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James Madison55 quotes
A 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 · 1787It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. — James Madison · 1788All 55 quotes →Thomas Jefferson54 quotes
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. — Thomas Jefferson · 1787Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. — Thomas Jefferson · 1785The boisterous sea of liberty indeed is never without a wave. — Thomas Jefferson · 1820The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. — Thomas Jefferson · 1787We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed. — Thomas Jefferson · 1790What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment... Inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. — Thomas Jefferson · 1786All 54 quotes →George Washington18 quotes
Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally. — George Washington · 1796The due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government. — George Washington · 1789I can with truth assure you, I heard Bulletts whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound. — George Washington · 1754To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. — George Washington · 1790Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. — George Washington · 1757Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. — George Washington · 1796All 18 quotes →William Henry Harrison11 quotes
It 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 · 1841As long as the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understandings of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation. — William Henry Harrison · 1841If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends. Beyond that they become destructive of public virtue, the parent of a spirit antagonist to that of liberty, and eventually its inevitable conqueror. — William Henry Harrison · 1841We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed. — William Henry Harrison · 1841Always the friend of my countrymen, never their flatterer, it becomes my duty to say to them from this high place to which their partiality has exalted me that there exists in the land a spirit hostile to their best interests—hostile to liberty itself. It is a spirit contracted in its views, selfish in its objects. — William Henry Harrison · 1841Those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. — William Henry Harrison · 1841All 11 quotes →James Monroe10 quotes
The American continents... Are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. — James Monroe · 1823We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. — James Monroe · 1823In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the defects which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient Republics. — James Monroe · 1821There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command the admiration and respect of the civilized world. — James Monroe · 1821Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy. — James Monroe · 1817It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. — James Monroe · 1817All 10 quotes →Edgar Allan Poe9 quotes
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1845Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form
from off my door!
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." — Edgar Allan Poe · 1845We loved with a love that was more than love. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love,
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849All 9 quotes →Tom Wolfe5 quotes
A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested. — Tom Wolfe · 1984Radical Chic, after all, is only radical in style; in its heart it is part of Society and its traditions. — Tom Wolfe · 1970A cult is a religion with no political power. — Tom Wolfe · 1980Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... That the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. — Tom Wolfe · 1987He could see the island of Manhattan off to the left. The towers were jammed together so tightly, he could feel the mass and stupendous weight. Just think of the millions, from all over the globe, who yearned to be on that island, in those towers, in those narrow streets! There it was, the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the city of ambition, the dense magnetic rock, the irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening-and he was among the victors! — Tom Wolfe · 1987Booker T. Washington4 quotes
Character, not circumstances, makes the man. — Booker T. Washington · 1896The 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 · 1901George Mason3 quotes
The freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. — George Mason · 1776Government is, or ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration. — George Mason · 1776That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. — George Mason · 1776Henry Clay3 quotes
The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments. — Henry Clay · 1834The 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 · 1850Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. — Henry Clay · 1829Robert E. Lee2 quotes
I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South its dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have never seen the day when I did not pray for them. — Robert E. Lee · 1865It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. — Robert E. Lee · 1862Steve Bannon2 quotes
Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power. — Steve Bannon · 2016The media's the opposition party. — Steve Bannon · 2017Ellen Glasgow1 quote
No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be antiquated. — Ellen Glasgow · 1936Henry Box Brown1 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 · 1849Henry Lee III1 quote
First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. — Henry Lee III · 1799John Page1 quote
We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm? — John Page · 1776Lewis F. Powell, Jr.1 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. · 1974Molly Haskell1 quote
Being alone and liking it is, for a woman, an act of treachery, and infidelity far more threatening than adultery. — Molly Haskell · 1999Patrick Henry1 quote
I 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 · 1775Richard Henry Lee1 quote
That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. — Richard Henry Lee · 1776Samuel Houston1 quote
The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction... They move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche. — Samuel Houston · 1861Wayne LaPierre1 quote
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. — Wayne LaPierre · 2012William Styron1 quote
I will write until my knuckles are worn and my brain bewildered, but I will write on and on. — William Styron · 1951