WORDS OF THE FOUNDERS
Samuel Adams
"...it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds..."
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Thomas Paine
"Any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain tends directly to involve this Continent in European wars and quarrels, and sets us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint... It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions."
John Locke
"Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has
any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work
of his hands are properly his."
George Washington
"While you are quarreling among yourselves in Europe; while one King is running mad and others acting as if they were already so, by cutting the throats of the subjects of their neighbors, I think you need not doubt, my dear Marquis Lafayette, we shall continue in tranquility here."
"It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world. The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like
fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
Patrick Henry
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no other way of judging the future but by the past."
"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!"
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
Alexander Fraser Tytler
"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a Dictatorship."
Alexander Hamilton
"Our real disease -- which is Democracy."
John Adams
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts,
and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did
not commit suicide."
"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses...."
Benjamin Franklin
"Well, Doctor, what have we got: a Republic or a Monarchy?
A Republic, if you can keep it."- Constitutional Convention
James Madison
"Equal laws protecting equal rights ... the best guarantee of
loyalty & love of country."BR>
Thomas Jefferson
"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest � which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves."
"...in each generation, there comes a time when the tree of liberty must be watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants..."
"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
"It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all."
"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him."
"It rests now with ourselves alone to enjoy in peace and concord the blessings of self-government, so long denied to mankind: to show by example the sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs and that the will of the majority, the Natural law of every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man."
Supreme Court: "You seem ... to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all Constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. ... Their power [is] the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and
not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal,
knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions
of time and party, its members would become despots."
Foreign Wars: "The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead."
"Our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe; our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle in cisatlantic affairs."
Thomas Jefferson copied into his book of favorite quotes an observation by Cesare Beccaria, the founder of the science of criminology: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
This is a powerful argument against the government exercising powers (Social Security/Nationlized Health Care) not given to it:
"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as
laid on this ground: that all powers not delegated
to the United States, by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the states, are rescued to
the states, or to the people, (10th amend.) To
take a single step beyond the boundaries thus
specially drawn around the powers of Congress,
is to take possession of a boundless field of
power, no longer susceptible of any definition...
"...the Constitution allows
only the means which are "necessary," not those
which are merely "convenient," for effecting the
enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction
be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated
power, it will go to every one; for there is no one
which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience,
in some way or other, to some one of so long a list
of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the
delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase,
as before observed. Therefore it was that the
Constitution restrained them to the necessary
means; that is to say, to those means without
which the grant of the power would be nugatory."
----- February 15, 1791. THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Other Worthy Thoughts
Adolph Hitler, 1933
"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a
civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets
will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will
follow our lead into the future!"
Pastor Martin Niemoller
"When Hitler came for the Jews... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church � and there was nobody left to be concerned."
Thomas Jefferson
"Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government."
Abraham Lincoln
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own so much of the territory as they inhabit."
Jefferson Davis, President, Confederate States
"Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations, illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established."
Abraham Lincoln
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
Winston Churchill
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
Thomas Hobbes
"A democracy is no more than an aristocracy of orators. The
people are so readily moved by demagogues that control must
be exercised by the government over speech and press."
Ayn Rand
"Volumes can be and have been written about the issue of freedom versus dictatorship, but, in essence, it comes down to a single question: do you consider it moral to treat men as sacrificial animals and to rule them by physical force?"
The Dalai Lama, the new millenium
"INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE
1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
Respect for self
Respect for others
Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone in silence every day.
9. Open your arms to change but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
"Mr. President, 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 siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it...
"...They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 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, March 23, 1775