When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. – Thomas Jefferson

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make great use of it. – John Quincy Adams

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. –John Adams

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. – George Washington

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. – Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government. – Patrick Henry

Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us. – John Hancock

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