Adam Smith's Rule of Improvement Through Self Interest
"The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition, the principle from which public and national, as well as private opulence is originally derived, is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravogance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration."
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely. The charity of well-disposed people, indeed, supplies him with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this principle ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people, by treaty, by barter, and by purchase. With the money which one man gives him he purchases food. The old clothes which another bestows upon him he exchanges for other old clothes which suit him better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he can buy either food, clothes, or lodging, as he has occasion."
Alexander Fraser Tytler-(Attributed) [Link]
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."- 1787
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
- From bondage to spiritual faith;
- From spiritual faith to great courage;
- From courage to liberty;
- From liberty to abundance;
- From abundance to complacency;
- From complacency to apathy;
- From apathy to dependence;
- From dependence back into bondage.
Alexander Hamilton
"Why
has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man
will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without
constraint."
"The
sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old
parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the
whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and
can never be erased."
"Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing."
"In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will."
"It
is the advertiser who provides the paper for the subscriber. It is not
to be disputed, that the publisher of a newspaper in this country,
without a very exhaustive advertising support, would receive less reward
for his labor than the humblest mechanic."
"A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."
Alexis de Tocqueville (1830s)
“In
the United States, Christian sects are infinitely diversified and
perpetually modified; but Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly
established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it.”
"
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.
" -
On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, 1766
http://www.founding.com/founders_library/pageID.2146/default.asp
"Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. that the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this."
"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
- Benjamin Franklin
"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few his precepts!
O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments."
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757
Dr. Benjamin Rush
"The clergy formed a very agreeable part of the procession. They manifested by their attendance their sense of connection between religion and good government"
"The clergy formed a very agreeable part of the procession. They manifested by their attendance their sense of connection between religion and good government"
Bishop Charles Galloway
"Mighty men they were-men of iron nerve and strong hand & unblanched cheek and heart of flame God needed not reeds shaken by the wind nor men clothed in the soft raiment [Matt. 11:7-8, but heroes of hardihood and lofty courage] and such were the sons of the mighty who responded to the divine call."
St. George Tucker
"A bill of rights may be considered, not only as intended to give law, and assign limits to a government about to be established, but as giving
information to the people. By reducing speculative truths to fundamental laws, every man of the meanest capacity and understanding may learn his own rights, and know when they are violated . . . "
"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."
alternate- " the rest is in the hands of God"
“Bad seed is a robbery of the worst
kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your
preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.”
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving the peace”
Immanuel Kant-
“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.”
With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."
"It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in [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."
"The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it."
"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare... they may appoint teachers in every state... The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America."
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred" -Federalist 20
"There are consequences, sir, still more extensive, which, as they follow dearly from the doctrine combated, must either be admitted, or the doctrine must be given up. If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their Own hands; they may a point teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit of the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare." On the Cod Fishery Bill, granting Bounties 1792 http://constitution.org/je/je4_cong_deb_12.htm
"as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. Where there is an excess of liberty, the effect is the same, tho' from an opposite cause. Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own." James Madison, National Gazette, March 29, 1792 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s23.html
“It is sufficiently obvious, that persons now and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot well be separated. The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right. The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” -James Madison’s SPEECH IN THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.1— December 2, 1829 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1940&chapter=119344&layout=html&Itemid=27
"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe 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; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have generally resulted from those causes." - James Madison's Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution , June 6, 1788 http://www.constitution.org/rc/rat_va_05.htm
John Adams
“A nation of laws, not of men” [no representative above the Law]
The Foundation of a Free Constitution
"Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, They may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies"
Are and by Right Ought To Be FREE
"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."
The Finer Arts
"The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. 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."
THE CONSTITUTION:
FOR A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (The Works of John Adams, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1851, 4:31)
The General Principles of Christianity
"The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their Address, or by me in my Answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were united: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.
Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System."
"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' Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States 1787
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s15.html
John Hancock
upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
"There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!"
John Page (he kinda looks like bill murray)
(From a Letter to Thomas Jefferson)
John Witherspoon
"He is the best friend to american liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and imorality of every kind, whoever is an avowed enemy of God I scruple not to call him an enemy of his country"
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
Marchese di Beccaria
"If by supporting the rights of mankind I shall save from agonies of death one unfortunate victim of tyranny or of ignorance equally fatal, his blessings will be sufficient consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind."
