"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers   that it can bribe the public with their own money."   - Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859)
          "There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation.   One is by sword. The other is by debt." – John Adams 
          "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." - Thomas Jefferson 
          "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot   exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will   continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they   can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.   From that moment on, the majority always votes for the   candidates who promise the most benefits from the public   treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally   collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed   by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest   civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about   200 years."   - Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor 1787 
          "I place the economy among the first and most important   virtues... and public debt as the great danger to be feared.   To preserve your independence, we must not let our leaders   load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between   economy and liberty . . . or profusion and servitude."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty"    - Thomas Jefferson 
          "It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its   government."   - Thomas Paine 
          "So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom,   those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active   and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any   number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon   sleeping men."   - Voltaire, 1764 
          "When once a republic is corrupted there is no possibility of   remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the   corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other   correction is either useless or a new evil."   – Thomas Jefferson on the necessity of the impeachment      provisions to our Constitution 
          "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good   conscience to remain silent"   - Thomas Jefferson
          "When the people fear their government, there is Tyranny;   when the government fears the people, there is Liberty."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later."   - Benjamin Franklin 
          "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a   little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."   - Benjamin Franklin 
          "No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The   strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep   and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves   against tyranny in government."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like   men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."   - Thomas Paine 
          "If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of   civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.   If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it   is the responsibility of every American to be informed."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "It does not require a majority to prevail but rather an irate,   tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."   - Samuel Adams 
          "It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are   made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous   that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be   understood."   - James Madison, Father of the U.S. Constitution 
          "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to   keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves   against tyranny in government."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they   keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the   memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the   path of destruction."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "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."   - Patrick Henry 
          "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          When asked what kind of a government the constitutional   convention had given the people:   "A republic, if you can keep it."   - Benjamin Franklin 
          "How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain   Meaning of Words!"   - Samuel Adams 
          "The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed   than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is   nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods   and errors."   - Thomas Jefferson 
          "If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over   from within."   - James Madison 
          "The means of defense against foreign danger historically   have become the instruments of tyranny at home."   - James Madison