"The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world."
--George Washington

"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more
convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in
the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground
without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without
his Aid?" --Benjamin Franklin

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength
from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business
of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose
conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto
death." --Thomas Paine

“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall!"--Ronald Reagan, 1987

“History fails to record a single precedent in which
nations subject to moral decay have not passed into
political and economic decline. There has been either
a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral
lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate
national disaster.” —General Douglas MacArthur

"My construction of the constitution is very different from that
you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of
the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is
the meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its
action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately and without
appeal." --Thomas Jefferson

"I hate [slavery] because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world, and enables the enemies of free institutions to taunt us as hypocrites."
–Abraham Lincoln, Peoria Speech, October 16, 1854

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it
be otherwise in a body to which the people send 150 lawyers,
whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, & talk
by the hour? That 150 lawyers should do business together ought
not to be expected." --Thomas Jefferson

"The great leading objects of the federal government, in
which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace,
and provide for the common defense. In these are comprehended
the regulation of commerce that is, the whole system of foreign
intercourse; the support of armies and navies, and of the civil
administration." --Alexander Hamilton

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and
pursue it steadily." --George Washington

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the
minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and
animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual
contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity,
and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue.
If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they
will grovel all their lives." --John Adams

Thomas Paine: "The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth."

John Hancock: "There! His majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head."

Benjamin Franklin: "We must hang together or assuredly we shall hang separately."

George Washington "Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind."

Thomas Jefferson "The flames kindled on the 4 July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them...The Declaration of Independence.. is the declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man."

John Adams "Independence Forever." The day both he and Jefferson died.

"The spirit of enterprise, which characterizes the commercial part
of America, has left no occasion of displaying itself unimproved.
It is not at all probable that this unbridled spirit would pay
much respect to those regulations of trade by which particular
States might endeavor to secure exclusive benefits to their own
citizens." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 7