I’m grateful for them beyond any capacity of mine to express or to repay.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
The Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776)
“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
Samuel Adams
“Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?”
Benjamin Rush, delegate from Pennsylvania (20 July 1811)
“There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.”
John Adams
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
Thomas Jefferson
“My hand trembles, but my heart does not.”
Stephen Hopkins, delegate from Rhode Island (4 July 1776)
“Let us prepare for the worst. We can die here but once.”
Abraham Clark, delegate from New Jersey, to Elias Dayton (4 July 1776)
“The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”
Benjamin Franklin
“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams
“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”
Albert Einstein
“Always stand on principle . . . even if you stand alone.”
John Adams
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
Abraham Lincoln
“The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.”
Thomas Jefferson
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
John Adams
“For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776)
“We find it hard to believe that liberty could ever be lost in this country. But it can be lost, and it will be, if the time ever comes when these documents are regarded not as the supreme expression of our profound belief, but merely as curiosities in glass cases.”
President Harry S. Truman, address at the Naitonal Archives (15 December 1952)
Posted from Newport Beach, California
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