Dead Guy Wisdom

A people… who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.

-George Washington, letter to Benjamin Harrison, October 10, 1784

I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty.

-Thomas Jefferson, July 7, 1785

The most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome.

-James Madison, Federalist No. 39, January 1788

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

-John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814

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

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Ludlow, September 6, 1824

To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?

-Ben Franklin addressing Constitutional Convention, 1787

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

-George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Cooper, Nov 29, 1802

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

-John Adams, A Defense of the American Constitutions, 1787

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Shelton Gilliam, June 19, 1808

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own.

-James Madison, Essay on Property, March 29, 1792

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

-Ben Franklin, November 1766

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816

National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.

-John Adams, letter to James Lloyd, January, 1815

To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

-George Washington, First Annual Message, January 8, 1790

Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

-John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.

-James Madison, Federalist No. 45, January 26, 1788

[A] wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

-Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.

-Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, January 3, 1788

The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Spencer Roane, March 9, 1821

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