A Worthy Quote

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --James Monroe, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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, 1770

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad." --George Washington, letter to John Augustine Washington, 1776

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --Benjamin Franklin, On that Odd Letter of the Drum, 1730

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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?" --Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 1813

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"The freedom and happiness of man...[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1810

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." --Declaration of Independence, 1776

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 1796

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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." --Alexander Hamilton, Remarks in the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"The history of ancient and modern republics had taught them that many of the evils which those republics suffered arose from the want of a certain balance, and that mutual control indispensable to a wise administration. They were convinced that popular assemblies are frequently misguided by ignorance, by sudden impulses, and the intrigues of ambitious men; and that some firm barrier against these operations was necessary. They, therefore, instituted your Senate." --Alexander Hamilton, speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"It may be considered as an objection inherent in the principle, that as every appeal to the people would carry an implication of some defect in the government, frequent appeals would in great measure deprive the government of that veneration which time bestows on every thing, and without which perhaps the wisest and freest governments would not possess the requisite stability." --James Madison, Federalist No. 49, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?" --John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776