A little balance

[nancylebov]

There was some discussion of "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

There's a quote I can't track down-- I thought it was from Burke, but it's to the effect that a man should go about revolution with the same care he'd bring to doing surgery on his father.

I believe that violence is sometimes necessary, but a lot of people are much too light-hearted in the way they talk about it, and possibly in the way they think about it as well.

Comments

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I've most often seen the first quote attributed to Winston Churchill.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Churchill's a quote magnet, like Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and many others. Attributions -- whether true or false, documented or un- -- propagate faster than the speed of light, like everything else on the web.

Ben Franklin's another quote magnet, but he almost certainly didn't say this, despite this attribution in print. See this discussion on the American Dialect Society discussion list, where quote attributions are frequently discussed; check the preceding and following posts in thread as well (lightbulb icons).

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

I don't believe that lambs are well-armed. Pigs, maybe.