"If we can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking
care of them, they must become happy." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas
Cooper, 1802
"I think we have more
machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the
labor of the industrious." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Ludlow,
1824
"The example of changing a constitution by assembling the wise men of the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we had give
them. The constitution, too, which was the result of our deliberation, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to men." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to David Humphreys, 1789
"In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Jean Nicolas DÈmeunier, 1795 "Laws for the liberal education of the youth, especially of the lower class of the people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant." --John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
"[T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them."
--Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
"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, letter to William Johnson, 1823
"The consciousness of having discharged that duty which we owe to our country is superior to all other
considerations." --George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1788
"A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species." --James Madison, Essay on Property, 1792
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson said...
"A wise and frugal government," Thomas Jefferson declared in his first inaugural address in 1801, "which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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."
"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I predict future happiness for Americans I if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
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.
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.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed) A people free to choose will always choose peace.
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)
Ronald Reagan
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
Ronald Reagan
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Ronald Reagan
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Ronald Reagan
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Ronald Reagan
Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
Ronald Reagan
Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.
Ronald Reagan
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
Ronald Reagan
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Ronald Reagan
Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
Ronald Reagan
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
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