Favorite Founding Father/American Revolutionary Quotes

[Agit8r]

Just wonder what some of y'all's fave quotes from the people that helped found the U.S.

i'll start:

"That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other."

-- James Madison; Amendment to the Bill of Rights of Virginia (1776)

 

[Agit8r]

"I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable, but the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind"

-- Thomas Jeffrson; letter to James Madison (October 28, 178)

 

[Bullfighter]

"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon,
but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

Captain John Parker​

 

[Agit8r]

"I have always believed that the best security for property, be it much or little, is to remove from every part of the community, as far as can possibly be done, every cause of complaint, and every motive to violence"

-- Thomas Paine; from Dissertations on First Principles of Government (1795)

 

[Big Black Dog]

"Fuck 'em and feed 'em hot dogs!" - General George Washington, Valley Forge, Pa on December 7, 1777

 

[Agit8r]

"if my Countrymen should ever wish for the Honour of having among them a Gentry enormously wealthy, let them sell their Farms and pay rack'd Rents; the Scale of the Landlords will rise as that of the Tenants is depress'd who will soon become poor, tattered, dirty, and abject in Spirit. Had I never been in the American Colonies, but was to form my Judgment of Civil Society by what I have lately seen (in Ireland and Scotland), I should never advise a Nation of Savages to admit of Civilisation: For I assure you, that in the Possession and Enjoyment of the various Comforts of Life, compar'd to these People every Indian is a Gentleman: And the Effect of this kind of Civil Society seems only to be, the depressing Multitudes below the Savage State that a few may be rais'd above it"

-- Benjamin Franklin; letter to Joshua Babcock (Jan. 13. 1772)

 

[DiamondDave]

Give me liberty, or give me death

 

[loosecannon]

Mr. President

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

~ Ben Franklin addressing the constitutional convention Monday, September 17, 1787

 

[CrusaderFrank]

"King George can suck my fucking cock!" -- Sam Adams after overindulging in taste testing his first every Oktoberfest beer.

 

[Agit8r]

"Being myself a warm zealot for the attainment & enjoiment by all mankind of as much liberty, as each may exercise without injury to the equal liberty of his fellow citizens, I have lamented that in France the endeavours to obtain this should have been attended with the effusion of so much blood. I was intimate with the leading characters of the year 1789. So I was with those of the Brissotine party who succeeded them: & have always been persuaded that their views were upright"

-- Thomas Jefferson; letter to Jean Nicolas Demeunier (Apr. 29, 1795)

 

[Agit8r]

"Like my friend the Doctor [Benjamin Rush], I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet." -- Thomas Jefferson; Letter to Dr. Vine Utley (1819)

 

[Agit8r]

"Cruelty to brute animals is another means of destroying moral sensibility. The ferocity of savages has been ascribed in part to their peculiar mode of subsistence. Mr. Hogarth points out, in his ingenious prints, the connection between cruelty to brute animals in youth, and murder in manhood... I am so perfectly satisfied of the truth of a connection between morals and humanity to brutes, that I shall find it difficult to restrain my idolatry for that legislature, that shall first establish a system of laws, to defend them from outrage and oppression."

-- Benjamin Rush; from An inquiry into the influence of physical causes upon the moral faculty

 

[Agit8r]

"every thing of persecution and revenge between man and man, and every thing of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty"

-- Thomas Paine, from Age of Reason

 

[Agit8r]

"All the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce and agriculture where it would have produced addition to the common mass... It nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness instead of industry and morality"

--Thomas Jefferson; letter to George Washington (1792)

 

[Agit8r]

"Too many of these stock-jobbers and king-jobbers have come into our legislature, or rather too many of our legislature have become stock-jobbers and king-jobbers."

-- Jefferson; letter to Marquis de Lafayette, (16 Jun 1792)

 

[Agit8r]

"I hope this will give some check to the rage of destroying trees that grow near houses, which has accompanied our late improvements in gardening, from an opinion of their being unwholesome. I am certain, from long observation, that there is nothing unhealthy in the air of woods; for we Americans have every where our country habitations in the midst of woods, and no people on earth enjoy better health, or are more prolific."

-- Benjamin Franklin; letter to Joseph Priestly (1772)

 

[Agit8r]

"I have a strong attachment for the French Republic, more especially because they have founded their Constitution on principles similar to our own, and upon which alone, I think, free and lawful governments must be founded."

--Samuel Adams, letter to George Clinton December 24th, 1793

 

[Agit8r]

"The aristocracy... are the mere consumers of the rent; and when compared with the active world, are the drones, a seraglio of males, who neither collect the honey nor form the hive, but exist only for lazy enjoyment"

-- Thomas Paine; from 'The Rights of Man" (1791)

 

[Agit8r]

"Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an incontestible unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it"

-- from Constitution of Massachusetts (1780)

 

[Agit8r]

"I have said essential principles, because I conceive that without Liberty and Equality, there cannot exist that tranquility of mind, which results from the assurance of every citizen, that his own personal safety and rights are secure... Indeed I cannot but be of opinion, that when those principles shall be rightly understood and universally established, the whole family and brotherhood of man will then nearly approach to, if not fully enjoy that state of peace and prosperity, which ancient Prophets and Sages have foretold."

-- Samuel Adams, to the legislature of Massachusetts (January 17, 1794)