Petra Kelly Quotes

Advocating the expansion of the powers of the state is treason to mankind

The basic principle that governs the relation between a state and its people --a total and unconditional subordination and submission of individuals and classes to the state…

The laws receive their force and authority from an oath of fidelity, either tacit or expressed, which living subjects have sworn to their sovereign, in order to restrain the intestine fermentation of the private interest of individuals.

Before the war, there was a federal government and a bureaucracy. But there was no allegiance to a national government. After the war, you have a social base that supports federal power. That’s a big change.

It must be assumed that members of Congress are just as patriotic as we [the military] are.

Gilani should be loyal to the country, the Constitution and law and not to Zardari alone.

He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.

The legitimate acts of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

We must differentiate between loyalty to one’s country and blind loyalty to the policy that a particular administration happens to be carrying out.

A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.

[Guarantees of freedom] will be found to consist in the highest protection of the individual and of society, chiefly against public power, because it is necessarily from this power that the greatest danger threatens the citizen, or that the most serious infringement of untrammeled action is to be feared.

The Church not only prescribes for her children to obey state power regardless of the convictions and faith of its bearers, but also prays for it.

The first check we met was from the Catholic clergy. Our men came to us telling that they were driven away from the confessionals, and would not get absolution unless they gave up the oath. We asked them did they think they committed a sin in taking an oath to fight for their country's freedom, and when they said they did not, we told them to tell the priests that they came to confess their sins and not their virtues, and to ask the priests if they had sworn to fight for England against Ireland, would they not get absolution? The priests were getting vexed with us, and we were getting vexed with the priests

John F. Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." I have never understood why this utterance, which in essence urges everyone to volunteer themselves as unquestioning slaves, guinea pigs and cannon fodder to a grasping state, is quoted with such reverence. What Kennedy should have said is this: “Ask lots of very pointed questions about what your country promises to do for you, and don't forget to ask exactly what it proposes to do to you. Then pick the place that offers the best deal. You will be doing a favour not only to yourself, but potentially to all of mankind.”

He too, liked his party, and was fond of loyal men; but he had learned at last that all loyalty must be built on a basis of self-advantage. Patriotism may exist without it, but …loyalty in politics was simply devotion to the side which a man conceives to be his side, and which he cannot leave without danger to himself.

Government is no sooner created than it becomes too strong for society, and shapes and moulds, as well as controls it.

...the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

Being a part of a political party is something like being a partner in a marriage -- work at it and stay loyal to it, and when you can't stomach it any longer, leave it.

All the existing governments of the world are there for the avowed purpose of safeguarding the sovereign rights of the nations they rule or serve, and there is no one of them that could make surrender of these without being immediately hurled from power by the political forces behind it.

War is the health of the state. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.

I am proud of my loyalty to my party and my country.

There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party.

The state operates in a legal vacuum. There exists no contract between the state and its citizens.

Even if we are all doomed to live under the state, it doesn't follow that there is, or even can be, such a thing as a good state.

Rudy Giuliani is on the list [of Secretary of State ] not because of competence, not because of foreign policy experience, he's on most entirely because of loyalty to Donald Trump.