"Wisely, therefore, do they consider union and a good national government as necessary to put and keep them in such a situation as, instead of inviting war, will tend to repress and discourage it. That situation consists in the best possible state of defense, and necessarily depends on the government, the arms, and the resources of the country."
--John Jay, Federalist No. 4

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.
–James Madison, The Federalist,10

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.-- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it."
–Abraham Lincoln, "House Divided" Speech, June 16, 1858

"[The Constitutional Convention] thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men."
–James Madison

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine

If men of high standing and extensive influence...shrink from the battle, by whom shall the victory be won.
--William Lloyd Garrison

Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage.
--William Lloyd Garrison

I am in earnest; I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.
--William Lloyd Garrison

With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plea; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.
--William Lloyd Garrison

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure. --Winston Churchill

Government has an important role in helping develop a country's economic foundation. But the critical test is whether government is genuinely working to liberate individuals by creating incentives to work, save, invest, and succeed.
--Ronald Reagan, October 30, 1981

"No government is respectable which is not just.-Without unspotted purity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, and honor, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society."
--Daniel Webster

"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue."
--John Adams

First Quote

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."
–James Madison, Speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 20, 1788.

"[Liberty] considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom."
--Alexis de Toqueville