56 Founding Fathers,  56 quotes
(Please notice the authors of these quotes, and the credibility that they had; it is also important to note the dates -- some are recent, others are quite old.  Sovereignty is more tenacious than some with great wealth and power ever dreamed, and it is not to be wrenched from those who love freedom as easily as has been thought.  There IS still hope!  Never, n-e-v-e-r-, NEVER give up!)

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, a 19th C. (1834-1902) British historian and philosopher.

"Remember, democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself." -- John Adams

"Posterity - you will never know how much it has cost my generation  to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." - John Quincy Adams

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its patriots to its ruin." - Samuel Adams (1780)

"Within our own borders we possess all the means of sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the same time, these advantages are so distributed among the different states of this continent as if nature had in view to proclaim to us be united among yourselves, and you will want nothing from the rest of the world."  Samuel Adams  July 4, 1776, on Independence

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government purposes are beneficent...The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding." -- Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke 1729-1797

"In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interest, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press....They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. "An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers." - U.S. Congressman Oscar Callaway, 1917

"Men occasionally stumble over truth, most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."  Winston Churchill

"Freedom requires unflagging devotion and unflappable courage.  In fighting for freedom we must 'never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never... never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy'."  --Justice Thomas quoting Winston Churchill

"We are reduced to the alternative of choosing unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us." -- Revolutionary, John Dickinson, in the Continental Congress's Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms in 1775

"The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments' plans. " - British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1876

"Find out just what the people will submit to and you will have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." - Frederick Douglass

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air-- however slight-- lest we become the unwitting victims of the darkness." WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS (Supreme Court Justice 1939-75)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

"The government of the Western nations, whether monarchical or republican, had passed into the invisible hands of a plutocracy, international in power and grasp. It was, I venture to suggest, this semi-occult power which....pushed the mass of the American people into the cauldron of World War I." - British military historian Major General J.F.C. Fuller, l941

"Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature .. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation...it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces." - James Garfield in 1877

"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away"  Barry Goldwater

"I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do  something.  And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.  What I can do, I should do.  And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do." - Edward Everett Hale

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death! - Patrick Henry (March 20, 1775)

"...Virtue, morality, and religion.  This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible.  These are the tactics we should study.  If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed...so long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger." -- Patrick Henry

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. - Hosea 4:6

"The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen....At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually runs the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties." - New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, 1922

The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it." --Thomas Jefferson

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." - Thomas Jefferson

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind." -- Thomas Jefferson

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies . . . If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks]  . . .  will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered . . . The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson -- The Debate Over The Recharter Of The Bank Bill, (1809)

"I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on the earth." -Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800

"The God Who gave us life gave us liberty -- can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"  Inscription on the Jefferson Memorial

President Thomas Jefferson, March 4, 1805, offered A National Prayer for Peace: Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and  arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and  peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show  forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through  Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

"Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything." - Samuel Johnson

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily lives, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."   John F. Kennedy

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order [referring to the 1991 LA Riot]. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond [i.e., an "extraterrestrial" invasion], whether real or promulgated [emphasis mine], that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government." - Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991

"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today."  -- Robert E. Lee

"If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own - that thing is the preservation of their own liberties and institutions."   Abraham Lincoln

"The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." ABRAHAM LINCOLN  (17 September 1859, speech in Cincinnati, OH)

A diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty. -- James Madison 1825

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression." -- Thomas Paine, 1795

The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind. - Thomas Paine

"Those people who are not governed by GOD will be ruled by tyrants." -- William Penn

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. - Plato (427-347 B.C.)

"Oh, my countrymen! What will our children say, when they read the history of these times? Should they find we tamely gave away without one noble struggle, the most invaluable of earthly blessings? As they drag the galling chain, will they not execrate us? If we have any respect for things sacred; any regard to the dearest treasures on earth; if we have one tender sentiment for posterity; if we would not be despised by the whole world - let us in the most open, solemn manner, and with determined fortitude, swear we will die, if we cannot live free men!" Josiah Quincy, Jr., 1788 published in the Boston Gazette

"Government can't solve the problem.  Government is the problem." -- Ronald Reagan

"There is a fundamental difference between separation of church and state and denying the spiritual heritage of this country.  Inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. are Jefferson's words, 'The God Who gave us life gave us liberty -- can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?' " --Ronald Reagan

"We're Americans and we have a rendezvous with destiny.... No people who have ever lived on this earth have fought harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done more to advance the dignity of man than Americans."  --Ronald Reagan

"We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto determination practiced in past centuries." David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address before that organization in June of 1991

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson." - A letter written by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Colonel House, November 21st, l933

"The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all.  When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it.  The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing."  - Teddy Roosevelt

"No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation." - David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations

"We are at present working discreetly with all our might to wrest this mysterious force called sovereignty out of the clutches of the local nation states of the world." - Professor Arnold Toynbee, in a June l931 speech before the Institute for the Study of International Affairs in Copenhagen.

"When you control someone's information you control that person's fate. Ignorance is pure evil! " - Dr. Louis Turi

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself. - Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. - H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - (President) Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom (1913)