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Wisdom From Leaders.
"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he
who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting
against it is really cooperating with it." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which
like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and
nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses... This little
coterie...run our government for their own selfish ends. It operates
under cover of a self-created screen...seizes...our executive
officers...legislative bodies...schools... courts...newspapers and every
agency created for the public protection.” N.Y. Mayor, John Hylan
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise
of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison (1751-1836), 4th U.S.
President and author of the U.S. Constitution
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and
carrying the cross." Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here, 1935
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil
obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have
obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to
war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our
problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of
poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem
is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves,
and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country.
That's our problem." - Howard Zinn, from 'Failure to Quit'
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a
revolutionary act." George Orwell
“In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man – brave –
hated – scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him,
for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.” - Mark Twain
“When People fear their government, there is tyranny. When government
fears the People, there is liberty.” - Jefferson
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good
conscience to remain silent" -- Thomas Jefferson
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on
military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death." - Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience,
1967
"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can
keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." -
Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967
"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't
fit to live." - Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate
cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a
descending spiral of destruction." - Martin Luther King, Jr., The
Trumpet of Conscience, 1967
"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.
Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against
love." - Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967
In regard to the war in Vietnam: “Let us understand: North Vietnam
cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do
that.” Richard M. Nixon, 1969 - “The biggest lesson I learned from
Vietnam is not to trust our own government statements. I had no idea
until then that you could not rely on them.” J. William
Fulbright - “The war in Vietnam poisons everything. It has
disrupted the economy, envenomed our politics, hurt the alliance,
divided our people...” James Reston - “Numbers have dehumanized us. Over
breakfast coffee we read of 40,000 American dead in Vietnam. Instead of
vomiting, we reach for the toast. Our morning rush through crowded
streets is not to cry murder but to hit that trough before somebody else
gobbles our share.” Dalton Trumbo, Introduction, Johnny Got His Gun,
1970. - But then let's not forget how profitable the war in Vietnam was
for companies manufacturing military ordinance.
In regard to the Iraq war: "It's always other men and other men's children
who must sacrifice life and limb for the reasons that make no sense, reasons
that are said to be our patriotic duty to fight and die for." Ron Paul,
House of Representatives, September 8, 2005 - “Using the Oval office to cheat on
your wife makes you a bad husband and an irresponsible leader. Using the
Oval office to lead your troops into a war born of blatant deception
makes you a murderer and a war criminal.” Jules Carlysle
"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to
be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not
have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.": Thich
Nhat Hanh - Vietnamese monk, activist and writer.
"While the Bush administration spends hundreds of billions of dollars
on an immoral and unjust war, millions of people across America are
without basic healthcare, housing, education and jobs. More than a year
after Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans remain abandoned by
an administration that was criminally negligent of its duty to provide
for their well-being. Every day that Congress allows Bush and Cheney to
continue to serve sends a clear message to America that they care more
about politics than people." - Reverend Lennox Yearwood, president of
Hip Hop Caucus
“Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years…
Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrance's have produced additional
violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been
spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne…” Patrick Henry’s speech
before Virginia House on March 23, 1775.
“Independence forever.” - John Adams' last public words as a toast
for the celebration - of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence
"If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance
of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks
and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people
of all property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent
their fathers conquered. The issuing power of money should be taken from
banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I
sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of
money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies." - Thomas
Jefferson
"Those who make peaceful resolution impossible make violent
resolution inevitable" John Kennedy
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as
sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and
public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou
shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of
Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it
can be civilized or made free.” - John Adams, A Defense of the American
Constitutions, 1787
“[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it,
derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and
bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their
pleasure, and their blood.” - John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon
and Feudal Law, 1765
“[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy
that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life
or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of
these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the
moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth,
beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will,
and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.” - John Adams, An Essay
on Man's Lust for Power, 1763
“Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of
freedom.” - John Adams, Defense of the Constitutions, 1787
“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of
our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their
industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of
meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to
excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds
to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” -
John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756
“Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious
liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank
he holds among the works of God... Let it be known that British
liberties are not the grants of princes and parliaments.” - John Adams,
Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the
people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge,
as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them
understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a
right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that
most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and
conduct of their rulers.” - John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and
Feudal Law, 1765
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our
inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the
state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams, in Defense of the British
Soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre, 1770
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can
never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.” - John Adams,
letter to Abigail Adams, 1775
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study
mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and
philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture,
navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a
right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary,
tapestry, and porcelain.” - John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, 1780
"Fear is never a good enough reason to do nothing" – Charlie Scheen,
Actor
“It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire
of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen,
without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I
should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the
experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can.” - John Adams,
letter to Count Sarsfield, February 3, 1786
“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.” - John Adams,
letter to Elbridge Gerry, December 5, 1777
“Men must be ready, they must pride themselves and be happy to
sacrifice their private pleasures, passions and interests, nay, their
private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in
competition with the rights of society.” - John Adams, letter to Mercy
Warren, April 16, 1776
“The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems,
the nabobs, call them by what names you please, sigh and groan and fret,
and sometimes stamp and foam and curse, but all in vain. The decree is
gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than
has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in
America.” - John Adams, letter to Patrick Henry, June 3, 1776
“Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the
lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested,
are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most
complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.” -
John Adams, letter to William Cushing, June 9, 1776
“They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men.”
- John Adams, Nocangul No. 7, 1775
“The committee met, discussed the subject, [of the Declaration of
Independence] and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me to make the
draught, I suppose because we were the two first on the list. The
subcommittee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught. Adams: I
will not. Jefferson: You should do it. Adams: Oh! no. Jefferson: Why
will you not? You ought to do it. Adams: I will not. Jefferson: Why?
Adams: Reasons enough. Jefferson: What can be your reasons? Adams:
Reason first -- You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at
the head of this business. Reason second -- I am obnoxious, suspected
and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third -- You can
write ten times better than I can. Jefferson: Well if you are decided, I
will do as well as I can. Adams: Very well. When you have drawn it up,
we will have a meeting.” - John Adams, on the drafting of the
Declaration of Independence
“If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and
give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the
great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the
right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power
of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.” - John
Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772
“Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is
also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against
wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable
passions, are the "latent spark" ... If the people are capable of
understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and
false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can
the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference.” -
John Adams, the Novanglus, 1775
“[J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience
in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness,
and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring
interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men.” -
John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
“A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge
among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming
freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor,
sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation
of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people
brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them
sober, industrious, and frugal.” - John Adams, Thoughts on Government,
1776
“As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be
made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is
impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first
necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the
most wise and good.” - John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
“Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in
the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing
laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the
expense of this protection; and to give his personal service, or an
equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any
individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public
uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the
people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by
any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative
body have given their consent.” - John Adams, Thoughts on Government,
1776
“Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and
brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so
stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of
any political institution which is founded on it.” - John Adams,
Thoughts on Government, 1776
“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection,
safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit,
honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men;
therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and
indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or
totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and
happiness require it.” - John Adams, Article VII, Massachusetts
Constitution
“That, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular
arrangements of the powers of society, or, in other words, that form of
government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact
execution of the laws, is the best of republics.” - John Adams, Thoughts
on Government, 1776
“The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the
morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon
an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial
power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and
independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, and both
should be checks upon that.” - John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
“Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the
happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral
philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end
of man. From this principle it will follow that the form of government
which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness,
to the greatest numbers of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the
best.” - John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
“I have accepted a seat in the [Massachusetts] House of
Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your
ruin, and the ruin of our children. I give you this warning, that you
may prepare your mind for your fate.” - John Adams, to Abigail Adams,
1770
“What is it that affectionate parents require of their Children; for
all their care, anxiety, and toil on their accounts? Only that they
would be wise and virtuous, Benevolent and kind.” - Abigail Adams,
letter to John Quincy Adams, November 20, 1783
“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure
the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally
corrupt.” - Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, 1749
“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be
easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the
Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their
Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of
foreign Invaders.” - Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775
“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State
than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men
of unexceptionable characters.” - Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren,
1775
“The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public
men.” - Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775
“Our unalterable resolution would be to be free. They have attempted
to subdue us by force, but God be praised! in vain. Their arts may be
more dangerous then their arms. Let us then renounce all treaty with
them upon any score but that of total separation, and under God trust
our cause to our swords.” - Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, April
16, 1776
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely
overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common
enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when
once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their
liberties to the first external or internal invader.” - Samuel Adams,
letter to James Warren, February 12, 1779
“What a glorious morning this is!” - Samuel Adams, to John Hancock at
the Battle of Lexington, 1775
History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the
prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their
people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the
prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and
mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights,
privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought
to enjoy... These measures never fail to create great and violent
jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people
oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political
obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is
weakened.” - Benjamin Franklin
“I pronounce it as certain that there was never yet a truly great man
that was not at the same time truly virtuous.” - Benjamin Franklin
“No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most
disadvantageous.” - Benjamin Franklin and George Whaley, Principles of
Trade, 1774
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang
separately.” - Benjamin Franklin, (attributed) at the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Advice to Young Tradesman, 1748
“Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its
very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes
open a source of serious evils.” - Benjamin Franklin, An Address to the
Public, November, 1789
