"Rulers are no more than [..] trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest & trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed." —John Adams. (On the Canon & Feudal Law, 1765) 2/8
"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people [..] an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge of the characters and conduct of their rulers."—John Adams. (ibid) 3/8
"When one side only of a Story is heard, and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it, insensibly."—George Washington. (Letter to Edmond Pendleton, 1795) 4/8
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."—Thomas Paine. (The American Crisis No.1, 1776) 5/8
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."—Thomas Jefferson. (Letter to Philip Mazzei, 1796) 6/8
"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one."—Alexander Hamilton. (Open letter "The Warning III", 1797) 7/8
"The time to guard against corruption and tyranny is before they have gotten hold on us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered."—Thomas Jefferson. (Notes on the State of Virginia, Q13. 1781) 8/8
"A general Dissolution of Principles & Manners will more surely overthrow the Liberties of America than the whole Force of the Common Enemy." —Samuel Adams. (Letter to James Warren. 12 Feb, 1779) 1/8
[Apparently the first of my Founding Fathers quotations did not thread correctly yesterday, so putting it at the end.]
