Related:

• Love your country but never trust its government.
  -- from a hand-painted road sign in central Pennsylvania...
• The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the *government*, not to *society*
  and as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms, and no possible disadvantage....
• The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point.
  Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech....
• If a society is to thrive, it must put its own overall success before the well-being of its individual citizens.
• Love your country, but never trust its government. -- Robert A. Heinlein.
• Strong government makes weak citizens.
• The art of government consist in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens and giving it to another.
  -- Voltaire...
• The polite thing to do has always been to address people as they wish to be addressed, to treat them in a way they think dignified.
  But it is equally important to accept and tolerate different standards of courtesy, not expecting everyone else to adapt to one's own preferences....