Saturday, April 4, 2009

Where Have We Gone Wrong?

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin (Think of the Patriot Act)

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." Alexander Hamilton

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776, Jefferson Papers 344

"The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside ... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them ... the weak will become prey to the strong."
Thomas Paine, Thoughts on Defensive War

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.

"We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government." James Madison

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

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