[T]he only thing the United States government ever did about slavery was to abolish it. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I do not feel inclined to apologize for it.

Let your attacker worry about his life. Don't hold back. Strike no more after he is incapable of further action, but see that he is stopped.

If it is ever your misfortune to be attacked, alertness will have given you a little warning, decisiveness will have given you a proper course to pursue, and if that course is to counterattack, carry it out with everything you've got! Be indignant. Be angry. Be aggressive.

Aggressiveness carries with it an incalculable moral edge in any combat, offensive or defensive.

Speed is the absolute essence of any form of combat

The purpose of the pistol is to stop a fight that somebody else has started, almost always at very short range.

Weapons compound man's power to achieve; they amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.