“Human Felicity is produced not so much by great Pieces of good
Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every
Day.” - Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771
“In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard
to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle
it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now
and then peek out and show itself.” - Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography,
1771
“Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you
resolve.” - Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771
“This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employ'd they
are best contented. For on the Days they work'd they were good-natur'd
and chearful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Days work
they spent the Evenings jollily; but on the idle Days they were mutinous
and quarrelsome, finding fault with their Pork, the Bread, &c. and in
continual ill-humour.” - Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771
“The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the
prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and
mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights,
privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought
to enjoy.” - Benjamin Franklin, Emblematical Representations, 1774
“He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.” - Benjamin Franklin,
from his writings, 1758
“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Benjamin
Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” - Benjamin Franklin,
letter to Benjamin Vaughn, March 14, 1783
“Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their
manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six
days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated
as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept;
industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their
circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by
inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing
all your estates among them.” - Benjamin Franklin, letter to Collinson,
1753
“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that
promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be
certain, except death and taxes.” - Benjamin Franklin, letter to
Jean-Baptiste Leroy, November 13, 1789
“Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy.” - Benjamin Franklin,
letter to John Alleyne, 1768
“[I]t is a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all
mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our
own.” - Benjamin Franklin, letter to Samuel Cooper, May 1, 1777
“[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land,
becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and
a share in the Government of the Country.” - Benjamin Franklin, letter
to William Straham, 1784
“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the
means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making
them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth
I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more
public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for
themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less
was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
- Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor,
1766
“It is very imprudent to deprive America of any of her privileges. If
her commerce and friendship are of any importance to you, they are to be
had on no other terms than leaving her in the full enjoyment of her
rights.” - Benjamin Franklin, Political Observations
“A penny saved is twopence clear.” - Benjamin Franklin, Poor
Richard's Almanack
“Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.” - Benjamin
Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of
reason.” - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.” -
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
“Strive to be the greatest man in your country, and you may be
disappointed. Strive to be the best and you may succeed: he may well win
the race that runs by himself.” - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's
Almanack
“A fine genius in his own country is like gold in the mine.” -
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733
“How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis
easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.” - Benjamin Franklin, Poor
Richards Almanack, 1743
“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.” - Benjamin Franklin,
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1746
“A Spoonful of Honey will catch more Flies than a Gallon of Vinager.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1748
“Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.” -
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
“Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die
To-morrow.” - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757
“And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of
Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are
not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular
alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater,
instead of being less than he expected.” - Benjamin Franklin, Reply to a
Piece of Advice, 1735
“To the haranguers of the populace among the ancients, succeed among
the moderns your writers of political pamphlets and news-papers, and
your coffee-house talkers.” - Benjamin Franklin, Reply to Coffee House
Orators, 1767
“The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most
lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love; the Source of all that endearing
Tenderness and Affection which arises from Relation and Affinity; the
grand Point of Property; the Cause of all good Order in the World, and
what alone preserves it from the utmost Confusion; and, to sum up all,
the Appointment of infinite Wisdom for these great and good Purposes.” -
Benjamin Franklin, Rules and Maxims for Promoting Matrimonial Happiness,
1730
“Strangers are welcome because there is room enough for them all, and
therefore the old Inhabitants are not jealous of them; the Laws protect
them sufficiently so that they have no need of the Patronage of great
Men; and every one will enjoy securely the Profits of his Industry. But
if he does not bring a Fortune with him, he must work and be industrious
to live.” - Benjamin Franklin, Those Who Would Remove to America,
February, 1784
“Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and
no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” - Benjamin
Franklin, writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8, 1722
[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice
our liberties.” - Alexander Hamilton
“As on the one hand, the necessity for borrowing in particular
emergencies cannot be doubted, so on the other, it is equally evident
that to be able to borrow upon good terms, it is essential that the
credit of a nation should be well established.” - Alexander Hamilton
“No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather
than a slave.” - Alexander Hamilton, 1774
“Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are
unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.” - Alexander
Hamilton and James Madison, Federalist No. 20, December 11, 1787
“In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making
proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by
persecution.” - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787
“Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the
greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to
the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.” - Alexander
Hamilton, Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787
“The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of
THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow
from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.” -
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 22, December 14, 1787
“In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or
first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.” -
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31, January 1, 1788
“To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to
conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the
human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent
sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon
speculations of lasting tranquillity would be to calculate on the weaker
springs of human character.” - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34,
January 4, 1788
“It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public
Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense
would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right
about the means of promoting it.” - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No.
