"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive." --Thomas Jefferson

"Posterity — you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." —John Quincy Adams

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."

Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, wrote, "the greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."