Primary Sources
The Founders’ Words
No paraphrase. No interpretation. The record as they left it.
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
— George Washington
Address to Officers of the Army, 1783
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
— George Washington
Attributed
“The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.”
— George Washington
Letter to the Boston Selectmen, 1795
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
— George Washington
Letter to James Madison, 1788
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Letter to William S. Smith, 1787
“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Attributed
“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Letter to James Madison, 1787
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Attributed
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Attributed
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Pennsylvania Assembly Reply, 1755
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Attributed
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Response at Constitutional Convention, 1787
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
— James Madison
Federalist No. 47, 1788
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
— James Madison
Federalist No. 51, 1788
“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
— James Madison
Letter to George Thomson, 1825
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”
— John Adams
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
— John Adams
Letter to the Massachusetts Militia, 1798
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
— John Adams
Argument in Defense of the British Soldiers, 1770
“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”
— Alexander Hamilton
Attributed
“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
— Alexander Hamilton
Novanglus Papers, 1775
“The constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
— Alexander Hamilton
Debates in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
— Patrick Henry
Speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”
— Patrick Henry
Attributed
“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.”
— Samuel Adams
Attributed
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace.”
— Samuel Adams
Speech at the State House, Philadelphia, 1776