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On the Constitution
"Towards the preservation of your Government and the permanency of your happy state, it is requisite that you resist the spirit of innovation upon its principles however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown." - George Washington
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On Limited Government
"That government is best which governs the least."
"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
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On Government Regulation
"Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic; it is also a truth, that if industry and labor are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened Legislature could point out."
James Madison
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On God and State
"I believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages."
Benjamin Franklin |
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On Manufacturing
"Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of a Country, appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures. Every nation, with a view to those great objects, ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply. These comprise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing and defense."
Alexander Hamilton
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On National Virtue
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
Theodore Roosevelt
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On the American Dream
"That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." - Abraham Lincoln
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On Rights
"The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this Nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good. We believe that all men have the right to freedom of thought and expression. We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. From this faith we will not be moved."
Harry S. Truman |
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On Property Rights
"The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet" and "Thou shalt not steal" were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free." - John Adams |
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On Judicial Interpretation
"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make anything mean everything or nothing, at pleasure."
Thomas Jefferson
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On Education
"Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes by teaching the people themselves to know and value their own rights, to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority, and to discriminate the spirit of Liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first and avoiding the last." - George Washington
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On Maintaining Liberty
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion to their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." - Louis Brandeis
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On Preserving America
"I will go as far as anyone in world service, but the first step in world service is the maintenance of the United States. If the United States fails, the best hopes of mankind fail with it. Strong, generous, and confident, she has nobly served mankind. Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin."
- Henry Cabot Lodge
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