Wisdom from our Founding Fathers

The Founding Fathers of America were some of the smartest and wisest men in the world; they also understood, firsthand, tyranny and the need for limited government. You can tell this if you've read the Constitution; these men came up with the Separation of Powers, the Electoral College, the Bill of Rights, and numerous other important concepts. So, I am sharing some of their quotes about government and various other things.

• “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 greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers.” –Thomas Jefferson, Draft Declaration and Protest of Virginia 1825 

• “I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country, and the least encroachment of those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil.” –Benjamin Franklin 

• “You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; right derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.”  –John Adams 

•  "In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. Where there is an excess of liberty, the effect is the same, tho’ from an opposite cause." –James Madison, National Gazette, 27 March 1792 

• “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” –Thomas Paine  

• “To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” –George Washington, First Annual Message, January 8, 1790 

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

• "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty." –James Madison, Letter to George Thomson, June 30, 1825 

• "It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."  –Patrick Henry 

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

• "I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery." –George Washington, Letter to Robert Morris, April 12, 1786 

• "It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." –James Madison, Federalist No. 48

• "Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country." –Noah Webster 

• "Education is useless without the Bible." –Noah Webster

As a side bar, Noah Webster is considered, by some, to be a founding father of our country due to his dedication to preserving the values of the signers and framers of the Constitution. By starting his dictionary, Webster helped to create the American version of the English language, which was, and still is, important to our identity as Americans. Webster has been called “Schoolmaster to America”.