Chaotic Good/Quotes

"They may take our lives, but they will never take... OUR FREEDOM!!!"

—William Wallace, Braveheart

"The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least."

—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

"Luckily for me, I've never trusted authority figures, be they kings, presidents, or party leaders. Give a man enough power, and he's bound to abuse it, no matter how noble he thinks he is."

—Girard Draketooth, The Order of the Stick

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place(d) under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."

—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

"Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one."

—Mark Twain

"The more laws, the less justice."

—Cicero

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

—Laozi

All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out.

—Oscar Wilde

If you're going to be crazy, you have to make sure you're getting paid for it or else they'll lock you up.

—Hunter S. Thompson

"Oh boy! Now I've heard it all... Because Soames muscled his way into authority, he's a good guy, huh? Pal, Hitler was the "boss" of Germany, remember? And there was Genghis Khan, Nero... Throughout history, cheap punks have made themselves leaders! Regardless of their titles, they were still cheap punks!"

—Green Arrow, Green Arrow / Green Lantern #77

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

—V, V for Vendetta

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."

—Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

"Is that the position of the Jedi Order? What the galaxy needs is one language, one system of measurement, one uniform, one flag? Should we just cut the word 'no' out of the language and substitute 'Yes sir, right away, sir' instead?"

—Han Solo, Star Wars: Betrayal

"C'mon, I don't belong up here, fighting monsters and aliens and supervillains. I just help the little guy. And a big club like this, you tend to forget all about him. So gee whiz, I'm flattered to be asked and all. But no thanks."

—Green Arrow, Justice League Unlimited

"You take what you get, you get what you please, better to die on your feet than live on your knees."

—Midnight Oil, The Power and the Passion

"Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul."

—Michel de Montaigne

"I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."

—Bernardo de la Paz, Robert A. Heinlein The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

"I aim to misbehave."

—Malcolm Reynolds

"The law has always been the tool of whoever happens to hold all the chips. You can't deny that lives were saved because those bastards were put down."

—Yuri Lowell, Tales of Vesperia

I don't know why, I can't leave though it might be tough But I ain't out of control, just livin' by my word Don't ask me why, I don't need a reason I got my way, my own way

—Tony Harnell, It Doesn't Matter (from Sonic Adventure Series, representing Sonic)

We weren't born to follow
Come on an' get up off your knees

—Bon Jovi, "We Weren't Born To Follow"

It's elementary that laws don't decide right and wrong. Every American should know that, in the 1950s, it was against the law in many states for a black person to sit in the front of a bus; but only racists would say sitting there was wrong.

—Richard Stallman, Why Software Should Not Have Owners

"We are free to follow our own path. There are those who will take that freedom from us, and too many of you gladly give it. But it is our ability to choose -- whatever you think is true -- that makes us human... There is no book or teacher to give you the answers, to show you the way. Choose your own way! Do not follow me, or anyone else."

—Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Assassin's Creed II

I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world … without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries; a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

—Neo, The Matrix

"Our freedom of speech is freedom or death. We got to fight the powers that be!"

—Public Enemy, "Fight The Power"

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes, Mom, you'll see me."

—Bruce Springsteen, "The Ghost of Tom Joad"

I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero. I've always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!

—Zero, Mega Man Zero

I am definitely a madman with a box!

—The Doctor, Doctor Who

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

—Albert Camus

Kira: (on her being recalled to Bajor) You break the rules, you pay.
Odo: (incredulous laugh) Wait a minute, I want to be sure I heard that correctly. Because it doesn't sound like the Kira Nerys who has made a career out of breaking the rules.
Kira: Well, I guess I broke one too many.
Odo: Major, you've been breaking one too many for fourteen-and-a-half-years. Cardassian rules, Bajoran rules, Federation rules, they're all meaningless to you! Because you have a personal code that's always mattered more...and, I'm sorry to say, you're in slim company.

—Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "The Circle"

"It is the fundamental duty of the citizen to resist and to restrain the violence of the state."

—Noam Chomsky

Back to Chaotic Good