71, March 18, 1788
“[T]he Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the
laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought
to give place to the Constitution. But this doctrine is not deducible
from any circumstance peculiar to the plan of convention, but from the
general theory of a limited Constitution.” - Alexander Hamilton,
Federalist No. 81, 1788
“The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that the
Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful
purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS.” - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84,
1788
“The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever
give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and
will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That
their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is
repugnant to every rule of political calculation.” - Alexander Hamilton,
speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788
“While the constitution continues to be read, and its principles
known, the states, must, by every, rational man, be considered as
essential component parts of the union; and therefore the idea of
sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.” -
Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June
24, 1788
“It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every
country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally
unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability
necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently
led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be
a flattery which their own good sense must despise.” - Alexander
Hamilton, speech to the Ratifying Convention of New York, June, 1788
“When you assemble from your several counties in the Legislature,
were every member to be guided only by the apparent interest of his
county, government would be impracticable. There must be a perpetual
accomodation and sacrifice of local advantage to general expediency.” -
Alexander Hamilton, speech to the Ratifying Convention of New York,
June, 1788
“A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to
abuse it, when acquired.” - Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
“The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms and false
reasonings is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were
you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a
thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of
privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of
the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and that civil liberty
is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the
most manifest violation of justice.” - Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer
Refuted, 1775
“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature
rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.” - Alexander
Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
“To grant that there is a supreme intelligence who rules the world
and has established laws to regulate the actions of his creatures; and
still to assert that man, in a state of nature, may be considered as
perfectly free from all restraints of law and government, appears to a
common understanding altogether irreconcilable. Good and wise men, in
all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed
that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each
other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is
indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human
institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon
this law depend the natural rights of mankind.” - Alexander Hamilton,
The Farmer Refuted, 1775
“When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the
people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the
persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests,
to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and
opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.” - Alexander Hamilton,
The Federalist, no 71
“Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for
the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of
families.” - Benjamin Rush, 1773
“The American war is over; but this far from being the case with the
American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the
drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms
of government, and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our
citizens for these forms of government after they are established and
brought to perfection.” - Benjamin Rush, May 25, 1786
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they
cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such
laws and enforce them.” - Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
“Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin
here.” - Captain John Parker, commander of the militiamen at Lexington,
Massachusetts, April 19, 1775
“Under all those disadvantages no men ever show more spirit or
prudence than ours. In my opinion nothing but virtue has kept our army
together through this campaign.” - Colonel John Brooks, letter to a
friend, January 5, 1778
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that
freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our
innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the
infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that
wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary
bondage on them.” - Continental Congress Declaration, 1775
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness:
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” -
Declaration of Independence
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which they Law of Nature and Nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” - Declaration of
Independence
“[W]hereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body
of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when
young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all
promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind
that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly
anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice
upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for
carefully guarding against it.” - Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter,
No.18, January 25, 1778
“Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any
manner affecting the value of the different species of property,
presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its
consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and
cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of
things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for
the few not for the many.” - Federalist No. 62, 1788
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by
men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot
be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be
repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such
incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess
what it will be to-morrow.” - Federalist No. 62, 1788
“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the
ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” - Fisher Ames,
speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, January 15, 1788
“We are not to consider ourselves, while here, as at church or
school, to listen to the harangues of speculative piety; we are here to
talk of the political interests committed to our charge.” - Fisher Ames,
speech in the United States House of Representatives, 1789
“[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great
Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, -- who was
governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and
most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it
openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally
disusing and neglecting the militia.” - George Mason, speech in the
Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778
“Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his
constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the
people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their
burdens.” - George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention,
June 17, 1788
“To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of
preserving peace.” - George Washington
“Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great
theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August
body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my
commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.” -
George Washington, Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission,
December 23, 1783
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and
respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations
and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our
rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they
appear to merit the enjoyment.” - George Washington, Address to the
Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland, December 2, 1783
“When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and
we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in the happy hour when the
establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid
foundations shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the
bosom of a free, peacefully and happy Country.” - George Washington,
address to the New York Legislature, 1775
“It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps
another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people,
we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our
work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can
repair. The event is in the hand of God.” - George Washington, as quoted
by Gouverneur Morris in Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of
1787
“[H]onesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only
true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.” - George Washington,
Circular letter to the States, June 14, 1783
“For myself the delay [in assuming the office of the President] may
be compared with a reprieve; for in confidence I assure you, with the
world it would obtain little credit that my movements to the chair of
Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit
who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the
evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful
abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political
skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm.”
