Words Of Wisdom

"The powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers, and foreign commerce." —Joseph Story, 1833

Province Of The Court

“The province of the Court is solely to decide on the rights of individuals. … Questions, in their nature political or which are, by the Constitution and laws, submitted to the Executive, can never be made in this court.” –John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Words Of Wisdom

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

 --Thomas Jefferson\

Words Of Wisdom

"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."

 --John Adams, draft of a Newspaper Communication, 1770

Words Of Wisdom

"[H]e 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; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him."

 --Thomas Jefferson (1785)

Words Of Wisdom

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

 --Samuel Adams, Letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

Words Of Wisdom

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." --Samuel Adams, Letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775

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

"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

"Temporary delusions, prejudices, excitements, and objects have irresistible influence in mere questions of policy. And the policy of one age may ill suit the wishes or the policy of another. The constitution is not subject to such fluctuations. It is to have a fixed, uniform, permanent construction. It should be, so far at least as human infirmity will allow, not dependent upon the passions or parties of particular times, but the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

 --Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Words Of Wisdom

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."

--Thomas Jefferson

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

"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn."

 --George Washington, letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, 1789 

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

"The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold on us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered." 
--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 13, 1781

Quote Of The Decade

From the CZECH REPUBLIC OBSERVER......

"The danger to America is not only Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama Presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their President. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their President."

Words Of Wisdom

"Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants." --Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 1 (1787)

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

"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