Founder's Quote Database | The Patriot Post

Founders' Quote Database

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James Madison

Federalist No. 37 — 1788
Category: Government

Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.

Alexander Hamilton

Tully, No. 3 — 1794
Category: Government

The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!

Thomas Paine

Common Sense — 1776
Category: Government

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

James Madison

letter to Thomas Jefferson — 1787
Category: Government

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.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to E. Carrington — 1788
Category: Government

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

James Madison

Federalist No. 51 — 1788
Category: Government

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Thomas Jefferson

First Inaugural Address — 1801
Category: Government

[A] wise and frugal government...shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

James Madison

to an unidentified correspondent — 1833
Category: Government

It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to Abigail Adams — 1787
Category: Government

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 65 — 1788
Category: Government

If mankind were to resolve to agree in no institution of government, until every part of it had been adjusted to the most exact standard of perfection, society would soon become a general scene of anarchy, and the world a desert.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to The Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland — 1809
Category: Government

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

James Monroe

speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention — 1788
Category: Government

How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.

John Adams

draft of a Newspaper Communication — 1770
Category: Government

Human government is more or less perfect as it approaches nearer or diverges farther from the imitation of this perfect plan of divine and moral government.

George Washington

letter to John Augustine Washington — 1776
Category: Government

To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to John Adams — 1813
Category: Government

For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

Benjamin Franklin

On that Odd Letter of the Drum — 1730
Category: Government

That wise Men have in all Ages thought Government necessary for the Good of Mankind; and, that wise Governments have always thought Religion necessary for the well ordering and well-being of Society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the Ministers of it, paying them the highest publick Honours, that their Doctrines might thereby meet with the greater Respect among the common People.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to John Adams — 1813
Category: Government

The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most - for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?

James Wilson

Category: Government

The pyramid of government-and a republican government may well receive that beautiful and solid form-should be raised to a dignified altitude: but its foundations must, of consequence, be broad, and strong, and deep. The authority, the interests, and the affections of the people at large are the only foundation, on which a superstructure proposed to be at once durable and magnificent, can be rationally erected.

Joseph Story

Commentaries on the Constitution — 1833
Category: Government

A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained.

Alexander Hamilton

speech to the New York Ratifying Convention — 1788
Category: Government

I will venture to assert that no combination of designing men under heaven will be capable of making a government unpopular which is in its principles a wise and good one, and vigorous in its operations.

Thomas Jefferson

letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko — 1810
Category: Government

The freedom and happiness of man...[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government.

Declaration of Independence — 1776
Category: Government

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

Thomas Jefferson

letter to John Adams — 1796
Category: Government

This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force.

Joseph Story

Commentaries on the Constitution — 1833
Category: Government

Men, to act with vigour and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience, as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions, or the fears of the multitude. They must deliberate, as well as resolve.

Alexander Hamilton

Remarks in the New York Ratifying Convention — 1788
Category: Government

The true principle of government is this - make the system compleat in its structure; give a perfect proportion and balance to its parts; and the powers you give it will never affect your security.

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