Political Quotations

For America’s 250th anniversary year, on my personal social-media profiles, I’ve enjoyed posting hundreds of great quotations about my libertarian/Constitutional/republican political principles—and I felt-and-thought that I should post these same quotations in my campaign blog, as well, to help my fellow Oremites to better understand my political views, and to help anyone else might find them of value.

“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” – Anonymous

“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.” – Pericles

“Let him who would move the world, first move himself.” – Socrates

“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” – Plato

“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.” – Aristotle

“True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.” – Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus

“The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.” – Gaius Cornelius Tacitus

“An unjust law is no law at all.” – St. Augustine of Hippo

“A man’s house is his castle …” – Edward Coke

“Those who will not be ruled by God will be ruled by tyrants.” – William Penn

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” – John Bradshaw

“Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils.” – Roger Williams

“[G]overnment (to define it de jure, or according to ancient prudence) is an art whereby a civil society of men is instituted and preserved upon the foundation of common right or interest; or, to follow Aristotle and Livy, it is the empire of laws, and not of men. And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.” – James Harrington

“To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man. A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty.” – John Locke

“Children, I confess, are not born in this full state of equality, though they are born to it. Their parents have a sort of rule and jurisdiction over them when they come into the world, and for some time after, but it is but a temporary one. The bonds of this subjection are like the swaddling clothes they are wrapt up in and supported by in the weakness of their infancy. Age and reason as they grow up loosen them, till at length they drop quite off, and leave a man at his own free disposal.” – 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.” – John Locke

“Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.” – John Locke

“The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.” – John Locke

“The end of the law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be where there is no law: and is not, as we are told, a liberty for every man to do what he lists. (For who could be free when every other man’s humour might domineer over him?) But a liberty to dispose, and order as he lists, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be the subject of the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.” – John Locke

“Tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right.” – John Locke

“I have no reason to suppose that he, who would take away my liberty, would not when he had me in his power, take away everything else.” – John Locke

“Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” – John Locke

“When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty. … Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive.” – Montesquieu

“Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go. Is it not strange, though true, to say that virtue itself has need of limits? To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power. A government may be so constituted, as no man shall be compelled to do things to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain from things which the law permits.” – Montesquieu

“Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.” – Montesquieu

“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Montesquieu

“No tyranny is more cruel than the one practiced in the shadow of the laws and under color of justice …” – Montesquieu

“An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.” – Montesquieu

“The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.” – Montesquieu

“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” – Voltaire

“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” – Voltaire

“The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.” – Cesare Beccaria

“Free men have arms; slaves do not.” – William Blackstone

“[I]t is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” – William Blackstone

“Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically: while, by increasing the general mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilized world.” – David Ricardo

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” – Adam Smith

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” – Edmund Burke

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” – Edmund Burke

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” – Edmund Burke

“The rights of the individual should be the primary object of all governments.” – Mercy Otis Warren

“[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.” – Benjamin Rush

“[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” – Benjamin Franklin

“In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution: for when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded, like those of the builders of Babel, and that our states are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another’s throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die.” – Benjamin Franklin

“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” – Benjamin Franklin

“There never was a good war, or a bad peace.” – Benjamin Franklin

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

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all—security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.” – Edward Gibbon

“It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.” – Thomas Paine

“It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.” – Thomas Paine

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” – Thomas Paine

“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” – George Mason

“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for few public officials.” – George Mason

“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

“The militia is our ultimate safety. We can have no security without it. The great object is that every man be armed.” – Patrick Henry

“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” – Patrick Henry

“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

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” – Anonymous

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams

“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 expence 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

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” – Anonymous

“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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” – U.S. Declaration of Independence

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” – U.S. Constitution

“Acts of congress to be binding, must be made pursuant to the constitution; otherwise they are not laws, but a mere nullity; or what is worse, acts of usurpation.” – St. George Tucker

“The right of self defence is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.” – St. George Tucker

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.” – George Washington

“Private property and freedom are inseparable.” – George Washington

“Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” – George Washington

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” – George Washington

“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” – George Washington

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.” – George Washington

“Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. … Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government … The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations to have as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. … It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. … Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.” – George Washington

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” – George Washington

“A standing army in peacetime is the bane of Liberty.” – George Washington

“Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” – George Washington

“My first wish is, to see this plague of mankind banished from the earth, and the sons and daughters of this world employed in more pleasing and innocent amusements, than in preparing implements, and exercising them, for the destruction of mankind.” – George Washington

