Top 100 The Patriot Quotes
#1. By tearing down the wall between law enforcement and the intelligence community, we have been able to share information in a way that was virtually impossible before the Patriot Act.
John Ashcroft
#2. We all deserve credit for this new surveillance state that we live in because we the people voted for the Patriot Act. Democrats and Republicans alike ... We voted for the people who voted for it, and then voted for the people who reauthorized it, then voted for the people who re-re-authorize d it.
Stephen Colbert
#3. How will we defend ourselves if the Patriot Act expires? Well, perhaps we could just rely on the Constitution and demonstrate exactly how traditional judicial warrants can gather all the info we need - and how bulk collection really hasn't worked.
Rand Paul
#4. The Patriot Act is ludicrous. Terrorists have proved that they are interested in total genocide, not subtle little hacks of the U.S. infrastructure, yet the government wants a blank search warrant to spy and snoop on everyone's communications.
Kevin Mitnick
#5. We must erase bin Laden's ugly legacy, not extend it: by ending the Patriot Act's erosion of our civil liberties, we can protect the freedoms that make America worth fighting for.
Aaron Swartz
#6. Poor, successful, fallible Republican party! If it could only have kept the purity of the patriot impulse of which it was born!
Candace Wheeler
#7. I got a chiropractor to come along to the Patriot shoot, because they can actually stick you back together within 15 minutes. He spent a week and worked on the entire crew. All the stunt guys were like, 'Oh, fix my disc.' The guy's amazing.
Mel Gibson
#8. The PATRIOT Act brought down the wall separating intelligence agencies from law enforcement and other entities charged with protecting the Nation from terrorism.
Chris Chocola
#9. Louis XVI started to die on June 21st 1791. For his flight tore away the veil of that false constitutional monarchy, and once more confronted the Patriot party with the whole problem of the revolution's future.
Francois Furet
#10. The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness.
Francis Scott Key
#11. The Patriot missile is a point defence missile. Point defence means that you put the missile at a location to defend a very specific target such as an airfield, a supply dump or a headquarters.
Norman Schwarzkopf
#12. In testimony of their Respect For The Patriot of incorruptible Integrity, The Soldier of approved Valour The Statesman of consummate Wisdom; Whose Talents and Virtues will be admired By Grateful Posterity Long after this Marble shall have mouldered into Dust.
Alexander Hamilton
#13. It's disingenuous and wrong to say that the attorney general's expanded powers in the Patriot Act come with adequate oversight by the courts, ... In reality, the most troubling provisions in the law make judges little more than rubber stamps in Justice Department investigations.
Anthony Romero
#14. Every American, regardless of their background, has the right to live free of unwarranted government intrusion. Repealing the worst provisions of the Patriot Act will reign in this gross abuse of power and restore to everyone our basic Constitutional rights.
Pete Stark
#15. The Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly but hastily after 9/11, allows the FBI to obtain telecommunication, financial, and credit records without a court order.
Rebecca MacKinnon
#16. Besides trying to influence opinion in Maine, Webster sent agents to disrupt the activities of the "Patriot Hunters," a radical American group hoping to oust the British from Canada, and the scheme seems to have been the first time that Americans were targets of their own government.
Gary May
#17. While the debate on the Patriot Act is far from over, it is important that all Americans continue in this dialogue and work together to ensure greater security for our nation.
Jo Bonner
#18. I really think the Patriot Act violates our Constitution. It was, it is, an illegal act. The Congress, the Senate and the president cannot change the Constitution.
Peter Camejo
#19. I will also continue to strongly oppose any reauthorization of the Patriot Act that does not protect the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Americans with no connection to terrorism.
Russ Feingold
#20. In a sad twist of fate, the bill to reauthorize the Patriot Act was debated on the floor of the House of Representatives the same day that terrorists struck again.
Jim Sensenbrenner
#21. NAFTA and GATT have about as much to do with free trade as the Patriot Act has to do with liberty.
Michael Badnarik
#22. There comes a time, there comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer. That time is now and I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts go unchallenged.
Rand Paul
#23. Today it is becoming harder to speak out, with the inception of the Patriot Act, the president has legislated free speech to be a crime.
Frank Serpico
#24. And down the dunes a thousand guns lie crouched,Unseen, beside the flood -Like tigers in some Orient jungle crouchedThat wait and watch for blood.Meanwhile, through streets still echoing with trade,Walk grave and thoughtful men,Whose hands may one day wield the patriot's bladeAs lightly as the pen.
Henry Timrod
#25. No one in their right mind can say to me with a straight face that the Patriot Act has not aggregated the Fourth Amendment.
Peter Camejo
#26. The Patriot Act removed major legal barriers that prevented the law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense communities from talking and coordinating their work to protect the American people and our national security.
Jon Porter
#27. I would far rather over-estimate the threat [imposed by the Patriot Act] and be proven wrong than to underestimate the threat and wake up one morning in a world where the 21st century's J Edgar Hoover has the power to blackmail anyone in America.
Tim Lee
#28. The Eleventh Commandment: don't speak ill of a fellow Republican. What if the fellow Republican is doing something that hurts America? Isn't it the patriot who sides with America before he sides with the Republicans?
