Patrick Henry

"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?"

--Patrick Henry

Via Patriot Post.

Winston Churchill

"Socialism is a Philosophy of Failure; The Creed of Ignorance; The Gospel of Envy. It's inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

--Winston Churchill

John Adams

"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people."

--John Adams

Via Patriot Post.

John Witherspoon

"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

Via Patriot Post.

John Adams

"Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives."

--John Adams, letter to Benjamin Rush, 1808

Via Patriot Post.

James Madison

"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, 1787

Via Patriot Post.

George Washington

"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, 1788

Thomas Jefferson

"Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself."

— Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Rush

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies ..."

—Benjamin Rush

Thomas Jefferson

"A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable."

— Thomas Jefferson

George Washington

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

— George Washington

James Madison

"It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution."

— James Madison
 

James Wilson

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

—James Wilson
 

Ronald Reagan

"America's best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead."

-- Ronald Reagan

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

George Washington

"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

Thomas Paine

"These are the times that try men's souls."
 
--Thomas Paine

Edmund Burke

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

--Edmund Burke
 18th century English statesman

James Madison

"[T]he citizens of the United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude and all the other qualities which ennoble the character of a nation and fulfill the ends of government be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre, which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be set, which cannot but have the most favourable influence on the rights on Mankind. If on the other side, our governments should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal and essential virtues, the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate, will be dishonored and betrayed; the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against them; and their patrons and friends exposed to be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation."

--James Madison

Ronald Reagan

"There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. ... You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."

--Ronald Reagan

Thomas Paine

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

--Thomas Paine
1776.
 

Patrick Henry

"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... 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

John Adams

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration..."

--John Adams
Upon signing of the Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson

The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ... Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."

--Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

"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

Samuel Adams

"If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation."

--Samuel Adams

Thomas Jefferson

"We must make our election between economy and Liberty, or profusion and servitude."

--Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. ... To preserve independence ... we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. ... [W]hen all government ... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another. ... Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread. ... The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression."

--Thomas Jefferson

Ronald Reagan

"I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation -- from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in principles that have guided us for two centuries."

--Ronald Reagan
Farewell Address

Martin Luther King Jr.

"I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

--Martin Luther King Jr.
1963.

John F. Kennedy

"My fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
 
--John F. Kennedy, 1961
Inaugural Address

Ronald Reagan

"You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down -- up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."

--Ronald Reagan, 1964
"A Time for Choosing."

Ronald Reagan

"I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers. ... Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

--Ronald Reagan, 1964
"A Time for Choosing."
 

Clint Eastwood / Rush Limbaugh

"President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American People."

--Clint Eastwood

"No. He's the second. Global Warming is the greatest hoax."

--Rush Limbaugh

George Washington

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

--George Washington

George Washington

"Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. 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. ... Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indespensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness - these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens."

--George Washington
Farewell Address

Alexander Hamilton

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one!"
 
--Alexander Hamilton

Patrick Henry

"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

Benjamin Franklin

"They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety."

--Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Jefferson

"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."

--Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

"Conscience is the most sacred of all property."

--James Madison

Via Patriot Post.

Samuel Adams

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than Liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!"

--Samuel Adams
 

William J. H. Boetcker

"The Ten Cannots":

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

--William J. H. Boetcker

Mark Alexander

The Cycle of Democracy has been summarized as follows: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to Liberty (Rule of Law); From Liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage (rule of men).
 
--Mark Alexander

F.A. Hayek

"There is no difference in principle, between the economic philosophy of Nazism, socialism, communism, and fascism and that of the American welfare state and regulated economy."
 
--F.A. Hayek

Thomas Jefferson

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

--Thomas Jefferson

George Bernard Shaw

"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
 
--George Bernard Shaw

Justice John Marshall

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation."
 
--Justice John Marshall

James Madison

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. ... Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
 
--James Madison

Noah Webster

"In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected -- the legislators are antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason."

