Founder's Quote Database | The Patriot Post

Founders' Quote Database

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James Madison

Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 — 1787

Whilst the last members were signing it Doctr. Franklin looking towards the Presidents chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun.

Benjamin Rush

on the ratification of the Constitution, letter to Boudinot — 1788

'Tis done. We have become a nation.

Colonel Joseph Reed

to Mr. Pettit — 1775

I have no notion of being hanged for half treason. When a subject draws his sword against his prince, he must cut his way through, if he means afterward to sit down in safety.

Rhode Island Delegate Stephen Hopkins

at the signing of the Declaration of Independence — 1776

My hand trembles, but my heart does not.

George Washington

letter to George Chapman — 1784

The best means of forming a manly, virtuous, and happy people will be found in the right education of youth. Without this foundation, every other means, in my opinion, must fail.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to Francis Willis Jr. — 1790

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my family.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to John Melish — 1813
Category: Political Leaders

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens....There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends & books.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to Hugh P. Taylor — 1823

It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.

George Washington

letter to Francis Van der Kamp — 1788

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

George Washington

letter to Pierre Auguste Adet — 1796

My anxious recollections, my sympathetic feeling, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.

George Washington

letter to Alexander Hamilton — 1796

The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.

George Washington

letter to Marquis de Lafayette — 1779

The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.

George Washington

Circular to the States — 1753
Category: Power

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

The Declaration of Independence — 1776

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

James Madison

esssay in the National Gazette — 1792
Category: Power

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.

George Washington

letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham — 1790
Category: The Presidency

All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to Charles Yancey — 1816
Category: The Press

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko — 1802
Category: The Press

Newspapers...serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to George Washington — 1792
Category: The Press

No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.

George Washington

letter to Benedict Arnold — 1775
Category: Public Service

Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.

George Washington

First Inaugural Address — 1789
Category: Public Service

I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.

Nathan Hale

remark to Captain William Hull, who had attempted to dissuade him from volunteering for a spy mission for General Washington — 1776
Category: Public Service

I am not influenced by the expectation of promotion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary for the public good, become honorable by being necessary.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to James Smith — 1822
Category: Truth

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.

John Jay

Federalist No. 2 — 1787
Category: The People

To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a nation we have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished our common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with foreign states.

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 9 — 1787
Category: Republican Government

The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election... They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences of republican govenrment may be retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided.

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