Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Benjamin Franklin

Quote by Benjamin Franklin

“Governments having failed the people, the people are entirely justified in assuming for themselves an essential role in government. Where a government takes proper measures to protect the people under its care, such a proceeding might have been thought both unnecessary and unjustifiable: But here it is quite the Reverse.”

Quote by Benjamin Franklin

Create image

Author

Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was a prominent figure in American history, serving as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a statesman, scientist, inventor, and writer, born on January 17, 1706, and died on April 17, 1790. Franklin is renowned for his contributions to electricity, his support for the American colonial independence movement, and his successful diplomatic efforts in France. more

You May Also Like

“Character enough of an opposite description ... My opinion is ... that you could as soon scrub the blackamore white, as to change the principles of a profest Democrat; and that he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country.”

CountryEnoughCharacterGovernmentWhiteLibertyOpinionPrinciplesOppositesDemocratDescription
Book:The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
Create image

“We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.-Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.”

IfsHumanityJusticeLibertyGenerationsHonorCostSucceedSlaveryGuiltEndureSurrenderInnocentAncestorContestsBondagePosterityHereditaryWretchednessInfamyGallantResigning
Book:Jefferson Himself: The Personal Narrative of a Many-Sided American
Create image

“In proportion to the value of this revolution; in proportion to the importance of instruments, every word of which decides a question between power and liberty; in proportion to the solemnity of acts, proclaiming the will authenticated by the seal of the people, the only earthly source of authority, ought to be the vigilance with which they are guarded by every citizen in private life, and the circumspection with which they are executed by every citizen in public trust.”

PeopleValuesLibertySourceRevolutionOughtCitizensAuthorityImportanceInstrumentsProportionPrivate LifeSealsGuardedVigilanceProclaimingSolemnityPublic TrustCircumspection
Author:James Madison
Create image

“As compacts, charters of government are superior in obligation to all others, because they give effect to all others. As truths, none can be more sacred, because they are bound, on the conscience by the religious sanctions of an oath. As metes and bounds of government, they transcend all other land-marks, because every public usurpation is an encroachment on the private right, not of one, but of all.”

GivingGovernmentReligiousLibertyLandEffectsConscienceMarkSacredBoundsObligationSuperiorsOathSanctionsCharterEncroachmentUsurpation
Book:The Writings of James Madison: 1790-1802
Create image

“MORAL LAW, Evidence of.- Man has been subjected by his Creator to the moral law, of which his feelings, or conscience as it is sometimes called, are the evidence with which his Creator has furnished him. ... The moral duties which exist between individual and individual in a state of nature, accompany them into a state of society ... their Maker not having released them from those duties on their forming themselves into a nation.”

MenHas BeensSometimesStatesFeelingsLawIndividualNationsLibertyMoralDutyConscienceEvidenceCreatorMakersAccompanyMoral LawMoral Duty
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, in matters spiritual and temporal is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the laws of nations and all well-grounded and municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.”

MenWellsMatterSpiritualLawNationsLibertyEqualEternalFoundationFormerEntitledGroundedGod And Nature
Book:The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1770-1773
Create image