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

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

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 and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Thomas Jefferson

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Thomas Jefferson

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas Jefferson

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas Jefferson

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
Thomas Jefferson

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

Never spend your money before you have earned it.
Thomas Jefferson

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
Thomas Jefferson

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
Thomas Jefferson

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 rights of the individual.
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?
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

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

"From the moment that to preserve our rights a change of government became necessary, no doubt could be entertained that a republican form was most consonant with reason, with right, with the freedom of man, and with the character and situation of our fellow citizens."
Thomas Jefferson

"[To establish republican government, it is necessary to] effect a constitution in which the will of the nation shall have an organized control over the actions of its government, and its citizens a regular protection against its oppressions."
Thomas Jefferson

"The principles of government... [are] founded in the rights of man."
Thomas Jefferson

"The equality among our citizens [is] essential to the maintenance of republican government."
Thomas Jefferson:

'In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former because they are everything; in the latter because they are nothing.'"
Thomas Jefferson

"I conscientiously believe that governments founded in [republican principles] are more friendly to the happiness of the people at large, and especially of a people so capable of self-government as ours."
Thomas Jefferson

"It is, indeed, of little consequence who governs us, if they sincerely and zealously cherish the principles of union and republicanism."
Thomas Jefferson

If we were directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we would soon want for bread.
Thomas Jefferson



Thomas Jefferson:
Wrote the origional draft to the Declaration of Independance
Delegate to the Continental Congress
Virginia House of Delegates
Established Democratic-Republican party
State Legeslator of Virginia
Govener of Virginia
Minister to France
1st US Secretary of State
Vice President of the united States.
3rd President of the United States of America
Established University of Virginia

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.
Benjamin Franklin

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means - either may do - the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.
Benjamin Franklin

God helps those who help themselves.
Benjamin Franklin

Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin

Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
Benjamin Franklin

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.
Benjamin Franklin

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.
Benjamin Franklin

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
Benjamin Franklin

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
Benjamin Franklin

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
Benjamin Franklin

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.
Benjamin Franklin

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
Benjamin Franklin

Mine is better than ours.
Benjamin Franklin

No nation was ever ruined by trade.
Benjamin Franklin

Observe all men, thyself most.
Benjamin Franklin

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.
Benjamin Franklin



Benjamin Franklin:
Founded the Library Company of Philadelphia
Founded Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia
Elected to the Continental Congress
Help Draft The Declaration Of Independance
Postmaster of Philadelphia
U.S. Postmaster General
Ambassador to France
President of Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery
Senior member of the Constitutional Convention
Member of Pennsylvania Assembly
Speaker of the Pennslvania Assembly
Govener of Pennsylvania

It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.
Alexander Hamilton

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
Alexander Hamilton

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.
Alexander Hamilton

In the main it will be found that a power over a man's support (salary) is a power over his will
Alexander Hamilton

You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.
Alexander Hamilton

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense.
Alexander Hamilton

Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.
Alexander Hamilton



Alexander Hamilton:
Delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation
Delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation
Delegate from New York to the Constitutional Convention
Largest Contrbutor to the Federalis Papers
Helped Found the U.S. Mint
Leutinant Colonel in the Continental Army
Major Major General in the U.S. Army
1st United States Secretary of the Treasury

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
James Madison

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
James Madison

All men having power ought to be mistrusted.
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

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
James Madison

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.
James Madison

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
James Madison

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
James Madison

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.
James Madison

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.
James Madison

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
James Madison

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
James Madison



James Madison:
Author of the Bill of Rights
Elected to the Virginia State Legeslature
Elected to the House of Reoresenatives
5th United States Secretary of State
4th President of the United States
Father of the Constitution
Wrote 1/3 of The Federalist Papers

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

Those who own the country ought to govern it.
John Jay

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
John Jay

"Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Christian dispensation"
John Jay



John Jay:
Delagate to the First and Second Continental Congress
Served on the committee of correspondence
Served on the committee to detect and defeat conspiracies
Appointed Minister to Spain
Served in the NY Provential Congress
First Cheif Justice of the NY Supreme Court
President of the Continental Congress
Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Co Author of the Federalist Papers
Governor of New York
1st Chief Justice of the United States

"Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
George Washington

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."
George Washington

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."
George Washington

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."
George Washington

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
George Washington

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.
George Washington

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.
George Washington

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
George Washington

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.
George Washington

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

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
George Washington

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.
George Washington

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
George Washington

Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.
George Washington

The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.
George Washington



George Washington:
Colonel in the British Army
Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army
1st President of the United States

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.
John Adams

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
John Adams

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
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

Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
John Adams

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John Adams

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
John Adams

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Adams

Fear is the foundation of most governments.
John Adams

I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
John Adams

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
John Adams

The happiness of society is the end of government.
John Adams

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.
John Adams

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
John Adams

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
John Adams



John Adams:
Helped Draft The Declaration of IndependenceDelegate to the First Continental Congress
Delegate to the Second Continental Congress
United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
United States Ambassador to Great Britain
1st Vice President of the United States
2nd President of the United States

I wander what these guys would have thought about socialized medicine/welfare/social security/medicare/medicaid/ redistribution of wealth etc etc...

Wooohhoooooo!!!!

__________________
.

"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

--Murray Rothbard

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinny. A liberal is just a libertarian who hasn't studied economics.

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