State Security Quotes

We have unified the state in such a way that if any part were isolated from the common socialist state, it would not only inflict harm on the latter but would be unable to exist independently and would inevitably fall under foreign subjugation. Therefore, whoever attempts to destroy the socialist state … is an enemy, a sworn enemy of the state and of the peoples of the USSR. And we will destroy each and every such enemy, even if he is an old Bolshevik; we will destroy all his kin; we will mercilessly destroy anyone who by his deeds or his thoughts—threatens the unity of this socialist state. To the complete destruction of all enemies, themselves and their kin.

An empire founded by arms, must likewise have arms for its support.

Any time there is a coup you start with the assumption that the home government missed it …. Why should we know better than the government that’s being overthrown?

The political system must listen to the military.

No freedom to the enemies of freedom

The principal role of the President of the United States is the security of the country and participating in trying to stabilize the world.

Anyone, who intentionally takes part in an action intended to harm the state government, the unity of the state or the security of its territory, will be hanged

No government, no head of government can last if the people feel that this government is not going to defend the security of the country.

A healthy and fully functioning society must allocate its resources among a variety of competing interests, all of which are more or less valid but none of which should take precedence over national security.

Only enemies of the Soviet Union can think of the KGB as some kind of secret police.

The KGB is by far the world's largest, the Israeli probably the best, and the Iranian and the South Korean the deadliest.

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

Admitting hundreds of thousands of infiltrators is an existential threat to the State of Israel.

War is a matter of vital importance to the state.

The maintenance of naval supremacy is our foundation not only of the empire but of our freedom and our lives.

While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.

To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils: indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.

Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen.

An independent state does not pay too dear a price for its independence in accepting the sufferings of war when it cannot avoid them; a state which has lost its independence may find at least some compensation in the fact that its protector procures for it peace with its neighbours.

The military strength and resources of the State must be reserved for its own defense and protection exclusively …

Who thinks seriously that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will make the difference for the state of Israel's basic security?

We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don't do that, the country would be in ruins.

An Emperor confides in national soldiers, not in mercenaries.

As for the Jews, I am just carrying on with the same policy which the Catholic Church has adopted for fifteen hundred years, when it has regarded the Jews as dangerous and pushed them into ghettos etc., because it knew what the Jews were like. I don't put race above religion, but I do see the danger in the representatives of this race for Church and State, and perhaps I am doing Christianity a great service.

The arguments over the limits that may be put on individuals suspected of sympathising with the enemy have occurred over the centuries. Habeas corpus was suspended during the Napoleonic wars, and Defence Regulation 18b was applied during the Second World War.