Words Of Wisdom

"May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy."

--George Washington (1790)

Words Of Wisdom

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

–John Adams, A Defense of the American Constitutions, 1787

Words Of Wisdom

"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

 --George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

Words Of Wisdom

"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."
--James Madison

Words Of Wisdom

"To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.

" --Alexander Hamilton

Words Of Wisdom

"I ... place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. ... Taxation follows that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression."

--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Plumer, 1816

Words Of Wisdom

he principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
--Thomas Jefferson,letter to John Taylor, 1816

Words Of Wisdom

"When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in the happy hour when the establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid foundations shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peacefully and happy Country."

--George Washington, address to the New York Legislature, 1775

Words Of Wisdom

"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."

--James Madison

Words Of Wisdom

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."

--Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775

Words Of Wisdom

"Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness."

--James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1790

Words Of Wisdom

"[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed."

--James Madison, to Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Words Of Wisdom

"This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee, 1825

Words Of Wisdom

"God who gave us life gave us Liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."

--Thomas Jefferson (1774)

Words Of Wisdom

"Constitutions are not designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or judicial research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for common use, and fitted for common understandings."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States

Words Of Wisdom

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press."

--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Cartwright, 1824

Words Of Wisdom

"The truth is, that, even with the most secure tenure of office, during good behavior, the danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day."

--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Words Of Wisdom

“For many, lawsuits challenging the  constitutionality of the NSA’s surveillance practices are now on the agenda. But the program’s defenders insist it’s entirely legal — that the Constitution doesn’t even protect the records in question — and they may be right. Cato scholar Julian Sanchez argues that this means we need to seriously rethink how the Fourth Amendment works in the 21st century. “Simply by using modern technology,” says Sanchez, “Americans have — for the most part unwittingly — abandoned the Fourth Amendment’s protection for a vast and growing portion of their intimate activities.”

Words Of Wisdom

"Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent."

--Fisher Ames

Words Of Wisdom

"I often note with equal pleasure that God gave this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in manners and customs, who by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side through a long bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence."

--John Jay, Federalist No. 2, 1787