Tanner Cook > Tanner's Quotes

“We cannot always determine our situation or our lot in life, but we can determine our response to these circumstances. That is what makes a man free; not his conditions, but his actions.”
― Tanner Cook

“The tools of reason are cold and inert; they cannot be used to form the foundations of those values from which we become animate. So when contemporary philosophers, scientists, politicians, and even the common man attempt to justify their beliefs based on reason alone, they are ultimately doomed to fail in their efforts. Science and logic are powerful tools of excavation to uncover facts, but at the depths of the canyon from which they dig, the question of why will always echo back to them.”
― Tanner Cook

“Our Constitutional Republic wasn’t constructed through elitist social engineering or some sort of utopian political theory. It was raised from the ground up; formed from the very natures of the people whom made it possible. This is worthy of remembrance. This is history to be proud of. This is an identity to embrace. This is an ideal to defend.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Our mission is not to conquer the world, nor save it – for many have pursued one if only for the purpose of achieving the other, and all have failed to accomplish either. We, the Sons of Liberty, are united in the faith of Freedom. Though the masses may choose slavery, we shall choose liberty. We fight, first and foremost, for our own, but when the slaves cry out for salvation, we will hear their call, and shall respond with fervent fury.

Nil desperandum – Never despair.”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“Too long have we allowed the leviathan of the State and its cronies to trample us, unchecked and unchallenged. There must be men of action, willing to push back against the forces of tyranny. This is not a call to abolition, overthrow, or revolution; merely resistance. The aim is not to rid the world of those who believe differently, rather, to ensure the world does not rid itself of us.”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“Tyranny manifests, not as a result of any particular collective, political party, statesman, lawman, ideology or philosophy, but as a result of the human condition. We must not make the error in believing that the extermination of those we find “tyrannical” will in-turn result in the extermination of tyranny itself.”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“The wolf is the character that moves against the society and is rightly viewed as a threat to the shepherd’s stock. The wolf and the shepherd are defined by their eternal conflict. Between these characters, there can be no alliance, no peace, no truce, no rest. They are fated enemies. Concerning our way - the way of liberty - we find ourselves now stepping into this character. ...Our way has now become the way of wolves.”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“As for me, I will choose to keep the flame of liberty ablaze; I will set the world on fire with it, if I must. There is no life for me if I submit to slavery. I cease to exist if I sacrifice my very Being to the State. I will not. I will resist. Are you with me, my brothers?”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“Rulers will never be reasoned out of their thrones, nor will society be argued away from their madness. To live free, a man must act.”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“Do not feel compelled to justify your faith through reason and logic; these are only instruments used to rationalize your passions. But these tools are cold and lifeless. Any passion that can be thoroughly justified with them cannot contain within it any signs of life. And the more one tries to reason-out their passion, the more one drains the life-force from it.”
― Tanner Cook, Sons of Liberty: Manifesto

“Thus, when we speak of American Idealism, we speak with reverence to the values and virtues that this nation was founded upon. We remember the hell from which this paradise was raised. We honor our forefathers for their bravery and sacrifice. We hold true to the principles of their established order. We recognize and respect the distinct identity and character of the American.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“This is America.

We don’t quit.
We don’t surrender.
We don’t apologize.

We stand. We resist. We fight.