Noah Webster (1758 – 1843) "Schoolmaster To America" (Personally Responsible for Article 1 Section 8 of the constitution)
"The brief exposition of the Constitution of the united states will unfold to young persons the principles of Republican government and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of the correct republican principles is the Bible particularly the New Testament or the Christian Religion." -A School Textbook
The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.
Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788
"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
PATRICK HENREY
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!"
Samuel Adams-
"The utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods, are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the crown. These ideas are arbitrary,despotic, and, in our government unconstitutional"
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
"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 they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader"
“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can”
“Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty”
“The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man....The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people."
Samuel Adams
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams
Samuel Johnson-
"The law is an ass"
"It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... 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."
- Draft Kentucky Resolution 1798 - http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/kyres/kydraft.html
"a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse or rest on"
-Jefferson's Letter to James Madison Dec 20, 1787 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116913
"a wise and frugal Government, which 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, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." -Jefferson's First Inaugural Address http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres16.html
"an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry" (The Only Necessary Argument Against Utopianists) Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor June 1, 1798 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=805&chapter=87151&layout=html&Itemid=27
" experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and byslow operations, perverted it into tyranny " -Thomas Jefferson, Preamble to a Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge--Fall 1778 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s11.html
Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. -Jefferson's Letter to Peter Carr Aug 10, 1787 http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/jefferson_carr.html
"Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others." - Jefferson's Eighth Annual Message Nov 8, 1808
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29450
" it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations... a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority " -Jefferson's First Inaugural Address 1801 http://www.bartleby.com/268/8/23.html
"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history becomes useful to the American politician." -Jefferson's Letter to John Norvell, June 14, 1807 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116906
"Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." -Jefferson's Letter to Nathaniel Macon Jan 12, 1819 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_To_Nathaniel_Macon,_Monticello,_January_12,_1819
" whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, & that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor war, and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out of the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my brethren into these, rather than separate from them. But I hope we may still keep clear of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, & that time may be given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed through, and to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other form it may be attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from joining in the wish of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire between us & the old world. " -Jefferson's Letter to Elbridge Gerry Philadelphia, May 13, 1797 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl119.php
As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. Epictetus indeed, has given us what was good of the stoics; all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and grimace. -Jefferson's Letter to William Short, October 31, 1819 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl259.php
"I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, a fact like this [the sale of a book] can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offense against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? And are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason." -Jefferson's Letter to Nicolas Gouin Dufief April 19, 1814 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116909
"we may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl245.php
"The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, in perpetuum, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I believe that every State west and South of Connecticut river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time. Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper." -Jefferson's Letter to John Wayles Eppes, June 24, 1813 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl219.php
"I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." Thomas Jefferson to John Adams Jun 10, 1815 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/217.html
"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it."" -Jefferson's Letter to Joseph Milligan April 6, 1816
"the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness" Jefferson's
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom adopted 1785
http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/virginia-statute-religious-freedom
"if we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." -Jefferson's Letter to thomas Cooper Nov 29, 1802
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=147&division=div1
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http://www.notable-quotes.com/j/jefferson_thomas_v.html
As Yet Unconfirmed by source
"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
"The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution."
- 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
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-Thomas Jefferson [What would Jefferson say today?]
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
- Thomas Jefferson [What would Jefferson say today?]
Attributed
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine"
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not" -has been asserted to have been merely translated by Jefferson
"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 their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
"When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary."
Voltaire
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
"The whole purpose of "Defending to the Death your right to say it" is to promote the Battlefield of Ideas (Ink above blood) Plugged ears promote a dangerous ignorance amongst ppls (which may rise blood above ink) You might as well be picnicking in the civil war, have yer spouse killed by shrapnel and tote their corpse around like nothing happened" -Asderathos
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
"Perfect is the enemy of good"
Praphrased- "Perfection is the Enemy of Good Enough"
"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well."
"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil."
"Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal."
"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another."
