Quotes about Citizens

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

The only underprivileged citizens who should favor monogamy are men. It is what gives them access to a supply of women that would otherwise drift up the social scale.

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves.

Who could blame the citizens of Massachusetts for rejoicing when spring is so close at hand? Winter in New England is merciless and cruel, a season that instills a particular melancholy in its residents and a hopelessness that is all but impossible to shake.

I believe all Americans are born with certain inalienable rights. As a child of God, I believe my rights are not derived from the constitution. My rights are not derived from any government. My rights are not denied by any majority. My rights are because I exist. They were given to me and each of my fellow citizens by our creator, and they represent the essence of human dignity.

I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.