There ought to be limits to freedom!
—GWB, 1999

He's a threat we must deal with as quickly as possible.
—GWB, Sep 13, 2002

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
—GWB, Oct 7, 2002

...the danger is already significant and it only grows worse with time. If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today—and we do—does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?
—GWB, Oct 2002

Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words and all recriminations would come too late.
—GWB, State of the Union, January 2003

Knowing what I knew then and knowing what I know today, America did the right thing in Iraq.
—GWB, Feb 5, 2004

It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us in trouble. It's the things we know that ain't so.
—"Artemus Ward" (Charles Farrar Browne)

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
—John Adams

If you must take innocent lives to satisfy your cause, your cause is nothing more than a treacherous crime.
—Age of Warriors #69, KBS

Be sure you are right, then go ahead.
—David Crockett, motto during War of 1812

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
—Wm Butler Yeats, The Second Coming