Bill Maher
#30. The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.
Clara Barton
#31. I'm a big fan of historical fiction stuff. Historical battles - 'Gladiators,' 'The Patriot.'
Andrew Luck
#32. Ron Paul warned everyone that the Patriot Act could be used against innocent American citizens. His critics said he was siding with terrorists. Now, either A. Ron Paul was right. Or B. All Verizon users are terrorists.
Jack Hunter
#33. The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.
Stonewall Jackson
#34. People talk about the Patriot Act that was passed immediately in the wake of September 11. What the Patriot Act did was break down the walls between the various agencies.
Robert Mueller
#35. The Patriot Act closed dangerous gaps in America's law enforcement and intelligence capabilities, gaps that terrorists exploited when they attacked us.
George W. Bush
#36. In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain
#37. I spent seven years of my life in the immediate aftermath of September 11th doing this work, working with the Patriot Act, working with our law enforcement, working with the surveillance community to make sure that we keep America safe.
Chris Christie
#39. Journalist:
Congressman Kucinich, I believe you're the only one here who voted against the PATRIOT act right away after 9/11. Why is that?
His Reply:
Because I read it.
Dennis Kucinich
#40. The Patriot Act addresses various subjects. Some sections are beneficial and enhance our national security.
Mike Honda
#41. After careful deliberation, I voted today to reauthorize the Patriot Act.
Jim Gerlach
#42. I think it's dawning on some Democrats that obstructing the Patriot Act, like they've been obstructing everything else, is bad for them politically.
Karl Rove
#43. The Patriot Act has practically obliterated the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. It was supposed to be temporary, but there are so many things that the Government likes about the power that it gives, they keep renewing it.
Kenneth Eade
#44. Since 2001, the Patriot Act has provided the means to detect and disrupt terrorist threats against the U.S. Prior to enactment of the law, major legal barriers prevented intelligence, national defense, and law enforcement agencies from working together and sharing information.
Roger Wicker
#45. Democracy doesn't begin at the top; it begins at the bottom, when flesh-and-blood human beings fight to rekindle what Arlo Guthrie calls 'The Patriot's Dream.
Bill Moyers
#46. The Patriot Act allows and provides a basis for an exchange of information.
John Ashcroft
#47. The Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the suspension of the Weimar constitution after the Reichstag Fire Decree.
Srda Trifkovic
#48. Say what you will about Americans, but one thing they are not is passive. The Bush administration may have pushed through the Patriot Act weeks after 11 September, but, as the American public got to grips with how the law was affecting their individual rights, their protests grew loud and angry.
Heather Brooke
#49. Thanks in part to the Patriot Act, the federal government has been able to demand some details of your online activities from service providers - and not to tell you about it.
Jonathan Zittrain
#50. You'd think after 8 years of things called 'The Patriot Act' and 'No Child Left Behind' they would know that we have figured out the 'Call it what it ain't' PR ploy by now, but ... um ... no.
Hal Sparks
#51. Now that Bin Laden dead, can we get our civil liberties back?
That George Bush stole with the Patriot Act?
Ras Kass
#52. I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act. I want to repeal it.
Jon Tester
#53. Technically it was a victory for the British, who attacked the patriot fortifications but a Pyrrhic victory if ever there was: out of 2,200 British soldiers 1,034 were killed or wounded, including one in nine of all the officers the British lost in the whole war.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
#54. The Patriot Act [ ... ] makes a mockery of the Sixth Amendment, which protects your right to a speedy and public trial, and your right to the assistance of counsel for your defense.
Michael Badnarik
#55. The Patriot Act is the most egregious piece of legislation to ever leave Congress since the Alien and Sedition Acts, John Ashcroft and every member of Congress who voted for it should be indicted.
Michael Badnarik
#56. The Patriot Post not only does the best job of putting important news, policy and opinion in proper context, but also of cutting down to size the pompous praters and propagandists on the left.
Lyn Nofziger
#57. I believe the Patriot Act strikes the right balance needed to protect our freedom and security.
Bill Owens
#58. The Patriot Act unleashed the FBI to search your email, travel and credit records without even a suspicion of wrongdoing.
Barton Gellman
#59. Nearly 75,000 Demand Progress members have urged Congress to fix the Patriot Act.
Aaron Swartz
#60. Ending mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen. Yet while we have reformed this one program, many others remain.
Edward Snowden
#61. These manly sentiments, in private life, make good citizens; in public life, the patriot and the hero.
James Otis
#62. People who make use of all their senses in trying times are no less patriotic than those whose restraint is lost, whose senses are dimmed and whose brains are washed. This is also the time for the patriot to say: Enough.
Gideon Levy
#63. I will not counter the insanity of the PATRIOT Act with an overblown fear of my rights being taken away.
Penn Jillette
#64. With the Patriot Bill in place, the NSA no longer needed to get a warrant from a judge to tap into anybody's electronic information. A Surveillance State that would have boggled the mind of Orwell was born.
Jay Parini
#65. For too long, opponents of the PATRIOT Act have transformed this law into a grossly distorted caricature that bears no relation to the legislation itself.
