Stephen F. Austin Quotes

I’ll take my short revolver And my bandolier of lead, And live or die I can but try To avenge my country’s dead …. I’ve always hated slavery Since the day that I was born So I’m of to join the IRA And I’m off tomorrow morn

No choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation.

General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and other military chieftains, have by force of arms, overthrown the federal institutions of Mexico, and dissolved the social compact which existed between Texas and the other members of the Mexican Confederacy

Those who disagree with the dictator's plan have no other means to carry on than to defeat the despot by force of arms.

The last resort of kings, the cannonball. The last resort of the people, the paving stone.

People have a right to violence, to rebel, to fight back.

To declaim freedom verses seems like a poem within a poem; freedom requires guns, it requires arms, but no feet.

Give me liberty or give me death.

The Irish light as been extinguished by the foulest means that sword and tyranny ever practiced …. Any attempt to rekindle it is to be treated as sedition.

Do the magistrates think of putting down our meeting by acts of violence? I for one think they do, and should we be attacked today, come what will, life, death, or victory, I am determined no house shall cover my head tonight. I am quite ready to stand by the law, and not to give our tyrants the slightest advantage in attacking us in sections; but should they employ force against us. I am repelling attack by attack.

The abolition of man-made laws cannot be achieved only through preaching. Those who have usurped the authority of God and are oppressing God's creatures are not going to give up their power merely through preaching.

I believe in the armed struggle as the only solution for those people who fight to free themselves.

It is needless to trouble your Lordship with daily Publications of determined resolutions not to obey the Acts of Parliament … The Country People are exercising in Arms… and getting Magazines of Arms and Ammunition … People are resorting to this town [Boston] for Protection…. Sedition flows copiously from the Pulpits. The Commissioners of Customs have thought it no longer safe or prudent to remain at Salem.

If the oppressor uses peaceful means, the oppressed will never resort to violence. But if the oppressor uses violence, then the oppressed have no other alternative than violence—to retaliate with similar forms.

When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.

We're coming with a mighty force to end the reign of your oppressors. We are coming to bring you food and medicine and a better life. And we are coming and we will not stop, we will not relent until your country is free.

O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone.

Liberty is never unalienable, it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes.

Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.

Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever.

My sole ambition is to rid Mexico of the class that has oppressed her and given the people a chance to know what real liberty means. And if I could bring that about today by giving up my life, I would do it gladly.

An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.

When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.