“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” – Alexander Hamilton

“We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.” – Alexander Hamilton

“The only Constitutional exception to the power of making treaties is, that it shall not change the Constitution; which results from the fundamental maxim, that a delegated authority cannot rightfully transcend the constituting act, unless so expressly authorized by the constituting power.” – Alexander Hamilton

“We recognize no sovereign but God, and no king but Jesus!” – John Adams

“The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.” – John Adams

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

“Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private pleasure, passions and interests, nay their private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in competition with the rights of society.” – John Adams

“Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.” – 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.” – John Adams

“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

“There is nothing I dread so much, as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil, under our Constitution.” – John Adams

“Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the over-throw of tyranny, or in private self-defense.” – John Adams

“Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.” – John Adams

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.” – John Adams

“The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, natural history and naval architecture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, tapestry, and porcelain.” – John Adams

“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present generation, to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.” – John Adams

“We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.” – Abigail Adams

“I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” – Abigail Adams

“I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” – Mary Wollstonecraft

“It may not be amiss, here, Gentlemen, to remind you of the good old rule, that on questions of fact, it is the province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province of the court to decide. But it must be observed that by the same law, which recognizes this reasonable distribution of jurisdiction, you have nevertheless a right to take upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy. On this, and on every other occasion, however, we have no doubt, you will pay that respect, which is due to the opinion of the court: For, as on the one hand, it is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumable, that the court are the best judges of the law. But still both objects are lawfully, within your power of decision.” – John Jay

“The primary function of the independent juror is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical abuses of power by government. The Constitution guarantees you the right to trial by jury. This means that government must bring its case before a jury of The People if government wants to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property. Jurors can say no to government tyranny by refusing to convict.” – Fully Informed Jury Association

“If the general legislature should at any time overleap their limits, the judicial department is a constitutional check. If the United States go beyond their powers, if they make a law which the Constitution does not authorize, it is void; and the judicial power, the national judges, who, to secure their impartiality, are to be made independent, will declare it to be void. If the United States and the individual states quarrel, if they want to fight, they may do it, and no frame of government can possibly prevent it. It is sufficient for this constitution, that, so far from laying them under a necessity of contending, it provides every reasonable check against it. But perhaps, at some time or other, there will be a contest; the states may rise against the general government. If this do take place, if all the states combine, if all oppose, the whole will not eat up the members, but the measure which is opposed to the sense of the people will prove abortive.” – Oliver Ellsworth

“The judicial power does not include a right to change the Constitution.” – John Marshall

“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.” – John Marshall

“That government is best which governs least.” – Anonymous

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” – Thomas Jefferson

“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” – Thomas Jefferson

“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.” – Thomas Jefferson

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But 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 right of an individual.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. 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.” – Thomas Jefferson

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

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Most bad government has grown out of too much government.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The concentrating [of all political power] in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotic government.” – Thomas Jefferson

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the function he is competent to. Let the National Government be entrusted with the defence of the nation and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, laws, police and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.” – Thomas Jefferson

“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.” – Thomas Jefferson

“A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise 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

“‘To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States;’ that is to say, to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare: for the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum, for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless; it would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please.” – Thomas Jefferson

“But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.” – Thomas Jefferson

“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I am for relying for internal defense on our militia solely till actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing army in time of peace which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy which, by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us, will grind us with public burthens and sink us under them.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I never consider a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” – Anonymous

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” – James Madison

“Hence it is that such 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

“… a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people …” – James Madison

“If the government funds the schools, the schools will teach the ideology of the party in power.” – James Madison

“With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” – James Madison

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.” – James Madison

“That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.” – James Madison

“I entirely concur in the propriety of restoring to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is a legitimate constitution. And, if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for consistent and stable government.” – James Madison

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” – James Madison

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” – James Madison

“The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed—unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” – James Madison

“A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.” – James Madison

“In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department.” – James Madison

“The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.” – James Madison

“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” – James Madison

“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; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manner and of morals, engendered in both. No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison

“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” – James Madison

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” – Anonymous

“America goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.” – John Quincy Adams

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” – John Quincy Adams

“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.” – Andrew Jackson

“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed. … No truth is more evident to my mind than that of the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” – Noah Webster

“The Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. … I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable, in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.” – Noah Webster

