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Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams Quotes

Founding Father of the United States

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Famous Samuel Adams Quotes

“No people ever yet groaned under the heavy yoke of slavery, but when they deserv'd it. ...The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought. ...If therefore a people will not be free; if they have not virtue enough to maintain their liberty against a presumptuous invader, they deserve no pity, and are to be treated with contempt and ignominy.”

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Author:Samuel Adams
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“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!”

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Author:Samuel Adams
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“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.”

IfsMenShouldCountryAmericaSufferingLibertyStruggleViolenceGenerationsBloodDangerDesignDutyFairsConstitutionMarkWorthyTreasureTyrannyOur CountryPatriotismEnlightenedPatrioticExpensesAncestorPatriotToilEverlastingInheritanceCheatedHazardsCivil LibertiesArtificeAmerican PatrioticInfamyGreat PatrioticUs ConstitutionAmerican PatriotismAmerican PatriotPatriotism In AmericaAmerican ConstitutionPatriotism And Freedom4th Of July Military
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“If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.”

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Book:The planting of colonies in New England
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“Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom," it is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.”

IfsMayRememberSufferingLibertyMillionsRightsEventsSeriousInternetPerseveranceSakeFormerMiserableConsiderationLatterResolveContemplatingFree SpeechDoomFortitudePosterityUnbornForefathersDeliberationCircumspection
Author:Samuel Adams
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“The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.”

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Author:Samuel Adams
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“And if a minister shall usurp the supreme and absolute govern ment of America, and set up his instructions as laws in the colonies, and their Governors shall be so weak or so wicked, as for the sake of keeping their places, to be made the instruments in putting them in execu tion, who will presume to say that the people have not a right, or that it is not their indispensible duty to God and their Country, by all rational means in their power to RESIST THEM.”

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“And if we now cast our eyes over the nations of the earth, we shall find that, instead of possessing the pure religion of the Gospel, they may be divided either into infidels, who deny the truth; or politicians who make religion a stalking horse for their ambition; or professors, who walk in the trammels of orthodoxy, and are more attentive to traditions and ordinances of men than to the oracles of truth.”

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Author:Samuel Adams
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“If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.”

IfsMenMayGovernmentQualityRepublicanFoundationPerseveranceAffairSimplicitySupremeChosenMannersExcellentPermanentWelfareSeatsVotingHonourPossessedModerationFortitudeZealSobrietyTemperanceCommonwealthSupreme BeingKnowledge And Wisdom
Author:Samuel Adams
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