Favorite quote/speech/saying from the Founding Fathers

[Sharpienads]

What's yours?

Two of my favorites are the classics from Sam Adams and Patrick Henry:

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plow, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom--go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" - Sam Adams, August 1776

"It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 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!" - Patrick Henry, March 1775

Both of these speeches give me goosebumps (not to be confused with a tingling running up my leg) when I read them. Can you imagine our current crop of statesmen giving speeches like this?

[UberTong]

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

[Ronin13]

I have a few:
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." -Thomas Jefferson

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms..disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one." -Thomas Jefferson

And I know he's not a founding father, but dammit he was a great man:
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." -George S. Patton

[Bailey Guns]

Can't say it's my favorite but it's right up there. And, naturally, it's from Thomas Jefferson (from a letter, 1785):

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

And this from Thomas Paine in 1791 (Rights of Man):

If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.

These guys were so far ahead of their times. It's a shame we don't have men like that today.

[Delfuego]

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
- Benjamin Franklin

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
- Benjamin Franklin

[mopar]

Wouldn't it be great to transport some of our founding fathers to present day and let them see what our politicians have done to rape our constituion and our rights? Liberal TV probably wouldn't let them have a sound byte.

[Milt]

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."

Jefferson

[Mazin]

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

[Scanker19]

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[Ronin13]

"...From my cold dead hands!!!" -Charlton Heston, true American hero who knew wtf the founding fathers had in mind!