“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“In New England, every citizen receives the elementary notions of human knowledge; he is moreover taught the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution. In the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“Americans combine to give fêtes, found seminaries, build churches, distribute books, and send missionaries to the antipodes. Hospitals, prisons, and schools take shape in that way. Finally, if they want to proclaim a truth or propagate some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association. In every case, at the head of any new undertaking, where in France you would find the government or in England some territorial magnate, in the United States you are sure to find an association. I have come across several types of association in America of which, I confess, I had not previously the slightest conception, and I have often admired the extreme skill they show in proposing a common object for the exertions of very many and in inducing them voluntarily to pursue it.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that spurs all men to wish to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the lesser to the rank of the greater. But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“Socialism is a new form of slavery.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

“Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.” – Frédéric Bastiat

“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?” – Frédéric Bastiat

“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.” – Frédéric Bastiat

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” – Frédéric Bastiat

“And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.” – Frédéric Bastiat

“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capable, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence. The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its compartments are beautiful, as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order; and its defences are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man may justly aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, the people. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” – Joseph Story

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.” – Joseph Story

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government—lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” – Anonymous

“Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one’s self-sovereignty.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal …” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“Because man and woman are the complement of one another, we need woman’s thought in national affairs to make a safe and stable government.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” – Susan B. Anthony

“It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot.” – Susan B. Anthony

“One-half of the people of this nation to-day are utterly powerless to blot from the statute books an unjust law, or to write there a new and a just one. The women, dissatisfied as they are with this form of government, that enforces taxation without representation, that compels them to obey laws to which they have never given their consent, that imprisons and hangs them without a trial by a jury of their peers, that robs them, in marriage, of the custody of their own persons, wages and children, are this half of the people left wholly at the mercy of the other half, in direct violation of the spirit and letter of the declarations of the framers of this government, every one of which was based on the immutable principle of equal rights to all.” – Susan B. Anthony

“We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their unalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. … The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the constitutions of the several states and the organic laws of the territories, all alike propose to protect the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. Not one of them pretends to bestow rights.” – Susan B. Anthony

“Nothing is hopeless that is right.” – Susan B. Anthony

“A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.” – Lysander Spooner

“The stranger turned away, and seated himself beside a gentleman, who had been listening to the conversation with repressed uneasiness. ‘You must not take that fellow to be any specimen of Southern planters,’ said he. ‘I should hope not,’ said the young gentleman, with emphasis. ‘He is a mean, low, brutal fellow!’ said the other. ‘And yet your laws allow him to hold any number of human beings subject to his absolute will, without even a shadow of protection; and, low as he is, you cannot say that there are not many such.’ ‘Well,’ said the other, ‘there are also many considerate and humane men among planters.’ ‘Granted,’ said the young man; ‘but, in my opinion, it is you considerate, humane men, that are responsible for all the brutality and outrage wrought by these wretches; because, if it were not for your sanction and influence, the whole system could not keep foothold for an hour. If there were no planters except such as that one,’ said he, pointing with his finger to Legree, who stood with his back to them, ‘the whole thing would go down like a millstone. It is your respectability and humanity that licenses and protects his brutality.’” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” – Harriet Tubman

“I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.” – Harriett Tubman

“I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.” – Frederick Douglass

“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.” – Frederick Douglass

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” – Frederick Douglass

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” – Anonymous

“The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those … who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. … I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.” – Franklin Pierce

“I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other man’s rights.” – Abraham Lincoln

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The people … are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts—not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it …” – Abraham Lincoln

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.” – Abraham Lincoln

“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.” – Abraham Lincoln

“It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you [cadets] a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!” – William Tecumseh Sherman

“War is merely the continuation of policy by other means.” – Carl von Clausewitz

“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.” – James Garfield

“Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters.” – Grover Cleveland

“Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of rule.” – Grover Cleveland

“I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan, as proposed by this bill, to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose. I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people.” – Grover Cleveland

“All socialism involves slavery.” – Herbert Spencer

“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.” – Herbert Spencer

“One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.” – Thomas B. Reed

“It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.” – Henry George

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.” – John Stuart Mill

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs.” – John Stuart Mill

“A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body.” – John Stuart Mill

“A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes—will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.” – John Stuart Mill

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.” – John Basil Barnhill

“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.” – Lord Acton

“Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself, and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.” – Chief Joseph