Jim Sensenbrenner
#66. Prior to the passage of the Patriot Act, it was very difficult - often impossible - for us to share information with the Central Intelligence Agency, with NSA, with the other intelligence agencies, and likewise, for them to share information with us.
Robert Mueller
#67. I would have never signed the Patriot Act. I would have never signed the National Defense Authorization Act allowing for arrests and detainment of you and me as U.S. citizens without being charged.
Gary Johnson
#68. If middle-class Americans do not feel threatened by the slow encroachment of the police state or the Patriot Act, it is because they live comfortably enough and exercise their liberties very lightly, never testing the boundaries. You never know you are in a prison unless you try the door.
Joe Bageant
#69. In the last four years under the Patriot Act, we have seen a great increase in the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate and track terrorists.
Mike Pence
#70. We are a nation of laws and liberties, not of a knock in the night. So it is time to end the era of John Ashcroft. That starts with replacing the Patriot Act with a new law that protects our people and our liberties at the same time.
John F. Kerry
#71. I listen a little to the Democrats, and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense," Giuliani continued. "We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-September 11 attitude of defense.
Rudy Giuliani
#72. You get changed by the Bill Belichick way, you get changed by the Patriot Way,
Aaron Hernandez
#73. Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first best country ever is at home.
Oliver Goldsmith
#74. When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry.
Ron Wyden
#75. We have been through four and five generations of technology since the PATRIOT Act.
Carly Fiorina
#76. In America, after 9/11, and after the death of bin Laden, and after two wars, one of them fought, a lot of people think, on false pretenses, and definitely post the Patriot Act, there are a lot of these questions about what can we do to our citizens in order to prevent the next attack.
Gideon Raff
#77. The 'Total Information Awareness' project is truly diabolical - mostly because of the legal changes which have made it possible in the first place. As a consequence of the Patriot Act, government now has access to all sorts of private and commercial databases that were previously off limits.
John Perry Barlow
#78. I call it the 'House of Reprehensibles.' We don't have any real political resistance to this growth of the domestic state across the board. So I'm much more focused on that than on the Patriot Act, which is a real effort, however inept, to deal with a real problem.
M. Stanton Evans
#79. You never want to give up your liberty, even if you are told it is for security. The Patriot Act is a perfect example of giving up liberty for security. It says let us tap your phones so we can keep safe.
Benjamin Franklin
#80. The framework of the artist's ideas is clearly only that which he is forever seeking for universality, and must be far wider than the framework of the ideals of the patriot.
Sean O Faolain
#81. Since we enacted the PATRIOT Act almost three years ago, there has been tremendous public debate about its breadth and implications on due process and privacy.
Howard Berman
#82. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Patriot Act was rushed to the floor. Several hundred pages. Nobody read it ... But people voted because they were fearful and people said there could be another attack and Americans will blame me if I don't vote on this.
Rand Paul
#83. The Patriot Act has increased the flow of information within our government and it has helped break up terrorist cells in the United States of America. And the United States Congress was right to renew the terrorist act
the Patriot Act.
George W. Bush
#84. Since its enactment in the weeks following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the tools in the Patriot Act have been used by law enforcement to stop more than 400 terrorist threats to our families and communities.
Jim Gerlach
#85. The Patriot Act is essential to our continued success in the war on terror here at home.
Mike Pence
#86. Civil libertarians have raised concerns that some of the Patriot Act's provisions infringe on Constitutional rights. Those concerns are not supported by the facts.
Roger Wicker
#87. We are in an era where censorship is creeping back in through the Patriot Act and where people are.. being intimidated not to speak about what we should be speaking about,.
Gerald Nicosia
#88. The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
#89. Prior to the PATRIOT Act, the ability of government agencies to share information with each other was limited, which kept investigators from fully understanding what terrorists might be planning and to prevent their attacks.
Chris Chocola
#91. A man doesn't have to agree with his government to be a patriot, does he? It takes a true patriot to dissent, to say he loves his country more than he cares for his own place in the social order.
Cassandra Clare
#92. The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government.
Sarah Vowell
#93. While we tediously check our weaponry before entering into battle, do we check our hearts? For without exception, that is the greatest weapon of all.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
#94. It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage; yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire to be removed.
Samuel Johnson
#95. Osama bin Laden, who is a Saudi, feels himself to be a patriot because the U.S. has forces in Saudi Arabia, which is sacred because it is the land of the prophet Mohammed.
Edward Said
#96. The land is always there...it is you who has to return
Munia Khan
#97. A nationalist will say that "it can't happen here," which is the first step toward disaster. A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it.
Timothy Snyder
#98. The true patriot scrutinizes the actions of his own government with unceasing vigilance. And when his government violates the morality and rightness associated with principles of individual freedom and private property, he immediately rises in opposition to his government.
Jacob G. Hornberger
#99. I'm a patriot in the truest sense of the word.
Al Sharpton
#100. I think I shall return to America even a better patriot than when I left it. A citizen of the United States, travelling on the continent of Europe, finds the contrast between a government of power and a government of opinion forced upon him at every step.
William Cullen Bryant
