Greetings Tin Can Conservative reader,
I have been less consistent in publishing blog posts for the past few weeks. Since I am currently residing in Texas, I have enjoyed this pretty cool thing called freedom. Ever heard of it? With that being said, I plan on becoming more disciplined when it writing for this blog.
Anyways, I thought that I should do something a little different for this post. I compiled a list of quotes from ten of the American Founding Fathers. These extraordinary offer some practical advice and insight that we can apply to our lives. Now, let’s dig in.
1. John Adams
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not.”
2. Ben Franklin (Mr. Hundred Dollar Bill himself)
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
“Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.”
“The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.”
3. Thomas Jefferson
“How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”
“I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
‘Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.”
4. George Washington
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
“The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.”
“Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world.”
5. James Madison
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
“The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.”
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
6. Alexander Hamilton
“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.”
“Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.”
“I consider civil liberty, is a genuine, unadulterated sense, as the greatest of terrestrial blessing. I am convinced that the whole human race is entitled to it. And, that it can be wrested from no part of them, without the blackest and most aggravated guilt.”
7. Patrick Henry
“I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.”
“Religion I have disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give to them, and that is the Christian religion. If they had that and I had not given them one cent, they would be rich. If they have not that, and I had given them the world, they would be poor.”
“[Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”
8. Samuel Adams
“Nil desperandum, — Never Despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it.”
“Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.”
“I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue.”
9. George Mason
“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.”
“A few years’ experience will convince us that those things which at the time they happened we regarded as our greatest misfortunes have proved our greatest blessings.”
“I give and bequeath my soul to Almighty God that gave it me, hoping that through the meritorious death and passion of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ to receive absolution and remission for all my sins.”
10. John Jay
“We must go home to be happy, and our home is not in this world. Here we have nothing to do but our duty.”
“This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.”
“Men should pray and fight for their own freedom, and yet keep others in slavery, is certainly acting a very inconsistent, as well as unjust and, perhaps, impious part, but the history of mankind is filled with instances of human improprieties.”