“I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do.” – Chief Joseph

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” – Mark Twain

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” – Mark Twain

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Of two evils, choose neither.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” – G. K. Chesterton

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” – William J. H. Boetcker

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Anonymous

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.” – Will Durant

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.” – Learned Hand

“War is the health of the state.” – Randolph Bourne

“Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.” – Calvin Coolidge

“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.” – Calvin Coolidge

“The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.” – C. S. Lewis

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis

“Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own. The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional do-gooders, who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others—with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means.” – Henry Grady Weaver

“Any attempt to give to government the responsibilities which properly belong to the individual citizens works at cross-purposes to the advancement of personal freedom. It retards progress—morally as well as along the lines of greater productivity.” – Henry Grady Weaver

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” – Albert Einstein

“Force always attracts men of low morality.” – Albert Einstein

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” – Albert Einstein

“There is no income tax in Russia. But there’s no income.” – Will Rogers

“Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.” – Will Rogers

“There is no credit to being a comedian, when you have the whole Government working for you. All you have to do is report the facts. I don’t even have to exaggerate.” – Will Rogers

“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” – Will Rogers

“We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.” – Will Rogers

“This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it.” – Will Rogers

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx

“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” – Aldous Huxley

“The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.” – George Orwell

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” – George Orwell

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Winston Churchill

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill

“We would not accept the yoke of Christ; so now we must tremble at the yoke of Caesar.” – Fulton J. Sheen

“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” – Martin Niemöller

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Anonymous

“Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“In matters of conscience the law of majority has no place.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. … Freedom and slavery are mental states. Therefore, the first thing to say to yourself: ‘I shall no longer accept the role of a slave. I shall not obey orders as such but shall disobey them when they are in conflict with my conscience.’” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Civil disobedience therefore becomes a sacred duty when the State has become lawless, or which is the same thing, corrupt.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” – Edward R. Murrow

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” – Anonymous

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.” – Elmer T. Peterson

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” – Anonymous

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).” – Ayn Rand

“The government was set to protect man from criminals—and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.” – Ayn Rand

“It is a free market that makes monopolies impossible.” – Ayn Rand

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.” – Ayn Rand

“I am interested in politics so that one day I will not have to be interested in politics.” – Ayn Rand

“In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.” – Ayn Rand

“The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.” – Ayn Rand

“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.” – Ayn Rand

“The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau. What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight!” – Ludwig von Mises

“Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments.” – Ludwig Von Mises

“‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded.” – Friedrich Hayek

“[S]ince men’s actions, given freedom to express their choices, are determined by their inner convictions and values, compulsory moral rules only serve to manufacture hypocrites and not to advance genuine morality. Coercion only forces people to change their actions; it does not persuade people to change their underlying values and convictions. And since those already convinced of the moral rules would abide by them without coercion, the only real impact of compulsory morality is to engender hypocrites, those whose actions no longer reflect their inner convictions.” – Murray Rothbard

“No one may threaten or commit violence (‘aggress’) against another man’s person or property.” – Murray Rothbard

“Businessmen or manufacturers can either be genuine free enterprisers or statists; they can either make their way on the free market or seek special government favors and privileges. They choose according to their individual preferences and values. But bankers are inherently inclined toward statism. Commercial bankers, engaged as they are in unsound fractional reserve credit, are, in the free market, always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Hence they are always reaching for government aid and bailout. Investment bankers do much of their business underwriting government bonds, in the United States and abroad. Therefore, they have a vested interest in promoting deficits and in forcing taxpayers to redeem government debt. Both sets of bankers, then, tend to be tied in with government policy, and try to influence and control government actions in domestic and foreign affairs.” – Murray Rothbard

“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” – Albert Camus

“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” – Robert A. Heinlein

“An armed society is a polite society.” – Robert A. Heinlein
 
“Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.” – Robert A. Heinlein

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” – Noam Chomsky

“This morning I would like to use as a subject from which to preach: ‘The American Dream.’ It wouldn’t take us long to discover the substance of that dream. It is found in those majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, words lifted to cosmic proportions: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ This is a dream. It’s a great dream. The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn’t say ‘some men,’ it says ‘all men.’ It doesn’t say ‘all white men,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes black men. It does not say ‘all Gentiles,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes Jews. It doesn’t say ‘all Protestants,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes Catholics. It doesn’t even say ‘all theists and believers,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes humanists and agnostics. Then that dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state. In order to discover where they came from, it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity. They are God-given, gifts from His hands. Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us, and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day, that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“When you’re right, you can’t be too radical.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” – Barry Goldwater

