Not just thieves, a band of thieves who broker the spoiled ware of other thieves.

The state — or, to make matters more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting ‘A’ to satisfy ‘B’. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods.

— H.L. Mencken, On Politics [1996]

This should be the first definition of patriot. Now a days what should be defined as a nationalist gets passed off as a patriot.

It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.

Thomas Paine

Why do so many people not understand this?

It is good for one to be free, and we would cherish liberty even if she traveled alone, but she does not. Because Prosperity and Peace are both the companions of Liberty.

— Charles Goyette, “It Is Good for One to Be Free

As BF said, "The only thing we can be sure of is death and taxes".

We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute.

— Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Acton nailed it again.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

— Lord Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays [1907

Didn't do BraveHeart much good, I think they killed him.

I tell you true, liberty is the best of all things; never live beneath the noose of a servile halter.

— William Wallace, Address to the Scots [c. 1300]