. We are safer than we were, but we are not as safe as we could be.

Such is the terror--the crushing fear--which is inspired by one man over that multitude, which now submits to his decrees with a zeal, apparently as ardent, as it is certainly abject and submissive. There is not a complaint heard. The calm and dark waters of despotism are never disturbed by the slightest ripple. Not a breath of free thought or manly speech passes over them, but they lie dead and deep, into which every vestige of the people's liberty and freedom has sunk and disappeared.

Anything can be justified by security.

Security is no replacement for liberty.

The government assures the people that they are in danger from the invasion of another nation, or from foes in their midst, and that the only way to escape this danger is by the slavish obedience of the people to their government. This fact is seen most prominently during revolutions and dictatorships, but it exists always and everywhere that the power of the government exists.

The people are frightened. When they are frightened, they are much more willing to give us their liberties. But giving up their liberties won't make them safer, that's the real sad part of it.

Freedom is the best antidote to terror.

Whenever you hear, “it’s for your own good” from the government, you are about to lose some money or freedom. Always!

To be safe at the expense of the liberty of other people is a difficult equation.

The very idea of freedom incites fear in the hearts of terrorists across the world.

Many a time freedom has been rolled back - and always for the same sorry reason: fear.

The stability and security of authoritarian regimes cannot create but terrorism and violence and destruction. Let us accept the choice of the people. Let us not pick and choose who we would like to rule their future.

Fear is the passion of slaves.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

I couldn't even go to the bathroom alone. My mother or a social worker always went with me.

Terrorism is the enemy of all free people…

It’s often safer to be in chains than to be free.

The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world.

... a step in the direction of tyranny.

A foreign policy aimed at the achievement of total security is the one thing I can think of that is entirely capable of bringing this country to a point where it will have no security at all. And a ruthless, reckless insistence on attempting to stamp out everything that could conceivably constitute a reflection of improper foreign influence in our national life, regardless of the actual damage it is doing to the cost of eliminating it, in terms of other American values, is the one thing I can think of that should reduce us all to a point where the very independence we are seeking to defend would be meaningless, for we would be doing things to ourselves as vicious and tyrannical as any that might be brought to us from outside.

When the population does not feel secure, it is very difficult to win their hearts and minds.

… without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house.... Let us not be afraid to see the hatred that accompanies and consumes the lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs who sit all around us and wait for the moment when their hands will be able to reach our blood.

Government is essentially the negation of liberty.

Our immediate job is defense. We will play offense soon enough, but right now it is defense…. Your job is to keep America free by making Americans feel safe again

We should be able to defend ourselves by ourselves.