Founding fathers quote thread

[luckyshot]

 

[Jack V Savage]

I guess us non-geniuses are easily entertained.

Liberty is a numerically inferior, militarily superior force overturning election results. I guess that's one definition of it...

Obviously, most supporters of democratic gov't favor protection of rights also.

 

[Fawlty]

Okay I'm gonna say it since I didn't see anybody else say it.

Grabbing a Founder quote that is in tension with today's state of affairs in order to suggest that we're doing things wrong is douchey and dull. So is the worship of their inerrancy, even when they don't agree (gee, smacks of Christianity...), and don't even get me started on the fake ones. Half of the quotes that are meant to elicit a patriotic hate boner could just as easily be criticizing the Founders for getting it wrong- honestly wrong- but wrong. We haven't needed to refresh the tree of liberty with blood, you gloomy fucks. It's like a Ron Paul rally up in here.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws - Mayer Amschel Rothschild

TCK wins the thread. Quote is dumb, fake, and not keeping with the topic.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Okay I'm gonna say it since I didn't see anybody else say it.

Grabbing a Founder quote that is in tension with today's state of affairs in order to suggest that we're doing things wrong is douchey and dull. So is the worship of their inerrancy, even when they don't agree (gee, smacks of Christianity...), and don't even get me started on the fake ones. Half of the quotes that are meant to elicit a patriotic hate boner could just as easily be criticizing the Founders for getting it wrong- honestly wrong- but wrong. We haven't needed to refresh the tree of liberty with blood, you gloomy fucks. It's like a Ron Paul rally up in here.

Ron Paul 2012!!!!!!!

 

[Deleted member 196663]

Exhausted from reading so many misattrubuted Kenny Florian quotes.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Liberty is a numerically inferior, militarily superior force overturning election results. I guess that's one definition of it...

You're welcome to take from it what you want, but if that's the best you can do then it isn't the quote that's "dumb". Have a great weekend.

 

[Jack V Savage]

You're welcome to take from it what you want, but if that's the best you can do then it isn't the quote that's "dumb". Have a great weekend.

I'd actually make the opposite suggestion. If you can get more out of a dumb quote, good for you, but it is bad. More than the childish and authoritarian message, the phrasing is unworthy of someone like Franklin.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

If you can get more out of a dumb quote, good for you, but it is bad.

Yes, your opinion is fact. As usual. Are we done here?

 

[Jack V Savage]

Yes, your opinion is fact. As usual. Are we done here?

We can be done any time. You don't want to explain why the quote isn't as dumb as it sounds, and I already explained why it sounds dumb.

 

[waiguoren]

“The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”

--James Madison, Father of the US Constitution, Federalist No. 45

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

You don't want to explain why the quote isn't as dumb as it sounds,

Spoiler: Stupid Bullshit

I missed where you asked. Maybe it was too subtle. Like when (after one failed snarky attempt to leave it at agree to disagree) I invited you to give a less cynical interpretation, from which forth might spring discussion of interest. When you didn't I decided to cut bait. That's not true. I was trying to cut bait the whole time.

I'm here for the quotes and I don't know TS wants me helping to set a tone of petty squabbling. Surely the forum would prefer to see you pick the brilliant minds of the past's thoughts that you find of value, rather than nitpick what tickles my fancy. I know I would.

Here's why your assessment is lacking, if that's what you mean.

It touches on two fundamentally important concepts. Popular opinion and self-defense. It introduces the nuance of numerical might not making right (by creating empathy for the perspective of, and potential consequences to, the noticeably disadvantaged minority. It reinforces the notion that this is a world where might almost always does make right. Or at the very least that the lack of it can get you killed far easier. Let's file the concept under tyranny of the masses. Lastly, its clear support of individual rights is near and dear to my heart. I consider that an enlightened view. Not bad for a couple dozen words.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Stay away from political parties.
Stay away from foreign entanglements.


Hmmmmm.......

 

[12ga.]

Thomas Paine is my favorite FF.

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion. Thomas Paine

Needless to say he was one of three FF who abhored slavery and didnt want it.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
Benjamin Franklin

I fucking hate this stupid, stupid quote.
It's elitist bullshit. Lots of people would make that trade and they're still deserving of the same liberty and security as Ben Franklin. Just because they'd make what seems like a sensible exchange, in their estimation, Franklin says they don't deserve either?
Fuck off, Ben, fuck off.

 

[12ga.]

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.” – Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791

So basically 99.99% of what Federal government does today is illegal. When did it start?

 

[waiguoren]

So basically 99.99% of what Federal government does today is illegal.

Yes.

Supporting textualists/originalists for the federal courts is probably our only hope. Trump deserves a lot of credit for the appointment of Neil Gorsuch.

When did it start?

Based on my reading of the history, Alexander Hamilton's advocacy of the creation of a national bank in 1790 is where it began.

Madison was adamantly opposed to the creation of the bank. He argued that the federal government had no authority to incorporate a bank or to establish a mint (both the mint and the bank were included in Hamilton's bill). Jefferson (as Secretary of State) made similar arguments against the bill. Nevertheless, President Washington signed it. In my estimation, that was Washington's greatest blunder.

Note that the Bill of Rights would not be ratified until months after Hamilton's bank bill had passed. I suspect that if the 10th Amendment had been ratified one year earlier, our federal government would be dramatically more limited today.

 

[lilelvis]

There are so many quotes from the founding fathers of the United States that are very applicable today. I wanted to share some of my favorites. Feel free to do the same.

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
John Adams

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.
John Adams

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams

If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.
Samuel Adams

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
Benjamin Franklin

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
Benjamin Franklin

Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature…. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation … it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.
James Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States, 1877

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
Patrick Henry, American colonial revolutionary

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

I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, (A)nd if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
Thomas Jefferson

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! — All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Abraham Lincoln

The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.
Abraham Lincoln

We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts–not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln

It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.
Thomas Paine

Discuss.......

Wow Viva - great choices. Great thread.

 

[lilelvis]

Okay I'm gonna say it since I didn't see anybody else say it.

Grabbing a Founder quote that is in tension with today's state of affairs in order to suggest that we're doing things wrong is douchey and dull. So is the worship of their inerrancy, even when they don't agree (gee, smacks of Christianity...), and don't even get me started on the fake ones. Half of the quotes that are meant to elicit a patriotic hate boner could just as easily be criticizing the Founders for getting it wrong- honestly wrong- but wrong. We haven't needed to refresh the tree of liberty with blood, you gloomy fucks. It's like a Ron Paul rally up in here.

Naw, you're right fawlty, DC is super keen. Right on track.

 

[Neph]

Here's one of our former Prime Ministers sculling a beer at the cricket:



He previously held the world record for fastest drinking of a yard of beer.