Founders’ Quotes

It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station [of President] filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.

The republican principle demands that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs; but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion or to every transient impulse which the people may receive from the arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to betray their interests.

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.

It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice.

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

Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.

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.

Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself.

Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.

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

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

I hope some future day will bring me the happiness of seeing my family again collected under our own roof, happy in ourselves and blessed in each other.

To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.