Quotes by Our Founding Fathers...

Quotes by Our Founding Fathers

"It should be the highest ambition of every American
to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind
that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country,
and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be
co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness
or misery on ages yet unborn."
- George Washington, letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania,
September 5, 1789
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"Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country."
- George Washington, letter to Benedict Arnold,
September 14, 1775
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"We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should
ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything
partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free,
fair, virtuous, and independent elections."
- John Adams, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1797
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"Liberty must at all hazards be supported.
We have a right to it, derived from our Maker.
But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought
it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates,
their pleasure, and their blood."
- John Adams, 'A Dissertation on the Canon and
Feudal Law', 1765
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"All men having power ought to be distrusted to
a certain degree."
- James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention,
July 11, 1787
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"Conscience is the most sacred of all property."
- James Madison, 'Essay on Property',
March 29, 1792
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"Here sir, the people govern."
- Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York
Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788
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"Every government degenerates when trusted
to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves,
therefore, are its only safe depositories."
- Thomas Jefferson, 'Notes on the State of Virginia,
Query 14', 1781
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"Harmony in the married state is the very first
object to be aimed at."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mary Jefferson Eppes,
January 7, 1798
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"He that would make his own liberty secure,
must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if
he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent
that will reach to himself."
- Thomas Paine, 'Dissertation on First Principles of
Government', December 23, 1791
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"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can
gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.
'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose
heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct,
will pursue his principles unto death."
- Thomas Paine, 'The American Crisis, No. 1',
December 19, 1776
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"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day,
that my child may have peace."
- Thomas Paine, 'The American Crisis, No. 1',
December 19, 1776
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"Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy."
- Benjamin Franklin, letter to John Alleyne,
August 9, 1768
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"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage,
half shut afterwards."
- Benjamin Franklin,
'Poor Richard's Almanack', 1738
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"Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy,
wealthy, and wise."
- Benjamin Franklin,
'Advice to a Young Tradesman', 1748