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"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

Plato

In the same spirit, I offer the following quotes. Where there is a date, it indicates the year the quote was made.

"Make the most of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere!" - George Washington, first U.S. President (1794)

"The greatest service that can be rendered to a country is to add a useful plant to its culture." - Thomas Jefferson, second U.S. President

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson, second U.S. President

"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in annual growth of the hemp fields?" - Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

"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. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." - Albert Einstein, German-born American theoretical physicist (1921)

"Republic… it means people can live free, talk free, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose." - John Wayne, American actor

"The Drug War is fueled by the fact that at this historic moment...our politicians are suffering from enemy deprivation. Faced with the real problems of urban decay, slipping global competitiveness, and a deteriorating educational system, the government has decided instead to turn its energies toward the sixty million Americans who use illegal psychoactive drugs." - Timothy Leary, American Psychiatrist and Drug Guru

"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana." - Jimmy Carter, U.S. President in a message to the U.S. Congress (1977)

"Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing possession of marijuana… We should concentrate on prosecuting the rapists and burglars who are a menace to society." - Dan Quayle, U.S. Representative and Vice President (1977)

"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, U.S. President

"If the words 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on." - Terence McKenna, American writer, philosopher, and advocate

"The drug is really quite a remarkably safe one for humans, although it is really quite a dangerous one for mice and they should not use it." - J.W.D. Henderson, Director of the Bureau of Human Drugs, Health and Welfare, Canada

I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

Martin Luther king[/quote]

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind, And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch"- Matthew 15:14

"All authority belongs to the people"-Thomas Jefferson

on any issue of right and wrong this should always apply


"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''

Winston Churchill

A few more:

"For every prohibition you create you also create an underground." - Jello Biafra, American songwriter

"There is pain in prohibition." - Irish proverb

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes." - Abraham Lincoln, 16th American President (Purported)

"We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation." - William Hazlitt, British author

"Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can't stop what it's meant to stop. We like it. It's left a trail of graft and slime. It don't prohibit worth a dime. It's filled our land with vice and crime, Nevertheless, we're for it." - Franklin Pierce Adams

"Prohibition has made nothing but trouble." - Alphonse 'Scarface' Capone, American Gangster

"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth." - Will Rogers, American Actor

"Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." - William F. Buckley, Jr., American conservative commentator

"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve." - Henry George, American political economist

"The whole principle is wrong. It’s like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak." - Robert Heinlein, American author

"Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all legal professions of history have based their job security." - Frank Herbert, American Author

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant." - John Stewart Mill, English philosopher

"The goal of legalizing drugs is to bring them under effective legal control. If it were legal to produce and distribute drugs, legitimate businessmen would enter the business. There would be less need for violence and corruption since the industry would have access to the courts. And, instead of absorbing tax dollars as targets of expensive enforcement efforts, the drug sellers might begin to pay taxes. So, legalization might well solve the organized crime aspects of the drug trafficking problem. On average, drug use under legalization might not be as destructive to users and to society as under the current prohibition, because drugs would be less expensive, purer, and more conveniently available." - National Institute of Justice, America

"Should we believe self-serving, ever-growing drug enforcement/drug treatment bureaucrats, whose pay and advancement depends on finding more and more people to arrest and "treat"? More Americans die in just one day in prisons, penitentiaries, jails and stockades than have ever died from marijuana throughout history. Who are they protecting? From what?" - Dr. Fred Oerther

Great quotes! Thanks everyone for sharing them! I'm certain there are many individuals who take a prescribed view on many issues such as use of or legalization of marijuana who would be shocked and maybe even embarrassed to hear these quotes from such illustrious figures. It makes the established line of thought look as silly as it actually is.

IMO some of the most important quotes when considering legalization:

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. "

"[...]If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."

-Ayn Rand

SBX_DK

Alaskan Biker wrote: on any issue of right and wrong this should always apply


"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''

Winston Churchill

Simply awesome, Alaskan Biker. I loved this quote... never heard it before, but I've always lived by this as my father taught me well. One voice is still one voice and better than no voice. Thank you so much.

Here is one for you. You only need two tools in life, a hammer and a durex, if you can't fix it, fuck it.

lmao

islandgurl wrote:One voice is still one voice and better than no voice.

Such an encouraging quote islandgirl.........now somebody should take time to write this one down and remember it............excellent

Aw Alaskan Biker, you're just the kind of person I want to get to know. Hope we can party one day, it would be my pleasure. You're one together dude and a true man, I can tell.

"Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content." - Bob Dylan

"I'm about to get sick, from watching MTV." - FZ

"Everything passes, everything changes
Just do what you think you should do." - Bob Dylan

"The perfect gift for somebody who has everything, is of course, nothing." - Kurt Vonnegut

"But everything you gather is just more that you can lose." - Robert Hunter

"It's simple math; two girls have four tits." - my dad

Found this thread whist i was having a dig .... so glad i did!!

Always liked and very appropriate for the times..."Red means run son .... numbers add up to nothin'". "Neil Young".