Founders’ Quotes

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.

There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.

Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?

We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.

Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state.

The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general.

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 universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.

In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.

If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last. ... A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.

The present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.

The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.