If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one read more

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.

"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our read more

"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men." -Samuel Adams

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever
debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor read more

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever
debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be,
decided among men. A resolution was passed without one
dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent States.

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and read more

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people read more

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is to live under the government of read more

The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is to live under the government of worse men.

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labour of the read more

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labour of the industrious.

A government is like fire, a handy servant, but a dangerous master.

A government is like fire, a handy servant, but a dangerous master.