All Posts Tagged With: "quotes"
Is the American Public a Tool for Ambitious Leaders?
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ
of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
~Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX,,
1787)
Oh…and…Obama has said maybe.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I especially want to give Thanks to the loyal visitors and contributors to this blog. I apologize for the recent lack of content, preparation for finals has been killer…but I can assure everyone that Brian and I are committed to keeping this blog going and growing…
Happy Thanksgiving,
Billy Joe Mills
And from old George:
It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of
Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits,
and humbly to implore his protection and favors.
~George Washington (Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789)
Founders Believed in Strict Separation of Church & State?
It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.
~James Madison (A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785)
Madison still your favorite Tom?
Restrictions on Civil Liberties in the Name of Terrorism?
As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought in all governments, and actually will in all free governments ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs, when the people stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow mediated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth, can regain their authority over the public mind?
~James Madison (likely) (Federalist No. 63, 1788)
Xenophobia: Irish Yesterday, Mexicans Today
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent
and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all
Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation
of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of
conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
~George Washington (Address to the Members of the Volunteer
Association of Ireland, 2 December 1783)
Forgotten Words of Our Founders?
Honesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and
only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.
~George Washington (Circular letter to the States, 14 June 1783)
Insight into Him & Service
Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.
~George Washington (upon fumbling for his glasses before
delivering the Newburgh Address, 15 March 1783)
Someone tell Blago…
“Laws for the liberal education of the youth, especially of the lower class of the people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”
~John Adams (Thoughts on Government, 1776)
Anti-Libertarian?
“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.”
~Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 15)
The Muslim Experiment?
It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better system of education for the common people might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice.”
~John Adams (letter to Count Sarsfield, 3 February 1786)