Famous Quotes

"If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power of money should be taken from banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies."

~ Thomas Jefferson

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.

--Theodore Roosevelt  

WHAT SAITH MEN OF OLD? (Some food for thought for those of us who have grown weak and fearful, reliant upon gov't handouts, unwilling to remove the shackles that bind us and willing to let our children become slaves because we were not courageous enough to change those things that are wrong.)

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

- James Madison, while a United States Congressman

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there be pains taken to bring it to light.

- "George Washington

"We meet," it said, "in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin....Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench.....The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced....The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few." - The founding convention of the People's Party – better known as the "Populists" (1892).

Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The people are the masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who would pervert it!"

Abraham Lincoln

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that government long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown 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."

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

Daniel Webster

"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves."

Thomas Jefferson

"Power is the great evil with which we are contending. We have divided power between three branches of government and erected checks and balances to prevent abuse of power. However, where is the check on the power of the judiciary? If we fail to check the power of the judiciary, I predict that we will eventually live under judicial tyranny."

Patrick Henry

"It is a precedent fraught with danger for the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it and no security for the people... ... the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred and rigidly observed in all its provisions." --

Colonial member of the U.S. Congress 1827-31 & 1832-35

David Crockett, AKA Davvy Crockett

"The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected."

- William O. Douglas

"Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it."

George Washington , Farewell Address

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

William O Douglas

"The right of self-defense 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 when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."

 - Henry St. George Tucker, in Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England."

"Now what liberty can there be where property is taken away without consent?"

Samuel Adams (Nov 20, 1772)

"Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist."

John Adams ("Discourses on Davila," 1790)

"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, "A Defense of the American Constitutions," 1787

Jefferson wrote "The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management." To which he added - the defense of private property is the standard by which "every provision" of law, past and present, shall be judged.

(Bergh, Albert Ellery, ed. "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 2d ed. rev." Washington Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1907, p. 1532.

"In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence [i.e., property] amounts to a power over his will."

"The Federalist", No. 79, by Alexander Hamilton

"Each of us has a natural right to defend his person, his liberty, and his property."

Frederic Bastiat

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