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ ‘interests,’ I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.” – Barry Goldwater

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” – Gerald Ford

“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream—the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order—or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.” – Ronald Reagan

“Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.’” – Ronald Reagan

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” – Ronald Reagan

“The family is the basic unit of our society, the heart of our free democracy. It provides love, acceptance, guidance, support, and instruction to the individual. Community values and goals that give America strength also take root in the home. In times of change and challenge, families keep safe our cultural heritage and reinforce our spiritual foundation.” – Ronald Reagan

“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” – Ronald Reagan

“The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor.” – Ronald Reagan

“Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” – Ronald Reagan

“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.” – Ronald Reagan

“The ten most dangerous words in the English language are ‘Hi, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” – Ronald Reagan

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” – Ronald Reagan

“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.” – Ronald Reagan

“Millions of individuals making their own decisions in the marketplace will always allocate resources better than any centralized government planning process.” – Ronald Reagan

“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.” – Ronald Reagan

“As government expands, liberty contracts.” – Ronald Reagan

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!” – Ronald Reagan

“Man is not free unless government is limited.” – Ronald Reagan

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. … The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.” – Ronald Reagan

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.” – Ronald Reagan

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.” – Ronald Reagan

“Freedom isn’t free.” – Anonymous

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” – Anonymous

“I want to use all my strength to resist the notion that I can run your lives or run the economy or run the world. I want to use that strength to repeal and reject that notion and stand up and defend the principles of liberty.” – Ron Paul

“The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence. All initiation of force is a violation of someone else’s rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it’s supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals. Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.” – Ron Paul

“Rights come from God, not from government.” – Ron Paul

“I will always vote what I have promised, and always vote the Constitution.” – Ron Paul

“Setting a good example is a better way to spread ideals than force of arms.” – Ron Paul

“If another country does to us what we do to others, we’re not going to like it very much. So I would say that maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy: Don’t do to other nations what we don’t want them to do to us.” – Ron Paul

“I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.” – Ron Paul

“Every nation ultimately makes its choice between Cato and Caesar.” – J. Rufus Fears

“Don’t listen to what stuffy people in Washington and New York tell you. If the majority of people vote for a candidate, I think that makes them electable.” – Jack Handey

“The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.” – Mark Skousen

“Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others.” – David Boaz

“I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.” – Harry Browne

“The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.” – Harry Browne

“The problem isn’t the abuse of power, it’s the power to abuse—that whenever you give good politicians the power to do good, you automatically give future politicians the power to do bad. When you give people the power to run other people’s lives, you attract the worst elements of society—who use that power for their own purposes.” – Harry Browne

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” – Frank Herbert

“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.” – David Brin

“How many kings have abdicated their thrones after becoming convinced that monarchy did not truly serve the downtrodden masses? Will politicians cede power after social scientists document how their favorite programs do more harm than good?” – James Bovard

“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” – P. J. O’Rourke

“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.” – P. J. O’Rourke

“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.” – P. J. O’Rourke

“It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights—the ‘right’ to education, the ‘right’ to health care, the ‘right’ to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery—hay and a barn for human cattle.” – P. J. O’Rourke

“If taking 100% of the labor and earnings of an individual is slavery, at what percentage is it not slavery?” – Anonymous

“We are living in a sick society filled with people who would not directly steal from their neighbor but who are willing to demand that the government do it for them.” – William L. Comer

“Politicians never accuse you of ‘greed’ for wanting other people’s money—only for wanting to keep your own money.” – Joseph Sobran

“In 100 years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high schools to teaching remedial English in college.” – Joseph Sobran

“If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate. If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist.” – Joseph Sobran

“We have a One Big Government Party system. It has a Republican wing that likes war and deficits and assaults on civil liberties and a Democratic wing that likes welfare and taxes and attacks on commercial liberties. It doesn’t care about your freedoms because in exercising them you are an obstacle to its power. And it will do anything to stay in power.” – Andrew Napolitano

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Anonymous

This treasury originated from my desire to maintain a convenient reference from which I could quickly copy-and-paste quotations that I frequently cited in social-media conversations. If you notice any that have been misattributed, or if you know any that I should consider including, then I warmly welcome such feedback. In any case, happy America250, and let’s work together toward an amazing tricentennial!