Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world
nothing is certain but death and taxes. |
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. |
There was never a good war, or a bad peace. |
In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. |
Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. |
Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Public; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence [printers] cheerfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute. |
The States acceded to the Union. |
We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. |
Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature. |
When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. |
... as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever ... |
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. |
Outside Independence Hall when
the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended,
Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin,
"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded,
"A republic, if you can keep it." |
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. |
Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. |
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. |
Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in
their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of
the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be
looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase,
and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances
will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring
them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing
all your estates among them. |
It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part. |
No man's life, liberty or fortune is safe while our legislature is in session. |
A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. |