- George Washington, comment to General Henry Knox, March, 1789
“I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the
dark corners of the earth; that freedom of enquiry will produce
liberality of conduct; that mankind will reverse the absurd position
that the many were, made for the few; and that they will not continue
slaves in one part of the globe, when they can become freemen in
another.” - George Washington, draft of First Inaugural Address, April
1789
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of
the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply,
perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of
the American people.” - George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789
“The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this
army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers
and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of
Liberty -- that slavery will be your portion, and that of your
posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.” - George
Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776
“Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly
exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the
whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and
the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and
encourage us to great and noble Actions -- The Eyes of all our
Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and
praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the
Tyranny mediated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage
each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for
Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on
earth.” - George Washington, General Orders, July 2, 1776
“No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these
blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be
regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means and to depart
from the road which Providence has pointed us to so plainly; I cannot
believe it will ever come to pass.” - George Washington, letter to
Benjamin Lincoln, June 29, 1788
“I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of
one's life, the foundation of happiness or misery.” - George Washington,
letter to Burwell Bassett, May 1785
“All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external
trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the
lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of
promoting human felicity.” - George Washington, letter to Catherine
MacAuly Graham
“In our progress toward political happiness my station is new; and if
I may use the expression, I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely
any part of my conduct wch. may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.”
- George Washington, letter to Catherine MacAuly Graham
“[L]et the poor the needy and oppressed of the Earth, and those who
want Land, resort to the fertile plains of our western country, the
second land of Promise, and there dwell in peace, fulfilling the first
and great commandment.” - George Washington, letter to David Humphreys,
July 25, 1785
“I can truly say I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two
about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the Officers
of State and the Representatives of every Power in Europe.” - George
Washington, letter to David Stuart
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” -
George Washington, letter to James Madison, March 2, 1788
“To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded
attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must
be bad.” - George Washington, letter to John Augustine Washington, May
31, 1776
“We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the
share of mortals.” - George Washington, letter to John Jay, August 15,
1786
“It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the
Delegates from so many different States ... should unite in forming a
system of national Government, so little liable to well founded
objections.” - George Washington, letter to Marquis de Lafayette,
February 7, 1788
“[Y]our late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a
view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of
your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally
into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing
it.” - George Washington, letter to Marquis de Lafayette, May 10, 1786
“Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still
good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes.
South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The
plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate
of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small
influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages
to come.” - George Washington, letter to Marquis de Lafayette, May 28,
1788
“My ardent desire is, and my aim has been ... to comply strictly with
all our engagements foreign and domestic; but to keep the U States free
from political connections with every other Country. To see that they
may be independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I
want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced
we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the
only way to be respected abroad and happy at home.” - George Washington,
letter to Partick Henry, 1775
“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising
and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new
difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion
our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” - George Washington, letter
to Philip Schuyler, July 15, 1777
“The citizens of the United States of America have the right to
applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged
and liberal policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of
conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that
toleration is spoken of as if it were by the indulgence of one class of
citizens that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural
rights, for happily the Government of the United States, which gives to
bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that
they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good
citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.” -
George Washington, letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode
Island
“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his
views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only
affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its
influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political
happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.” - George Washington, letter to
the Legislature of Pennsylvania, September 5, 1789
“[M]ore permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the
sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of
promiscuous pleasure.” - George Washington, letter to the Marquis de la
Rourie, August 10, 1786
“The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive
which induced me to the Field -- the object is attained -- and it now
remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United
States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before
them.” - George Washington, letter to the Reformed German Congregation
of New York City, November 27, 1783
“Your love of liberty -- your respect for the laws -- your habits of
industry -- and your practice of the moral and religious obligations,
are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.” - George
Washington, letter to the Residents of Boston, October 27, 1789
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial
fire caled conscience.” - George Washington, The Rules of Civility
“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have
grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.” -
George Washington, upon fumbling for his glasses before delivering the
Newburgh Address, March 15, 1783
[W]e are confirmed in the opinion, that the present age would be
deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves, if they
do not establish an American republic. This is the only form of
government we wish to see established; for we can never be willingly
subject to any other King than He who, being possessed of infinite
wisdom, goodness and rectitude, is alone fit to possess unlimited
power.” - Instructions of Malden, Massachusettes for a Declaration of
Independence, May 27, 1776
“Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every
man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may
cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be
able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.” - James Madison
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal
government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State
governments are numerous and indefinite.” - James Madison
“It becomes all therefore who are friends of a Government based on
free principles to reflect, that by denying the possibility of a system
partly federal and partly consolidated, and who would convert ours into
one either wholly federal or wholly consolidated, in neither of which
forms have individual rights, public order, and external safety, been
all duly maintained, they aim a deadly blow at the last hope of true
liberty on the face of the Earth.” - James Madison” - “[D]emocracies
have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been
found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property;
and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been
violent in their deaths.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 10, November
23, 1787
“The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property
is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there
is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and
temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of
justice. Every shilling which they overburden the inferior number is a
shilling saved to their own pockets.” - James Madison, Federalist No.
