Founders’ Quotes

During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.

The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.

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

The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society.

A good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political.

This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.

As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall see the Senate has no similitude to nobles.

Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be.

To prevent crimes, is the noblest end and aim of criminal jurisprudence. To punish them, is one of the means necessary for the accomplishment of this noble end and aim.

For the same reason that the members of the State legislatures will be unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, the members of the federal legislature will be likely to attach themselves too much to local objects.

Good constitutions are formed upon a comparison of the liberty of the individual with the strength of government: If the tone of either be too high, the other will be weakened too much.

The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.