"In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation."
William Congreve-
spoken by Zara in Act 3, Scene 2. (This is usually paraphrased as "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned")
Quotes Sorted by Age
[Quotes of the Founding Age] 1700s to late 1800s
Agelessly Sorted Quotes
"Mighty men they were-men of iron nerve and strong hand & unblanched cheek and heart of flame God needed not reeds shaken by the wind nor men clothed in the soft raiment [Matt. 11:7-8, but heroes of hardihood and lofty courage] and such were the sons of the mighty who responded to the divine call."
"A bill of rights may be considered, not only as intended to give law, and assign limits to a government about to be established, but as giving
information to the people. By reducing speculative truths to fundamental laws, every man of the meanest capacity and understanding may learn his own rights, and know when they are violated . . . "
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."
"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."
alternate- " the rest is in the hands of God"
“A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that
actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.”
actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.”
“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.”
“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving the peace”
"There are many things I believe that I will not say. However, I will never say that which I do not believe."
"I
cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution
which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of
benevolence, the money of their constituents." - Father of the
Constitution
“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.”
With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."
"It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in [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."
"The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it."
"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare... they may appoint teachers in every state... The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America."
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred" -Federalist 20
"There are consequences, sir, still more extensive, which, as they follow dearly from the doctrine combated, must either be admitted, or the doctrine must be given up. If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their Own hands; they may a point teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit of the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare." On the Cod Fishery Bill, granting Bounties 1792 http://constitution.org/je/je4_cong_deb_12.htm
"as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. Where there is an excess of liberty, the effect is the same, tho' from an opposite cause. Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own." James Madison, National Gazette, March 29, 1792 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s23.html
“It is sufficiently obvious, that persons now and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot well be separated. The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right. The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” -James Madison’s SPEECH IN THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.1— December 2, 1829 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1940&chapter=119344&layout=html&Itemid=27
"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe 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; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have generally resulted from those causes." - James Madison's Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution , June 6, 1788 http://www.constitution.org/rc/rat_va_05.htm
“A nation of laws, not of men” [no representative above the Law]
The Foundation of a Free Constitution
"Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, They may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies"
Are and by Right Ought To Be FREE
"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."
The Finer Arts
"The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. 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."
THE CONSTITUTION:
FOR A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (The Works of John Adams, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1851, 4:31)
The General Principles of Christianity
"The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their Address, or by me in my Answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were united: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.
Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System."
"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' Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States 1787
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s15.html
upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
"There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!"
"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."
(From a Letter to Thomas Jefferson)
"He is the best friend to american liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and imorality of every kind, whoever is an avowed enemy of God I scruple not to call him an enemy of his country"
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
"If by supporting the rights of mankind I shall save from agonies of death one unfortunate victim of tyranny or of ignorance equally fatal, his blessings will be sufficient consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind."
"The brief exposition of the Constitution of the united states will unfold to young persons the principles of Republican government and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of the correct republican principles is the Bible particularly the New Testament or the Christian Religion." -A School Textbook
The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.
Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788
"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
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!"
"If
ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace. We
ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands
which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that you were our countrymen."
"The utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods, are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the crown. These ideas are arbitrary,despotic, and, in our government unconstitutional"
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
"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 they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader"
“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can”
“Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty”
“The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man....The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people."
Samuel Adams
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
- to Archibald Stewart Dec 23 1791 - http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=96&division=div1
"It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... 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."
