Quote

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home 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 you were our countrymen!

Samuel Adams

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Samuel Adams
Age: 81 †
Born: 1722
Born: September 27
Died: 1803
Died: October 2
Founding Father Of The United States
Philosopher
Politician
Boston
Massachusetts
Sam Adams
Upon
Gun
Animated
Licking
Peace
Arms
Posterity
Lick
Political
Wealth
Patriot
Countrymen
Hands
Liberty
Founding
Servitude
Home
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Contest
May
Politics
Feed
Lightly
Better
Forget
Chains
Contests
Crouch
Love
Freedom
Tyranny
Tranquility
Counsels

More quotes by Samuel Adams

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He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.
Samuel Adams
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It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.
Samuel Adams
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Nil desperandum, -- Never Despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it.
Samuel Adams
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The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.
Samuel Adams
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If our Trade be taxed, why not our Lands, or Produce in short, everything we possess? They tax us without having legal representation.
Samuel Adams
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It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.
Samuel Adams
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For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can they easily be subdued, where Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue preservd . On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight, without the Aid of foreign Invaders.
Samuel Adams
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Our union is now complete our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties.
Samuel Adams
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If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.
Samuel Adams
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If we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.
Samuel Adams
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I ... [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.
Samuel Adams
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Every one knows that the exercise of military power is forever dangerous to civil rights and we have had recent instances of violences that have been offer'd to private subjects.
Samuel Adams
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I firmly believe that the benevolent Creator designed the republican Form of Government for Man.
Samuel Adams
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The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.
Samuel Adams
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We may look up to Armies for Defence, but Virtue is our best Security. It is not possible that any state should long remain free, where Virtue is not supremely honord.
Samuel Adams
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Man's rights are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.
Samuel Adams
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A nation of shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested.
Samuel Adams
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It requires time to bring honest Men to think & determine alike even in important Matters. Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.
Samuel Adams
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I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue.
Samuel Adams
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In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind.
Samuel Adams