Great American Quotes

2010-07-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them."

-Joseph Story

2010-07-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Patriotism is easy to understand in America, it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.

-Calvin Coolidge

2009-11-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both"

-Benjamin Franklin

2009-11-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I can not do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do."

Helen Keller

2009-10-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

"You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free if only I am free"

- Clarence Darrow

2009-10-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

"Saying nothing... sometimes says the most."

- Emily Dickinson

2009-09-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

"Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

2009-09-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them."

- Mark Twain

2009-07-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

"No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall to soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defense of the liberties and constitution of his country."

2009-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves ."

-Abraham Lincoln

2009-07-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

"Liberty is never out of bounds or off limits; it spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men."

-E. B. White

2009-06-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents."

-Andrew Carnegie

2009-06-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

"These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon it's goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated."

-Thomas Paine

2009-06-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

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

-Daniel Webster

2009-06-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

"It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions." -Samuel Adams

2009-06-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-06-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

"But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, envinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and provide new guards for their future security."

- Declaration of Independence

2009-06-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

"It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own"

-James Otis

2009-06-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

-John F. Kennedy

2009-06-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

"The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."

-John Adams

2009-06-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence."

-Abigail Adams

2009-06-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

"Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error."

- Benjamin Rush

2009-06-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

"Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties."

-Benjamin Banneker

2009-06-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

-William Jennings Bryan

2009-06-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

"Give [judges] the powers and the independence now contended for and... your government becomes a despotism and they become your rulers. They are to decide upon the lives, the liberties, and the property of your citizens; they have an absolute veto upon your laws by declaring them null and void at pleasure; they are to introduce at will the laws of foreign country... after being clothed with this arbitrary power, they are beyond the control of the nation. ... If all this be true - if this doctrine be established in the extent which is now contended for - the Constitution is not worth the time we are now spending on it. It is - as it has been called by it's enemies - mere parchment. For these judges, thus rendered omnipotent, may overleap the Constitution and trample on your laws."

-Joseph Nicholson
early member of Congress

2009-06-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

"[W]hat innumerable acts of injustice may be committed - and how fatally may the principles of liberty be sapped - by a succession of judges utterly independent of the people?"

-John Dickinson

2009-06-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

"You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right"

-Abraham Lincoln

2009-06-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

"The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good, and the best corrector of all that is evil, in human society; the best Book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only Book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity."

-Noah Webster

2009-06-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

"The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity"

-Henry Clay

2009-06-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

"The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous."

- Frederick Douglass

2009-06-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

" I have acted in every instance from a conscientious desire to do what was right, constitutional, within the law, and for the very best interests of the whole people. Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent."

-Ulysses S. Grant

2009-01-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

"For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country call me is a adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it."

-Martin Van Buren

2009-01-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberation and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with and humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems to presage."

-George Washington

First Inaugural Address

2009-01-19T11:19:00.000-08:00

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."

-Martin Luther King

2009-01-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

"What is government but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

-James Madison

2009-01-17T10:16:00.001-08:00

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

-Ronald Reagan

2009-01-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."

-Woodrow Wilson

2009-01-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

"I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day, and as nearly as possible reaching the high mark of pure and useful living."

-Booker T. Washington

2009-01-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

"Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater."

-George Washington Carver

2009-01-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

"For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory..."

-Zachary Taylor

2009-01-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

"The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness, and the right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience."

-William Jennings Bryan

2009-01-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

"Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny."

-Daniel Webster

2009-01-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

"Always do right. This will gratify some and astonish the rest."

-Mark Twain

2009-01-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

- Charles Carroll

2009-01-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty."

- John F. Kennedy

2009-01-07T10:34:00.000-08:00

"A printer publishes a lie for which he ought to stand in pillory, for the people believe in and act upon it."

- George Clymer

2009-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

"I am sorry to say that sometimes matters of very small importance waste a good deal of precious time, by the long and repeated speeches and chicanery of gentlemen who will not wholly throw off the lawyer even in Congress"

-William Whipple

2009-01-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

"I am constrained to express my adoration of the Author of my existence for His forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state."

- Robert Treat Paine

2009-01-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company"

- George Washington

2009-01-03T11:29:00.001-08:00

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors; they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."

-Samuel Adams

2009-01-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."

-Patrick Henry

2009-01-01T23:28:00.000-08:00

"Our fates are in the hands of An Almighty God, to whom I can with pleasure confide my own; He can can save us or destroy us; His Councils are fixed and cannot be disappointed, and all His designs will be accomplished."

-Abraham Clark

2008-12-27T10:19:00.001-08:00

"The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit for public trust."

-Millard Fillmore

2008-12-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

"The people are the best guardians of their own rights and it is the duty of their executive branch to abstain from interfering in or thwarting the sacred exercise of the lawmaking functions of their government."

- William Henry Harrison

2008-12-24T12:32:00.000-08:00

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."

- Calvin Coolidge

2008-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

"A splendid storehouse of integrity and freedom has been bequeathed to us by our forefathers. In this day of confusion, of peril to liberty, our high duty is to see that this storehouse is not robbed of it's contents."

- Herbert Hoover

2008-12-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

"The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger."

- Andrew Jackson

2008-12-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

"What is right and what is practical are two different things."

- James Buchanan

2008-12-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

"To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."

- Calvin Coolidge

2008-12-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

"Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge."

- James Wilson

2008-12-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

"The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head."

- Noah Webster

2008-12-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and suffering, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence."

- Joseph Story

2008-12-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

"You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience, and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion. And... that all civil rights and the rights to hold office were to be extended to person's of any Christian denomination."

- Roger Sherman

2008-12-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

2008-12-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

"No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor."

-Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President

2008-12-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move."

-Benjamin Franklin

2008-12-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

"A good conscience is a continual Christmas."

-Benjamin Franklin

2008-12-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

"The people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority either in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches."

- John Witherspoon

2008-12-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

"A government that does not trust it's law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is itself unworthy of trust."

2008-12-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

"Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry, we will not tamely submit - appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free..."

- Dr. Joseph Warren

2008-12-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when 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

2008-12-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

"Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness... We claim them from a higher source -- from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchment and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, with out taking our lives."

- John Dickinson

2008-12-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

"Posterity! you will never know, how much it cost this present Generation, to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it."

- John Adams

2008-12-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice"

- Thomas Paine

2008-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."

- Thomas Jefferson

2008-12-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man... The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people."

-Samuel Adams

2008-12-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

"The first maxim of a man who loves liberty, should be never to grant to rulers an atom of power that is not most clearly and indispensably necessary for the safety and well-being of society"

- Richard Henry Lee

2008-12-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

"A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends."

- James Monroe

2008-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

"I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past."

- Clara Barton

2008-11-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty."

- Dr. Benjamin Rush

2008-11-28T22:54:00.000-08:00

"The only way to be loved is to be and to appear lovely; to possess and display kindness, benevolence, tenderness; to be free from selfishness and to be alive to the welfare of others."

- John Jay

2008-11-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

"Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!"

- Henry Ward Beecher

2008-11-26T18:14:00.000-08:00

"There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism."

- Alexander Hamilton

The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775