Category Archives: First Principles

First Principles: If We Suffer Their Minds To Grovel and Creep In Infancy, They Will Grovel All Their Lives

“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and … Continue reading

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First Principles: Society In Every State Is A Blessing, But Government, Even In Its Best State, Is But A Necessary Evil

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, … Continue reading

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First Principles: Our Situation Before Has Been Unpromising and Has Changed For the Better, So, I Trust, It Will Again

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency … Continue reading

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First Principles: It Is Necessary For Every American…To Endeavor To Stop the Dissemination of Principles…Destructive of the Cause For Which They Have Bled

“It is necessary for every American, with becoming energy to endeavor to stop the dissemination of principles evidently destructive of the cause for which they have bled. It must be the combined virtue of the rulers and of the people … Continue reading

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First Principles: How Difficult It Is For Mankind…To Preserve Their Dearest Rights and Best Privileges, Impelled As It Were By an Irresistible Fate of Despotism

“How difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.” – James Monroe (1788)

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First Principles: The Latent Causes of Faction Are Thus Sown In the Nature of Man

“The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.” – James Madison (1787)

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First Principles: I Never Considered A Difference of Opinion In Politics, In Religion, In Philosophy, As A Cause For Withdrawing From A Friend

“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” – Thomas Jefferson

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First Principles: He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second and A Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual

“There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.” – … Continue reading

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First Principles: It Must Be Agreed That Our Governments Have Much Less of Republicanism Than Ought To Have Been Expected

“If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than … Continue reading

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First Principles: Without Freedom of Thought There Can Be No Such Thing As Wisdom; and No Such Thing As Public Liberty, Without Freedom of Speech

“Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” – Benjamin Franklin (1722)

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