“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776
"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it."
- John Adams, Letter to Abigail, 1775
“We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.”
- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 12, 1777
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Speech to the Pennsylvania Assembly, November 11, 1755
“Timid men...prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, April 24, 1796
“The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasoning, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.”
- Alexander Hamilton, “The Farmer Refuted,” 1775
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”
- Samuel Adams, Article in the Boston Gazette, October 14, 1771
“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.”
- James Madison, Address at the Virginia Convention, June 16, 1788
“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of the day.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to P. S. du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816
“It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.”
- Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America
“I take a deep interest, as a parent and a citizen, in the success of female education, and have been delighted whenever I have been, to witness the attention paid to it.”
- James Monroe, Commenting on Harvard University in “A Narrative of a Tour of Observation,” 1818
“A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, December, 1787
“It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy.”
- George Washington
“The ultimate authority...resides in the people alone...The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition.”
- James Madison
“The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.”
- James Monroe, Second annual message to Congress, November 16, 1818
“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Letter from Silence Dogood, printed in The New England Courant, July 9, 1722
“Pure democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
- James Madison, Federalist 10, 1787
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
- James Madison, Federalist 47, 1788
“I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.”
– George Washington, Letter to Robert Morris, 1786
“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”
– John Jay, Letter to R. Lushington, 1786
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men 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.”
– Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801
