Quotes from America's Forefathers

[Protect the Constitution]

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.– James Madison

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.– Thomas Jefferson

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

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.– Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.– Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.– Thomas Jefferson

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns and the federal government our foreign ones.– Thomas Jefferson

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.– John Quincy Adams

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.– Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.– Thomas Jefferson

The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature ... the executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.– James Madison

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance. They are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.– George Washington

If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.– Thomas Jefferson

When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny.– Thomas Paine

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.– Thomas Jefferson

There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.– James Madison

Experience has shown 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

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.– Daniel Webster

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day. But a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.– Thomas Jefferson

Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at its worst, an intolerant one.– Thomas Paine

The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference. They deserve a place of honor with all that is good.– George Washington

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but the newspapers.– Thomas Jefferson

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

An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.– Thomas Paine

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.– Benjamin Franklin

I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.– Thomas Jefferson

[More]

Protect the Constitution wrote:

misquoting to justify your violent fantasies.

Butt out, goober.

[Knightkore]

More wrote:

<quoted text>
misquoting to justify your violent fantasies.
Butt out, goober.

Um...show where the quotations cited are misquotes...

[for]

Knightmare wrote:

<quoted text>
Um...show where the quotations cited are misquotes...

Jefferson try montecello.org

spurious quotes

earn your welfare.

[Knightkore]

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Thomas_J...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/david-barton-...

[Yes]

Knightmare wrote:

http://www.quotationspage.com/ quotes/Thomas_Jefferson
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/david-barton-...

I know, you always go with the blogs - not actual scholars.

[Mike8]

Hey slave, go fetch me my breakfast!- all of the above....

[Mike8]

Slave woman, lay down with me for a quickie then get back to work!- Thomas Jefferson

[Knightkore]

Yes wrote:

<quoted text>
I know, you always go with the blogs - not actual scholars.

David Barton is an actual scholar...

[BarefootJoe]

A little attempt at humor, very little, to defuse some heightened tensions.

"The call them our Forefathers because they still had their Foreskins!".

[Hagar]

I've noted that the naysayers tend to discredit the quotes, not their message. Perhaps that in itself verifies their veracity.

[Perhaps]

Hagar wrote:

I've noted that the naysayers tend to discredit the quotes, not their message. Perhaps that in itself verifies their veracity.

not. It is annoying to have spam posted that the poster has not verified. And annoying to have people use misquotes of the founding fathers to support their own violent desires and paranoid ravings in the very different world of 2012. And of course the subtext being that a black man is president.

[Hagar]

Perhaps wrote:

<quoted text>
not. It is annoying to have spam posted that the poster has not verified. And annoying to have people use misquotes of the founding fathers to support their own violent desires and paranoid ravings in the very different world of 2012. And of course the subtext being that a black man is president.

You should recognize annoying since you are the most annoying person on the thread. You rarely say anything of importance or new but persist in attacking almost every poster. Get a life!

[Well]

Hagar wrote:

<quoted text>
!

BS gets called out. Tell the truth or learn to deal with it.