Looking for a quote

I read a quote one time that said something to the extent that if you keep people afraid they will beg to have their rights taken away. I can't find it, don't know who said it and I'm not sure how close I am to it.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Ben Franklin, not sure if it is correct, from memory.


However most use desire for freedom only for themselves, you have to apply it to all people, or it is not freedom, but desire for power, or the desire for the ability to enslave other people.

that's not it, though.

also

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

That could have been written by any one of our recent so-called leaders...esp. the Republicans.

:hi: my dear ohheckyeah!

the more things change the more they stay the same.

Even the illegal immigration situation is all about fear and people are submitting to things that once would have been unthinkable. Who would have believed 20 - 30 years ago that Border Patrol Agents would be asking for peoples papers on New York trains?

How are you dear?

Back in school, attempting to do the prerequisites for an MFA in poetry! Crazy, I know...:crazy:

But it keeps you out of trouble, right?

I hope you're well too, sweetie!

I'm just getting over having shingles. What a pain that is!

Please take care of yourself...

:hug:

Is it also helps with honesty.

And then you know where people stand.

Deception and cowardliness are not far apart.


But sometimes fear of being honest creates a bit of a paradox, where a person has to change, or realize they are wrong in many peoples views, and from that delusions get created.

In that some hide, I think changing the world is a better idea.

It sounded like him.

And found this by Hermann Goering instead

Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

So someone does not lead you into war that is wrong.

Hence why defense is spoken of as much better in many things, and also why you do not get angry at people by other information, but make best evaluation by actions.

I found it, too, when I was looking for the Caesar quote. I was looking at all the Nazi quotes. :-)

Too many of those turns of phrase sound modern, and the style sounds loose and chatty to be a translation from Latin, and not pithy nor wise enough to be Caesar. Not to mention, I don't know what Caesar writings have survived--I mean, he was gunned down on the Grassy Knoll Forum before he really had a chance to settle into a comfortable retirement and reflect back on the techniques of his career.

One of the sites it was found on points out that it can't be determined just who did write it, but it's a good quote nonetheless.

who offered it up during a Democratic Party gala in September 2002. No Caesar ever said it. In fact, there's historical reasons to doubt it within the quote itself, as the language is not something any of the Caesar's would have alluded to, Roman armies didn't use drums, and all Roman swords were double-edged, which renders the simile meaningless to ancient Roman ears.

Snopes calls it out: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/caesar.asp

As does About.com: http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/caesarjulius/f/didcaesarsayit.htm

Thanks.

I wonder what it really came from.