A Worthy Quote

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is a power without right."

–Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"To prevent crimes, is the noblest end and aim of criminal jurisprudence. To punish them, is one of the means necessary for the accomplishment of this noble end and aim."

–James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, 1790

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"The instability of our laws is really an immense evil. I think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that there shall always be a twelve-month between the ingross-ing a bill & passing it: that it should then be offered to its passage without changing a word: and that if circum-stances should be thought to require a speedier passage, it should take two thirds of both houses instead of a bare majority."

–Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, 1787

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States."

–Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight."

–Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"And it is no less true, that personal security and private property rest entirely upon the wisdom, the stability, and the integrity of the courts of justice."

–Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

–Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, 1766

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"The power of the people pervading the proposed system, together with the strong confederation of the states, will form an adequate security against every danger that has been apprehended."

–John Dickinson, Letters of Fabius, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war."

–John Jay, Federalist No. 4, 1787

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted."

–Alexander Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, 1791

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

–Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No. 1, 1776

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"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

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"We have duties, for the discharge of which we are accountable to our Creator and benefactor, which no human power can cancel. What those duties are, is determinable by right reason, which may be, and is called, a well informed conscience. What this conscience dictates as our duty, is so; and that power which assumes a control over it, is an usurper; for no power can be pleaded to justify the control, as any consent in this case is void."

–Theophilus Parsons, The Essex Result, 1778

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed."

–James Madison, Second Inaugural Address, 1813

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife."

–Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Spencer Roane, 1821