Tyranny Founding Fathers Quotes

• 

  Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Trust, Time, Democracies Have

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.235, Cambridge University Press

  128 Copy quote

  Show source

• The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

  James Madison

  Government, Hands, Independent Judiciary

  The Federalist no. 47 (1788)

  111 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

  227 Copy quote

  Show source

• Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.

  Patrick Henry

  Giving Up, 4th Of July, Jealous

  Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention, June 5, 1788.

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Evil, Voting, Principles

  272 Copy quote

• [Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.

  Patrick Henry

  Government, People, Libertarian

  99 Copy quote

• I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Believe, Power

  Speech at Virginia Convention, 5 June 1788

  79 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Leadership, Patriotic, Independent

  269 Copy quote
• 

  If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  "The Last Enemy" by Rebecca Sato, www.pbs.org. November 11, 2010.

  228 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Ignorance, Tyranny

  30 Copy quote

• Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

  Unknown

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

  196 Copy quote
• 

  If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

  Samuel Adams

  Love, Peace, Freedom

  Samuel Adams' Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

  378 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

  James Madison

  Liberty, Alarms, Firsts

  37 Copy quote
• 

  Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal

  Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

  279 Copy quote

  Show source

• The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, War, Patriotic

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.

  105 Copy quote

  Show source

• The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Gun, America, Government

  "Know Your Lawmaker". Guns magazine, p. 4, February 1960.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  John Adams

  Ideas, Law, Justice

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.9

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

  Patrick Henry

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

  120 Copy quote

  Show source

• When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Truth, Knowledge

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.216

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.46

  62 Copy quote

  Show source

• A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Benjamin Franklin

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  178 Copy quote

• I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal, hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Change, Religious, Men

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 23 Sept. 1800

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

  James Madison

  Freedom, War, Mean

  70 Copy quote
• 

  I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Money, Believe, Army

  93 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Change, Happiness

  Declaration of Independence (1776).

  191 Copy quote

  Show source