American Revolution Quotes - Page 2

• These are the times that try men's souls.

  Thomas Paine

  Veterans Day, Time, Motivation

  The American Crisis, 19 Dec. 1776

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• I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers... Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them for ourselves.

  Ronald Reagan

  Father, Believe, Thinking

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

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• Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  Address on first anniversary of Alliance for Progress, 13 Mar. 1962

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• The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.

  Thomas Paine

  Sun, Revolution, Causes

  Thomas Paine (2015). “The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies”, p.14, Ravenio Books

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• Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.

  John Adams

  Fall, Bad Ass, Justice

  John Adams, Robert Joseph Taylor (1983). “Papers of John Adams”

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• There are no words to express the extraordinary strength and character of this breed of people we call American. They are the kind of men and women Tom Paine had in mind when he wrote, during the darkest days of the American Revolution, we have it in our power to begin the world over again.

  Ronald Reagan

  Character, Men, People

  1980 Republican National Convention Acceptance Address, delivered 17 July 1980, Detroit, MI

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  The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.

  John Quincy Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  Letter to an autograph collector from Washington on April 27, 1837, The Historical Magazine, archive.org. July 1860.

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• Let us consider, brethren, we are struggling for our best birthrights and inheritance, which being infringed, renders all our blessings precarious in their enjoyments, and, consequently triffling in their value. Let us disappoint the Men who are raising themselves on the ruin of this Country. Let us convince every invader of our freedom, that we will be as free as the constitution our fathers recognized, will justify.

  Samuel Adams

  Country, Father, Struggle

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• Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

  John Adams

  Inspiring, Education, Book

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.18, Hackett Publishing

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  The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Happiness, Government, Guarantees

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• The die is now cast; the colonies must either submit or triumph.... we must not retreat.

  George III

  Triumph, Revolution, Retreat

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• The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution.

  Benjamin Rush

  War, Revolution, Cases

  Benjamin Rush (1951). “Letters of Benjamin Rush: 1761-1792”

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• Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.

  Benjamin Rush

  Justice, Support, Patriotism

  Benjamin Rush (1951). “Letters of Benjamin Rush: 1761-1792”

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• Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Sheep, Revolution, Ass

  Alexander Hamilton, Donald R. Hickey, Connie D. Clark (2006). “Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder”, p.58, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Revolution, Republican

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.352

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• [L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Father, Blood

  Joseph E. SPRAGUE, John Adams (1826). “An Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, etc”, p.36

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  If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

  Samuel Adams

  Love, Peace, Freedom

  Samuel Adams' Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

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• When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.

  Patrick Henry

  America, Liberty, Different

  Patrick Henry (2007). “Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries”, Warwick House Publishing

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• No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Liberty, Slave

  Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.3

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• I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.

  John Paul Jones

  Life, Fear, Military

  Letter to Le Ray de Chaumont, 16 Nov. 1778

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• Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.

  Patrick Henry

  Country, Fighting, Destiny

  Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, delivered 23 March 1775 at Henrico Parrish Church St, Richmond Virginia, Second Virginia Convention

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• Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

  John Adams

  Liberty, Revolution, Unexpected

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.391

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• What I want to accomplish artistically amounts to nothing more than fulfilling the promise of the American Revolution.

  L. Neil Smith

  Promise, Want, Revolution

  Statement of purpose, L. Neil Smith's "The Webley Page", www.lneilsmith.org.

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• Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.

  George Washington

  Country, Failure, Honor

  George Washington (1840). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private”, p.449

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• Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Taxation, Earth, Territory

  "Jefferson: Writings".

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