I had a couple folks suggest I post two sections of my last book. So here goes for the first one…

Here are the Founding Father quotes that I feel apply to our country today.

Big Government / The Fed / Taxes –

• • “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

  • “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” – Thomas Paine

  • “Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” – Thomas Paine

  • “If ever again our nation stumbles upon unfunded paper, it shall surely be like death to our body politic. This country will crash.” – George Washington

  • “Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” – Thomas Jefferson

  • “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.” – Thomas Jefferson

  • “There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” – John Adams

  • “No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent.” – John Jay

We the People

• • “The people are the only legitimate fountain of power.” – James Madison

Resistance to Oppression & Tyranny

• “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.” – Thomas Jefferson

• “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” – Benjamin Franklin

• “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson

• “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated 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 sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” – Samuel Adams

• “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

Fake People & False Patriotism & Political Parties

• “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” – George Washington

• “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” – George Washington

Type of Americans the Country was Made For

• “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” – Benjamin Franklin

• “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams

Ruling by the Elites & Tyranny

• “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.” – Thomas Jefferson

• “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

Rights/Liberties/Freedoms

• “A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” – John Adams

• “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

A Standing Army

• “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

• “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty,…the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.” – James Madison

• “[A professional army was] always dangerous to the Liberties of the People.” – Samuel Adams

• “A standing army is one of the greatest mischiefs that can possibly happen.” – James Madison

• “Standing armies are dangerous to liberty.” – Alexander Hamilton

• “No man has a greater regard for the military gentlemen than I have. I admire their intrepidity, perseverance, and valor. But when once a standing army is established in any country, the people lose their liberty. What havoc, desolation, and destruction, have been perpetrated by standing armies!” – George Mason

2nd Amendment

• “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” – Thomas Jefferson

Militias

• “Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” – Richard Henry Lee

• “What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.” –Elbridge Gerry

 

---

Related Articles –

• New Book Available…The Wars

---

Q & A Time…Ask me a question or send me a message…

 

 

 2009 - 2024 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed.
See Content Use Policy for more information.</p