This is The Way of Free Men.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Democracy is often hailed as an achievement; a milestone in the evolution of our social progress. But if this achievement is to be considered the pinnacle of our progression, it is only because it’s from this precipice that we plunge to our doom.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Democracy is the form of government that results from a sick and dying culture. Rather than allowing the strong, capable, noble, and tenacious to assume their rightful position of leadership over a nation, we accept a form of rule whereby the weakest among us can rise, so long as they entertain and satiate the base desires of the mob.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“We live under a government of not just a few tyrants, but countless thousands.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Our nation was born from insurgency.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“This places the insurgent in a highly advantageous position to control the battlefield via the luxury of always being able to choose the time and place for attack. In warfare, this advantage is priceless.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Countering an insurgency is a strategic conundrum that remains unsolved. If the conditions are right, once a spark of resistance ignites within the nation, it sets off an uncontainable wildfire.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Modern democratic civilizations have a great distaste for aggression, discrimination, tradition, and strict codes of honor. Their affluent lifestyles and egalitarian philosophies have distanced themselves from the cold, hard realities of life on earth. From the safety and comfort of their walled-paradise, and with full bellies, they can abstractly piece together a world where nobody hates, steals, kills, cheats, and lies; where all humans are valuable and deserve unconditional acceptance, no matter where they’re from or what they believe. But their disconnectedness to reality does nothing to alter it.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“The tribe was of one mind when it came to fundamental beliefs, values, and virtues. If you shared the warmth of the fire, you were a welcomed member of the tribe and deserving of ethical treatment and hospitality. Those that lurked in the darkness be damned. This was the order by which we were raised.
Today, we’ve relinquished our reliance on the tribe and its social structure in exchange for the state and its structure. While this expanded our potential, it also weakened the ability to hold onto our traditions and values. The vast bureaucracy of democratic government invites too many into a position of authority; too many with too many beliefs, or lack thereof. It distempers the culture and renders our values malleable. It distorts the division of “us” and “them.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“If a man erects any barriers at all to those he would consider his companions, he is condemned as a bigot. Modernity doesn’t want a small tribal fire contained in the center of like-minded peoples. It would rather set the forest on fire in order to “enlighten” the world.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“The American is faced with extinction today, for he still holds on to the ways of his tradition and values, regardless of society’s decision to “progress” past them. To exist in a world that no longer wants you to be a part of it, you must awaken the primitive archetype inside you. You must cast aside all ambitions to like and accept indiscriminately, or to be liked and accepted indiscriminately. You’re no longer surrounded by proud countryman, but world-eaters and nihilists that desire your extermination. The American must now root his feet into solid ground and declare this land his, ruled by its true values, and rightfully inhabited by men of a similar faith. We must cut out a corner of this nation and claim it for ourselves, without apology, and from there, expand – our own Manifest Destiny. If we fail to call-up those primal instincts and tribal practices that our ancestors knew all too well, we will fall to the rule of spineless and soulless degenerates.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“This man, the “fighting man,” must first acknowledge the terms and conditions of combat: you must accept your own death before attempting to deal it to others. ...Nothing you do to prepare for the resistance will matter if you’re ultimately not prepared to lay down your life for the cause.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“Courage is the engine that will mobilize your strength. Being strong will do you no good if you don’t possess the mettle to use it when it’s most needed.”
― Tanner Cook, The Way of Free Men: A Manual for Resisting Tyranny

“A caged lion is a tragedy, but a lion that enters the cage willingly is no lion at all.”
― Tanner Cook, Liberty and the Will to Power: A Manifesto for the Amoral Libertarian

“All humans exert a will to power; a will to have an effect on their existence; to attempt to fulfill who and what they believe they are. And power necessarily leads to imbalances; this is inescapable. For if your power was equally matched by everything in opposition to you, then nothing would have any power at all and nothingness would result from this stagnation - because there is something, there must be a power that prevails.”
― Tanner Cook, Liberty and the Will to Power: A Manifesto for the Amoral Libertarian

“Our capacity for reason brought us out of the jungles and gave us dominion, not only over the beasts that prey upon us, but also the beast within us.”
― Tanner Cook, Liberty and the Will to Power: A Manifesto for the Amoral Libertarian

“This is life; the totality of experience. For one could never experience the whole of life without these fulfilling dualities and tragic paradoxes. ...If man was not pulled in two opposing directions at once, what choice would he ever have to make? What is the will without choice? What is life without the will?”
― Tanner Cook, Liberty and the Will to Power: A Manifesto for the Amoral Libertarian

“The first challenge of every man is to know himself. The second challenge is to become himself. The final challenge is to overcome himself.”
― Tanner Cook, Liberty and the Will to Power: A Manifesto for the Amoral Libertarian

“Of course, the irony of it all is that when the individual is prioritized to such a high degree, that none can be ignored, the most diseased and superfluous must lead the herd so as not to be left behind. Naturally, the needs of the individual become less important than the needs of the collective. “Every individual is sacrificed and serves as a tool.” What began with the exaltation of the individual ends with the extinction of any such character.”
― Tanner Cook, Liberty and the Will to Power: A Manifesto for the Amoral Libertarian