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Political literature59 quotes
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. — Thomas Jefferson · 1785A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. — James Madison · 1789Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. — James Madison · 1788Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. — James Madison · 1787Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. — James Madison · 1789Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. — James Madison · 1787All 59 quotes →Political speech39 quotes
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801Character, not circumstances, makes the man. — Booker T. Washington · 1896Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past. — Patrick Henry · 1775I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. — James Madison · 1788It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges and promises made in the former. — William Henry Harrison · 1841All 39 quotes →Autobiography and memoir5 quotes
The best way to lift one's self up is to help someone else. — Booker T. Washington · 1900No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. — Booker T. Washington · 1900Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. — Booker T. Washington · 1901I entered the world a slave-in the midst of a country whose most honoured writings declare that all men have a right to liberty. — Henry Box Brown · 1849Being alone and liking it is, for a woman, an act of treachery, and infidelity far more threatening than adultery. — Molly Haskell · 1999Political writing4 quotes
The boisterous sea of liberty indeed is never without a wave. — Thomas Jefferson · 1820Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched... Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. — Thomas Jefferson · 1816Speeches measured by the hour, die with the hour. — Thomas Jefferson · 1824Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, if illformed it is rejected in society, if well-informed, adopted, and, after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. — Thomas Jefferson · 1820Military speech2 quotes
If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind; reason is of no use to us—the freedom of Speech may be taken away—and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter. — George Washington · 1783The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own... The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect-We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. — George Washington · 1776Funeral oration1 quote
First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. — Henry Lee III · 1799Legal writing1 quote
Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas. — Lewis F. Powell, Jr. · 1974Slave narrative1 quote
I entered the world a slave-in the midst of a country whose most honoured writings declare that all men have a right to liberty. — Henry Box Brown · 1849