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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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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
Giving
Obedience
Make
Bounds
Slave
Approbation
Laws
Enforce
Public
Slaves
Law
Voting
Cannot
Yield
Give
Bound

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I ... [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.
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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.
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I cannot however help repeating Piety, because I think it indispensible. Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.
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Our union is now complete our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties.
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Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.
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One battle would do more towards a Declaration of Independence than a long chain of conclusive arguments in a provincial convention or the Continental Congress.
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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.
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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.
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A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.
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We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection
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Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.
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I would advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from Heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine men were to perish, and only one of a thousand to survive and retain his liberty. One such freeman must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand slaves.
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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.
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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.
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We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them.
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The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.
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If ever a 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.
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He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all. Our forefathers opened the Bible to all.
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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.
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May every citizen ... have a proper sense of the Deity upon his mind and an impression of the declaration recorded in the Bible, 'Him that honoreth Me I will honor, but he that despiseth Me shall be lightly esteemed.'
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