A Worthy Quote

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature."

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

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party generally. ... A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume."

--George Washington, Farewell Address, 19 September 1796

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"We have heard of the impious doctrine in the old world, that the people were made for kings, not kings for the people. Is the same doctrine to be revived in the new, in another shape -- that the solid happiness of the people is to be sacrificed to the views of political institutions of a different form? It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment of this object."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 45

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"We may with reverence say, that our Creator designed men for society, because otherwise they cannot be happy. They cannot be happy without freedom; nor free without security; that is, without the absence of fear; nor thus secure, without society. The conclusion is strictly syllogistic—that man cannot be free without society. Of course, they cannot be equally free without society, which freedom produces the greatest happiness."

--John Dickinson, Letters of Fabius, 1788

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator."

--Samuel Adams, letter to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 17 January 1794

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"If individuals be not influenced by moral principles; it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity of a strict adherence to the rules of distributive justice."

--James Madison in response to Washington's first Inaugural address, 18 May 1789

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"It is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty."

--John Adams, letter to Zabdiel Adams, 21 June 1776

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"Since private and publick Vices, are in Reality, though not always apparently, so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost Pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of children, and the moral Sense kept alive, and that the wise institutions of our Ancestors for these great Purposes be encouraged by the Government. For no people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."

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

[Soldier4Christ]

A MS. letter from Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson, dated Passy, May
13 1784, once in my possession is interesting.  It gives us lasting good
advice &c., saying, "Yesterday evening, Mr. Hartley met Mr. Jay and myself,
when the ratifications of the definitive treaty were exchanged.  Thus the
great and hazardous enterprize is, God be praised, happily completed !  An
event I hardly expected I should live to see !  A few years of peace, well
improved, will restore and increase our strength.  But our future safety
will depend on our union and our virtue.  Britain will be long watching for
advantage to recover what she has lost.  Let us beware of being lulled into
a dangerous security, and of being enervated and impoverished by luxury --
of being weakened by internal contentions and divisions -- of being
shamefully extravagant in contracting private debts, while we are backward
in discharging honorably those of the public -- of neglect in military
exercises and discipline -- and in providing stores of arms and munitions of
war to be ready on occasion.  For all these are circumstances that give
confidence to enemies and diffidence to friends; and the expenses required
to prevent a war are much higher than those that will, if not prevented, be
absolutely necessary to maintain one."

[nChrist]

A MS. letter from Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson, dated Passy, May
13 1784, once in my possession is interesting.  It gives us lasting good
advice &c., saying, "Yesterday evening, Mr. Hartley met Mr. Jay and myself,
when the ratifications of the definitive treaty were exchanged.  Thus the
great and hazardous enterprize is, God be praised, happily completed !  An
event I hardly expected I should live to see !  A few years of peace, well
improved, will restore and increase our strength.  But our future safety
will depend on our union and our virtue.  Britain will be long watching for
advantage to recover what she has lost.  Let us beware of being lulled into
a dangerous security, and of being enervated and impoverished by luxury --
of being weakened by internal contentions and divisions -- of being
shamefully extravagant in contracting private debts, while we are backward
in discharging honorably those of the public -- of neglect in military
exercises and discipline -- and in providing stores of arms and munitions of
war to be ready on occasion.  For all these are circumstances that give
confidence to enemies and diffidence to friends; and the expenses required
to prevent a war are much higher than those that will, if not prevented, be
absolutely necessary to maintain one."

EXCELLENT ADVICE THAT SHOULD BE HEEDED!

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the spot of every wind. With such persons, gullability, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Smith, December 8, 1822

[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, December 1791

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing."

--Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

[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, January 6, 1833

[nChrist]

Founder's Quote Daily

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."

--James Madison, to an unidentified correspondent, 1833