Alexander Hamilton

"This balance between the National and State governments ought to be dwelt on with peculiar attention, as it is of the utmost importance. It forms a double security to the people. If one encroaches on their rights they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will  both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional limits by a certain rivalship, which will ever subsist between them."

--Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788

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Thomas Jefferson

"Newspapers ... serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke."

--Thomas Jefferson

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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, Notes on Nullification

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Thomas Jefferson

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread."

--Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread."

--Thomas Jefferson, autobiography, 1821

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Samuel Adams

"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

--Samuel Adams

James Madison

"In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 14, 1787  

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Alexander Hamilton

"The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense. In these are comprehended the regulation of commerce that is, the whole system of foreign intercourse; the support of armies and navies, and of the civil administration."

--Alexander Hamilton, remarks to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788  

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Edmund Burke

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

--Edmund Burke
Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)

George S. Patton

"Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth. And liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politicians."

--George S. Patton
Cited in "The unknown Patton" by Charles M. Provence
Pg 187

Benjamin Franklin

"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, Emblematical Representations

Thomas Jefferson

"[W]hen all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Charles Hammond, 1821

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James Madison

"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

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Thomas Jefferson

"Excessive taxation ... will carry reason and reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election."

--Thomas Jefferson

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Alexander Hamilton

"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, 1788  

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Thomas Jefferson

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."

--Thomas Jefferson

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Samuel Adams

"[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

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Thomas Paine

"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  

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Samuel Adams

"[T]he importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all ... are essential to the well-being of a family."

--Samuel Adams, letter to Thomas Wells, 1780  

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Thomas Paine

"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."

--Thomas Paine

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John Adams

"As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families."

--John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1814  

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James Wilson

"It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness."

--James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791  

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George Washington

"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

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Abigail Adams

"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, 1783  

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James Madison

"Justice is the end of government."

--James Madison

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Samuel Adams

"Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security."

--Samuel Adams, letter to Thomas Wells, 1780

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John Quincy Adams

"Posterity -- you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

--John Quincy Adams

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John Adams

"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. ... How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?"

--John Adams, Diary, 1778  

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Benjamin Franklin

"[I]n this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

--Benjamin Franklin

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Benjamin Franklin

"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  

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James Wilson

"The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and the wife become in law only one person... Upon this principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves to be viewed and examined on every side."

--James Wilson, Of the Natural Rights of Individuals, 1792  

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Thomas Jefferson

"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous."

--Thomas Jefferson

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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 the Laws of Nature and of 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.

"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 the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

--Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776  

Secede!

Voltaire

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

--Voltaire

Voltaire

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

--Voltaire

George Washington

"[T]he 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, 1776  

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Samuel Adams

"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, 1776  

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James Madison

"Equal laws protecting equal rights; the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country."

--James Madison, letter to Jacob de la Motta, 1820  

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James Madison

"Equal laws protecting equal rights; the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country."

--James Madison, letter to Jacob de la Motta, 1820  

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George Washington

"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, 1789  

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John Adams

"[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

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Thomas Jefferson

"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

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George Washington

"[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man.... It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous."

--George Washington

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John Adams

"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, 1776  

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Thomas Paine

"A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support."

--Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, part 2,

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George Washington

"We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals."

--George Washington

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Thomas Jefferson

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, 1787  

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Thomas Jefferson

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dupont de Nemours, 1816  

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Joseph Story

"No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution."

--Joseph Story

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George Washington

"Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

--George Washington, Farewell Address,

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Thomas Jefferson

"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

--Thomas Jefferson

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Benjamin Franklin

"A fine genius in his own country is like gold in the mine."

--Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733  

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John Adams

"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 Canon and Feudal Law, 1765  

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Benjamin Franklin

"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason."

--Benjamin Franklin

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John Adams

"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates ... to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them."

--John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776  

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John Adams

"Laws for the liberal education of the youth, especially of the lower class of the people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant."

--John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776  

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Alexander Hamilton

"Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others."

--Alexander Hamilton

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George Washington

"The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with."

--George Washington, letter to Alexander Hamilton, 1783  

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George Washington

"In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

--George Washington

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Thomas Jefferson

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, 1787  

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Thomas Jefferson

"To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed."

--Thomas Jefferson, Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, 1818  

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Thomas Jefferson

"Newspapers ... serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke."

--Thomas Jefferson

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George Washington

"[W]e ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own."

--George Washington, letter to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, 1795  

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Benjamin Franklin

"The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country."

--Benjamin Franklin, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, 1749  

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Federal Farmer

"[T]o 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."

--Federal Farmer

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Samuel Adams

"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

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James Madison

"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation."

--James Madison

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James Madison

"What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual & surest support?"

--James Madison, letter to W.T. Barry, 1822

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James Madison

"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

--James Madison, letter to W.T. Barry, 1822

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James Madison

"The best service that can be rendered to a Country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation, and the enjoyment of the blessing."

--James Madison, letter to Littleton Dennis Teackle, 1826

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George Washington

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."

--George Washington

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Noah Webster

"It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country."

--Noah Webster, On Education of Youth in America, 1790

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George Washington

"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, 1776

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James Madison

"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."

--James Madison

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John Adams

"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

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Rush Limbaugh

"There are womanly words. And manly deeds!"

--Rush Limbaugh

James Wilson

"Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge."

--James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, 1790

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Joseph Story

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic."

--Joseph Story

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George Washington

"Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness."

--George Washington, First Annual Message, 1790

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John Adams

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."

--John Adams, Defense of Constitutions, 1787

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George Washington

"There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness."

--George Washington

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Thomas Jefferson

"To all of which is added a selection from the elementary schools of subjects of the most promising genius, whose parents are too poor to give them further education, to be carried at the public expense through the college and university. The object is to bring into action that mass of talents which lies buried in poverty in every country, for want of the means of development, and thus give activity to a mass of mind, which, in proportion to our population, shall be double or treble of what it is in most countries."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Jose Correa de Serra, 1817

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Samuel Adams

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country."

--Samuel Adams

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Thomas Jefferson

"No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Trustees for the Lottery of East Tennessee College, 1810

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Fisher Ames

"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, 1788

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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, 1787

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John Adams

"Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

--John Adams, letter to John Taylor, 1814

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George Mason

"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

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John Adams

"[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

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Thomas Paine

"[G]overnment, 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

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Peter Muhlenberg

"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, 1776

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Thomas Jefferson

"The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife."

--Thomas Jefferson

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James Wilson

"The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and the wife become in law only one person... Upon this principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves to be viewed and examined on every side."

--James Wilson, Of the Natural Rights of Individuals, 1792  

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Thomas Jefferson

"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 would be the 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

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John Paul Jones

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, 1782

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John Adams

"[J]udges ... 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

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Thomas Paine

"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 Crisis, No. 1, 1776

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John Paul Jones

"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, 1778

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George Washington

"We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for 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."

--George Washington, General Orders, 1776

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George Washington

"The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."

--George Washington

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