10, November 23, 1787
“The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of
property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity
of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of
government.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787
“Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have
paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations,
they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or
for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the
knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own
experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the
possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations
displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public
happiness.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 14, November 30, 1787
“If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which
different forms of government are established, we may define a republic
to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives
all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people,
and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for
a limited period, or during good behavior.” - James Madison, Federalist
No. 39
“It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that
the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is
the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government
whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment
of this object.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 45
“We have heard of the impious doctrine in the old world, that the
people were made for kings, not kings for the people. Is the same
doctrine to be revived in the new, in another shape -- that the solid
happiness of the people is to be sacrificed to the views of political
institutions of a different form? It is too early for politicians to
presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the
great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that
no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be
fitted for the attainment of this object.” - James Madison, Federalist
No. 45
“A local spirit will infallibly prevail much more in the members of
Congress than a national spirit will prevail in the legislatures of the
particular States.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and
judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and
whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be
pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” - James Madison, Federalist
No. 48, February 1, 1788
“A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the
government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary
precautions.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 51
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were
to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government
would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered
by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first
enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place,
oblige it to control itself.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 51,
February 8, 1788
“As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a
certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other
qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and
confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these
qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures
which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us,
faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that
there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that
nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from
destroying and devouring one another.” - James Madison, Federalist No.
55, February 15, 1788
“Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly
would still have been a mob.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 55,
February 15, 1788
“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one
in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced
among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend
their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by
the others.” - James Madison, Federalist No. 58, 1788
“Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which,
being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a
distrust of itself.” - James Madison, letter to Benjamin Rush
“Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of
oppression.” - James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 17,
1788
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it
for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.” - James Madison,
letter to William Bradford, 1774
“All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” -
James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787
“We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most
enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion
ever exercised by man over man.” - James Madison, speech at the
Constitutional Convention, June 6, 1787
“Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched
situation. No theoretical checks -- no form of government can render us
secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or
happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if
there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be
exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on
their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are
to choose them.” - James Madison, speech at the Virginia Ratifying
Convention, June 20, 1788
“I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the
exposition of the laws and Constitution devolves upon the Judiciary. But
I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one
department draws from the Constitution greater powers than another in
marking out the limits of the powers of the several departments.” -
James Madison, speech in the Congress of the United States, 1789
“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the
people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by
violent and sudden usurpations.” - James Madison, speech to the Virginia
Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788
“How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the
best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose
their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind,
in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best
privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.” -
James Monroe, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 10, 1788
“One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom
of one's house. A man's house is his castle.” - James Otis, On the Writs
of Assistance, 1761
“Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to
enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every
government, which has not this in view, as its principal object, is not
a government of the legitimate kind.” - James Wilson, Lectures on Law,
1791
“With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most
solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost
energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously
bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume,
we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and
perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with
one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves.” - John
Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Cause and Necessity
of Taking up Arms, July 6, 1775
“There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can
double the reward on my head!” - John Hancock, upon signing the
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
“But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign
force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to
other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in
such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not
be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war.” -
John Jay, Federalist No. 4
“Wisely, therefore, do they consider union and a good national
government as necessary to put and keep them in such a situation as,
instead of inviting war, will tend to repress and discourage it. That
situation consists in the best possible state of defense, and
necessarily depends on the government, the arms, and the resources of
the country.” - John Jay, Federalist No. 4
“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of
the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call
upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own
liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency
not to be excused.” - John Jay, letter to R. Lushington, March 15, 1786
“We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong.
Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this
Storm?” - John Page, letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 20, 1776
“An honorable Peace is and always was my first wish! I can take no
delight in the effusion of human Blood; but, if this War should
continue, I wish to have the most active part in it.” - John Paul Jones,
letter to Gouverneur Morris, September 2, 1782
“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast;
for I intend to go in harm's way.” - John Paul Jones, letter to M. Le
Ray de Chaumont, November 16, 1778
“I have not yet begun to fight!” - John Paul Jones, response to enemy
demand to surrender, September 23, 1779
“Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and
corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of
government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but
beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual,
and slavery must ensue.” - John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence
Over the Passions of Men, 1776
“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was
lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up
our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into
bondage.” - John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the
Passions of Men, 1776
“Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry
we will not tamely submit -- appealing to Heaven for the justice of our
cause, we determine to die or be free ....” - Joseph Warren, American
account of the Battle of Lexington, 1775
“Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies
are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be
free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the
fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which
rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of
yourselves.” - Joseph Warren, Boston Massacre Oration, 1775
"At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy
of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to
be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they
are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the
people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent
practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent
tribunal." - Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, Monday, March 4,
1861
“Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof.” - Leviticus 25:10 inscription on the Liberty Bell
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” -
Nathan Hale, before being hanged by the British, September 22, 1776
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as
they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America
cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the
people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular
troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.” -
Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal
Constitution, October 10, 1787
“All good men wish the entire abolition of slavery, as soon as it can
take place with safety to the public, and for the lasting good of the
present wretched race of slaves. The only possible step that could be
taken towards it by the convention was to fix a period after which they
should not be imported.” - Oliver Ellsworth, The Landholder, December
10, 1787
“I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to
abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve it, if it
happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together
with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of
slavery.” - Patrick Henry on slavery in a letter to Robert Pleasants,
January 18, 1773
“[I]f you speak of solid information and sound judgement, Colonel
Washington is, unquestionably the greatest man on that floor.” - Patrick
Henry, on George Washington, 1775
“Eloquence has been defined to be the art of persuasion. If it
included persuasion by convincing, Mr. Madison was the most eloquent man
I ever heard.” - Patrick Henry, on James Madison
“I am not a Virginian, but an American.” - Patrick Henry, speech in
the First Continental Congress, 1774
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt
to shut our eyes against a painful truth -- and listen to the song of
that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise
men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we
disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and
having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal
salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am
willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for
it.” - Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, 1775
“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant,
the active, the brave.” - Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia
Convention, 1775
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one
who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably
ruined.” - Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention,
June 5, 1778
“O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it
were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you
could defend yourselves, are gone; and you have no longer an
aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of
any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in
power, inflicted by those who had no power at all?” - Patrick Henry,
speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course
others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” -
Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, 1775
“Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings -- give us that
precious jewel, and you may take every thing else! Guard with jealous
attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that
jewel.” - Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention,
June 5, 1778
“There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray,
but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that
time has now come.” - Peter Muhlenberg, from a Lutheran sermon read at
Woodstock, Virginia, January 1776
“Resolved: That these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent states, that they are absolved of all allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the
state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it
is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming
foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and
transmitted to the respective colonies for their consideration and
approbation.” - Richard Lee, Resolution in Congress, June 7, 1776
“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken,
never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so
contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it
much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it
becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths
without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to
that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” -
Thomas Jefferson
“It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your
people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every
reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The
whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to
do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.” - Thomas
Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1775
“For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English
judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum.” - Thomas
Jefferson, commenting on judges' apparel
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be
exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I
like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the
atmosphere.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams, February 22,
1787
“The example of changing a constitution by assembling the wise men of
the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the
world as the former examples we had give them. The constitution, too,
which was the result of our deliberation, is unquestionably the wisest
ever yet presented to men.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to David
Humphreys, March 18, 1789
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and
government to gain ground.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to E. Carrington,
May 27, 1788
“The foundation on which all [constitutions] are built is the natural
equality of man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to
legal office, and particularly the denial of a preeminence by birth.” -
Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, 1784
“But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for
that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither
the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt,
than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, September 6, 1789
“Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society
is formed and municipal laws established.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to
James Monroe, 1791
“I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect
liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, July 7, 1785
“It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not
cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.” - Thomas
Jefferson, letter to John Sinclair, 1791
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain
of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may
be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good,
my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately.” - Thomas
Jefferson, letter to Martha Jefferson, May 5, 1787
“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises,
I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it
gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played
with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body
and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your
constant companion of your walks.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter
Carr, August 19, 1785
“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself
and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose
that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best
for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to
you ... From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you
will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in
the moment of death.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August
19, 1785
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally
at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.” - Thomas Jefferson,
letter to William Hunter
“What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of
liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots
and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter to
William Stephens Smith, 1787
“But of all the views of this law none is more important, none more
legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the
ultimate, guardians of their own liberty. For this purpose the reading
in the first stage, where they will receive their whole education, is
proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly historical. History by
apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it
will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it
will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will
enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and
knowing it, to defeat its views.” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State
of Virginia, Query 14, 1781
“History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to
judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times
and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and
designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every
disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.” - Thomas
Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are
injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say
there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks
my leg.” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17,
1782
“There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our
people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce
between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous
passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading
submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate
it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all
education in him.” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia,
Query 18, 1781
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic
in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart
of its laws and constitution.” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of
Virginia, Query 19, 1781
“On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must
the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a
surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we
have had already?” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query 12, 1782
“It is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear
either of two meanings to give it that which will allow some meaning to
the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all
the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be
given to them. It was intended to lace them up straitly with in the
enumerated powers.” - Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on a National Bank, 1791
“They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general
welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter
phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a
distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be
good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent
enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole
instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power
to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they
sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever
evil they please ... Certainly no such universal power was meant to be
given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the
enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could
not be carried into effect.” - Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on National
Bank, 1791
“Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or
regulated by any power on earth but our own.” - Thomas Jefferson, Rights
of British America, 1774
“That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his
majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a
free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature,
and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” - Thomas Jefferson,
Rights of British America, 1774
“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand
of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” - Thomas Jefferson,
Rights of British America, 1774
“Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith and honor. The least
fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on
the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree,
and posterity read in it full grown characters.” - Thomas Paine, Common
Sense, 1776
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all
mankind.” - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.” - Thomas Paine,
Common Sense, 1776
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” - Thomas
Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not
sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to
posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next
generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use
them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty
rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a
few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect,
which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.” -
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The
blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'tis time to
part.” - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its
best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable
one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a
government, which we might expect in a country without government, our
calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which
we suffer.” - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the
Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in
future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.” -
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of
civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they
fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty
of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny
which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants
still.” - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue
is not hereditary.” - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy
from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a
precedent that will reach to himself.” - Thomas Paine, Dissertation on
First Principles of Government
“I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war,
the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the
security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own
property.” - Thomas Paine, On Financing the War, 1782
“Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as
rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But
such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it
wants, is the liberty of appearing.” - Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
“If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those
which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy
hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of
industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is
continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and
taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape
without tribute.” - Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength
from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little
minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience
approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” - Thomas
Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may
have peace.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19,
1776
“It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have
refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is
only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the
violence of the wolf.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1,
December 19, 1776
“Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have
induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a
thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or
threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all
cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?” - Thomas
Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the
sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his
country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man
and woman.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19,
1776
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the
triumph.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only
that gives every thing its value.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis,
No. 1, December 19, 1776
“The times that tried men's souls are over -- and the greatest and
completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily
accomplished.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 13, 1783
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men,
undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” - Thomas Paine, The American
Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777
“We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room
upon the earth for honest men to live in.” - Thomas Paine, The American
Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777
“The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of
liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined not
to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest
of mankind.” - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 5, March 21, 1778
“[R]eligion, or the duty which we owe to our creator, and the manner
of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by
force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the
free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and
this is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love,
and charity towards each other.” - Virginia Bill of Rights, June 12,
1776
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have
certain rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they
cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the
enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and
possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” -
Virginia Bill of Rights, June 12, 1776
“Well known to be the greatest philosopher of the present age; -- all
the operations of nature he seems to understand, -- the very heavens
obey him, and the Clouds yield up their Lightning to be imprisoned in
his rod.” - William Pierce on Benjamin Franklin, 1787
"There is no such thing in America as an independent press. You know
it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares write his honest
opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear
in print. I am paid... for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper
... others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things... any of
you who would be so foolish as to write his honest opinions would be out
on the streets looking for another job... We are the tools and vassals
of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks; they pull the
strings and we dance. Our talents, possibilities, and lives are all the
property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." John Swinton -
Editorial Freedom in Capital's World http://editorfreedom.com/
"It is incompatible to be dishonest in one area of one's life and
honest in another" Deanna Spingola
Comments from Nixon (we are not necessarily a fan of Nixon,
however, wise perception is wise perception no matter whom it comes from)
In 1945 most Japanese farmers tilled the fields owned by
absentee land-lords. Yoshida's government devised a sweeping land reform bill.
By 1950 90% of Japan's farmland was owned by the farmers themselves. The
Macarthur land reform gave farmers both a sense of individual worth and an
incentive to produce more. After it was completed, communism in Japan became
almost entirely an urban phenomenon because Macarthur had stolen the Communist's
big rural issue.
It is also ironic that the Taiwan "economic miracle", which
can be compared in character and not in size to the Japanese "miracle", was made
possible in large by Chang Kai-sheik's liberal land reform program" - Richard
Nixon - Leagers P115.
"I expressed my firm conviction that "Japan must not become
and economic giant and remain a military and poitical pigmy". As he had in
1953, Yoshida politely but firmly truned my suggestion aside" - Nixon - Leaders
P125
"During the 1950's and early 1960's, when it was clear
MacArthur would probably never hold another public office, he often lecture me
about balancing the budget, cutting taxes and going back to the gold standard" -
Nixon - Leaders P129
"Israel has won all the ward is has fought with the Arabs
to date, and will win the next one. But in the end, they cannot survive in a
sea of hate" - de Gaulle (Source Nixon - Leaders P66)
See also Sayings Of Clive |