--Noah Webster, An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787

Via Patriot Post.

Thomas Jefferson

"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others."

--Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, 1805

Via Patriot Post.

Matthew 15: 13

"Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."

Matthew 15: 13

Thomas Jefferson

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."

--Thomas Jefferson (1790)

Via Patriot Post.

Joseph Story

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Via Patriot Post.

Joseph Story

"The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population. They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Via Patriot Post.

H. L. Mencken

"Democracy is a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jack asses."

--H. L. Mencken

Via Patriot Post.

George Washington

"My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so."

--George Washington, letter to Gouverneur Morris, 1795

Via Patriot Post.

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

Benjamin Franklin

"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
 

Roosevelt or Marx?

"Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle."

--Franklin Roosevelt

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

--Karl Marx

John Adams

"A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

--John Adams

Isaiah 21: 11

"The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"

John Adams

"Is the present state of the national republic enough? Is virtue the principle of our government? Is honor? Or is ambition and avarice, adulation, baseness, covetousness, the thirst for riches, indifference concerning the means of rising and enriching, the contempt of principle, the spirit of party and of faction the motive and principle that governs?"

--John Adams

Alexander Hamilton

"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

Daniel Webster

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the People against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
 
--Daniel Webster

Thomas Jefferson

"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure."

--Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

"[G]iving [Congress] 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 [Constitution] 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 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. [The Constitution] 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

James Madison

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."

--James Madison

Joseph Story

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Via Patriot Post

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
Federalist No. 45

James Madison

"Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution."
 
--James Madison
In Federalist No. 39

Noah Webster

"Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety. A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state."
 
--Noah Webster

Justice Joseph Story

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the People to resist and triumph over them."
 
--Justice Joseph Story
In his Commentaries on the Constitution (1833

James Madison

"The ultimate authority ... resides in the People alone. ... The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition."
 
--James Madison
Federalist No. 46

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

Via Patriot Post.

Samuel Adams

"The Constitution shall never be construed ... to prevent the People of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

--Samuel Adams
During the 1788 Massachusetts Convention debates to ratify the U.S. Constitution

William Rehnquist

"The wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based upon bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned. ... The greatest injury of the 'wall' notion is its mischievous diversion of judges from the actual intention of the drafters of the Bill of Rights."

--William Rehnquist
Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court

Justice James Wilson

"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it."

--Justice James Wilson

Thomas Jefferson

"The original error [was in] establishing a judiciary independent of the nation, and which, from the citadel of the law, can turn its guns on those they were meant to defend, and control and fashion their proceedings to its own will. ... The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch."

--Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

--Thomas Jefferson
 

Thomas Jefferson

"The God that gave us life gave us Liberty at the same time."

--Thomas Jefferson

John Adams

"Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be."

--John Adams

Via Patriot Post.

George Washington

"We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it."

--George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1785

Via Patriot Post.

Alexander Hamilton

"There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism."

--Alexander Hamilton

Via Patriot Post.

Thomas Jefferson

"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, 1790

Via Patriot Post.

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

Via Patriot Post.

James Madison

"What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them ... the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 44, 1788

Via Patriot Post.

John Adams

"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."

--John Adams, letter to H. Niles, 1818

Via Patriot Post.

John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson

"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, 1775

Via Patriot Post.

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

Via Patriot Post.

Thomas Jefferson

"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

Via Patriot Post.

Ronald Reagan

"Right now American business and industry are in the deepest trouble they have even been in our Nation's entire history. A large percentage of people in this country today lay all their troubles at the door of business. The word profit is synonymous with evil as with the term 'private property' and therefore personal freedom, freedom of choice for everybody is in danger. Profit, property, and freedom are inseparable; you can't have any one of them without the other two."
--Ronald Reagan,
Remakes during the 1974 Young Americans for Freedom conference in San Francisco.

Benjamin Franklin

"Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow."
--Benjamin Franklin

Via Patriot Post.