- Draft Kentucky Resolution 1798 - http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/kyres/kydraft.html
"In
questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
- As Used In The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 - http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm
“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” - a letter To Justice William Johnson, June 12, 1823 - http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=270&division=div1
- As Used In The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 - http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm
"I
sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more
dangerous than standing armies; and that 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's Letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816 - http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=308
- Thomas Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816 - http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=308
“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” - a letter To Justice William Johnson, June 12, 1823 - http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=270&division=div1
"a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse or rest on"
-Jefferson's Letter to James Madison Dec 20, 1787 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116913
"a wise and frugal Government, which 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, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." -Jefferson's First Inaugural Address http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres16.html
"an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry" (The Only Necessary Argument Against Utopianists) Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor June 1, 1798 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=805&chapter=87151&layout=html&Itemid=27
" experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and byslow operations, perverted it into tyranny " -Thomas Jefferson, Preamble to a Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge--Fall 1778 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s11.html
Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. -Jefferson's Letter to Peter Carr Aug 10, 1787 http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/jefferson_carr.html
"Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others." - Jefferson's Eighth Annual Message Nov 8, 1808
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29450
" it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations... a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority " -Jefferson's First Inaugural Address 1801 http://www.bartleby.com/268/8/23.html
"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history becomes useful to the American politician." -Jefferson's Letter to John Norvell, June 14, 1807 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116906
"Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." -Jefferson's Letter to Nathaniel Macon Jan 12, 1819 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_To_Nathaniel_Macon,_Monticello,_January_12,_1819
" whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, & that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor war, and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out of the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my brethren into these, rather than separate from them. But I hope we may still keep clear of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, & that time may be given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed through, and to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other form it may be attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from joining in the wish of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire between us & the old world. " -Jefferson's Letter to Elbridge Gerry Philadelphia, May 13, 1797 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl119.php
As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. Epictetus indeed, has given us what was good of the stoics; all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and grimace. -Jefferson's Letter to William Short, October 31, 1819 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl259.php
"I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, a fact like this [the sale of a book] can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offense against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? And are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason." -Jefferson's Letter to Nicolas Gouin Dufief April 19, 1814 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116909
"we may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl245.php
"The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, in perpetuum, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I believe that every State west and South of Connecticut river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time. Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper." -Jefferson's Letter to John Wayles Eppes, June 24, 1813 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl219.php
"I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." Thomas Jefferson to John Adams Jun 10, 1815 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/217.html
"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it."" -Jefferson's Letter to Joseph Milligan April 6, 1816
"Your letters give a comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm it. Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, & I cannot but hope that that triumph, & the consequent disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of events, to kindle the wrath of the people of Europe against those who have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to bring at length, kings, nobles, & priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long deluging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels, tho I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne & potatoes. I have so completely withdrawn myself from these spectacles of usurpation & misrule, that I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month; & I feel myself infinitely the happier for it." -Jefferson's Letter to Tench Coxe May 1, 1794 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl107.php
http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/virginia-statute-religious-freedom
"if we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." -Jefferson's Letter to thomas Cooper Nov 29, 1802
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=147&division=div1
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http://www.notable-quotes.com/j/jefferson_thomas_v.html
As Yet Unconfirmed by source
"I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad."
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
"I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office."
"I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master."
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
"I predict
future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from
wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of
them"
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"If God is just, I tremble for my country."
"If the
present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a
body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose
trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the
hour?"
"If there
is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is
that we should have nothing to do with conquest."
"Ignorance
is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who
believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
"No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it."
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave."
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."
"The
strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government"
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." (The cycle of Civilizations Renewal Seems About 200 years)
"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."
"The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression."
"There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents."
"There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world."
"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
"We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed."
"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government"
"Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival."
“The
strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government.”
every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.""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
"The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution."
- 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
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-Thomas Jefferson [What would Jefferson say today?]
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
- Thomas Jefferson [What would Jefferson say today?]
Attributed
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine"
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not" -has been asserted to have been merely translated by Jefferson
"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 their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." -American Crisis
"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." -Common Sense
"When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary."
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
"The whole purpose of "Defending to the Death your right to say it" is to promote the Battlefield of Ideas (Ink above blood) Plugged ears promote a dangerous ignorance amongst ppls (which may rise blood above ink) You might as well be picnicking in the civil war, have yer spouse killed by shrapnel and tote their corpse around like nothing happened" -Asderathos
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
"Perfect is the enemy of good"
Praphrased- "Perfection is the Enemy of Good Enough"
"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well."
"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil."
"Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal."
"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another."
"In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation."
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,"
spoken by Zara in Act 3, Scene 2. (This is usually paraphrased as "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned")
Quotes Sorted by Age
[Quotes of Antiquity] before 1700
[Quotes of the Founding Age] 1700s to late 1800s
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