Famous Quotes

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795

"My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask who authorized them (the framers of the Constitution) to speak the language of 'We, the People,' instead of 'We, the States?'"

-- Patrick Henry, 1788 (Orations of American Orators)

"As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from the womb and long gestation of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."

-- W. E. Gladstone

"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

"I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise."

--Benjamin Franklin, 1787

"The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please."

--Thomas Jefferson

"My movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to his place of execution."

-- George Washington, 1787

Thomas Jefferson on leaving the presidency (1809): "Never did a prisoner released from his chains feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power."


"No man who ever held the office of President would congratulate a friend on obtaining it."

--John Adams

John Adams on religiosity: "Neither philosophy, nor religion, nor morality" can govern people "against their vanity, their pride, their resentment, or revenge"; "Nothing but force and power and strength can restrain them."

"Let our government be like that of the solar system. Let the general government be like the sun and the states the planets, repelled yet attracted, and the whole moving regularly and harmoniously in several orbits."

-- John Dickinson (Delaware Delegate), 1787

"Slavery discourages arts and manufacturing ...[and] every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant."

-- George Mason (Virginia Delegate), 1787

"I am exceedingly distressed at the proceedings of the Convention -- being ... almost sure, they will ... lay the foundation of a Civil War."

-- Elbridge Gerry (Massachusetts Delegate), 1787

"We have seen the mere distinction of color made, in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man."

-- James Madison, 1787

"The situation of the general government, if it can be called a government, is shaken to its foundation, and liable to be overturned by every blast."

-- George Washington letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1787

"The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish Government presupposes the duty of every Individual to obey the established Government."

-- George Washington (Farewell Address, September 19, 1796)

"I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a league or treaty and a constitution."

-- James Madison, at the Constitutional Convention, 1787

"If the General Government should be left dependent on the State Legislatures, it would be happy for us if we had never met in this room."

-- John Dickinson, at the Constitutional Convention, 1787

The situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth."

-- Benjamin Franklin, at the Constitutional Convention, 1787

"Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." ~ James Baldwin

"I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible." ~ Milton Freidman

"No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country". ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

 "Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their patriotism through their actions, by their choice... No law will make a citizen a patriot." ~ Jesse Ventura

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

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy." ~ George Washington

"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 totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course." ~ Ronald Regean

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love... I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." ~ John F Kennedy

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." ~ John Adams

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." ~ Jimmy Carter

"Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give." ~ David O. McKay

"Speak softly and carry a big stick." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood... I have a dream that my four little 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. I have a dream today..." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Eternal vigilance must be maintained to guard against those who seek to stifle ideas, establish a narrow orthodoxy, and divide our nation along arbitrary lines of race, ethnicity, and religious belief or non-belief." ~ Jesse Ventura

"I have not yet begun to fight!" ~ John Paul Jones

"A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind." ~ John Maynard Keynes

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." ~ Thomas Jefferson