Quotes About Vigilance

If left unattended by nonvigilant citizens, the freedoms of democracy can be lost to an all-powerful state, and citizens can become transformed into subjects of the government they failed to keep in check.

Civil rights thus does not temper popular sovereignty, it replaces it. What we call political correctness is the natural outcome of civil rights, which makes fighting bias a condition for the legitimacy of the state. Once bias is held to be part of the "unconscious," of human nature, there are no areas of human life in which the state's vigilance is not called for.

she yanked open her shoulder bag and pulled out a stake. Boy Scouts and vampire slayers should always be prepared.

There are people who are willing to protect freedom until there is nothing left of it.

I stalked around the edge of the wood, crouching low, holding my breath. My attention was microscopically fierce. I'd become a thing of eyes and will alone. Mabel held her wings out from her sides, her head snaking, reptilian, eyes glowing. It felt like I was holding the bastard offspring of a flaming torch and an assault rifle.

Have you ever watched a deer walking out from cover? They step, stop, and stay, motionless, nose to the air, looking and smelling. A nervous twitch might run down their flanks. And then, reassured that all is safe, they ankle their way out of the brush to graze.

My walks with the hawk were stressful, requiring endless vigilance, and they were wearing me away. As the hawk became tamer I was growing wilder. Fear was contagious: it rose unbidden in my heart as people approached us. I was no longer certain if the hawk bated because she was frightened of what she saw, or if the terror she felt was mine.

Political parties serve to keep each other in check, one keenly watching the other.

Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost.

Rarely has a diplomatic document so missed its objective as the Treaty of Versailles. Too punitive for conciliation, too lenient to keep Germany from recovering, the Treaty of Versailles condemned the exhausted democracies to constant vigilance against an irreconcilable and revanchist Germany as well as a revolutionary Soviet Union.

Don't take candy from strangers unless you're willing to take a ride in the car.

One if by land, and two if by sea;And I on the opposite shore will be,Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough every Middlesex village and farm.

Prevention is better than cure,

El heroísmo consiste en resistir, en estar siempre alerta, alegre y fuerte, en medio de esa ausencia de felicidad

La verità è che tante cose in noi, che crediamo morte, stanno come in una valle del sonno: non amena, non ariostesca. E sul loro sonno la ragione deve sempre vigilare. O magari, a prova, qualche volta svegliarle e lasciare che da quella valle escano: ma perché se ne tornino più mortificate e impotenti... Ma se la prova non riesce? Ecco il punto.

Glaubst du, es gibt mehr Wölfe?" Mehrwölfe? Die Schafe guckten erschrocken. Ein Werwolf war schlimm genug. Keines von ihnen wollte je einem Mehrwolf begegnen.

Mniej o prawdÄ™ przy tym chodzi, jak o ducha prawdy, nikt bowiem nie mo?e obieca?, ?e nie bÄ™dzie siÄ™ myliÅ', mo?e jednak przechowywa? ducha prawdy równie? w pomyÅ'kach, czyli nie wyrzeka? siÄ™ czujnej nieufnoÅ›ci do wÅ'asnych sÅ'ów.

If devils exist, their first aim is to give you an anesthetic -- to put you off your guard. Only if that fails, do you become aware of them.

If the country is ever attacked as it was on 9/11, we all respond with a sense of urgency.

Civilizations are built by the ceaseless toil of a succession of generations. With softness and sloth, civilizations succumb. Let us beware of decadence.

The terrorist uses surprise and stealth, and the only way to defeat that is by having accurate and timely intelligence.

Keep your head down, Edward. Those that see too much quickly find themselves seeing nothing at all.

Hearth to change. He had been watching from the Lion

I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes. • • •