The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.
Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.
I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal, hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
The great object is that every man be armed.
Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
or simply: