Samuel Adams Quotes

If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating 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 set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen! – Samuel Adams

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and 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, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of 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 false and designing men. – Samuel Adams

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds. – Samuel Adams

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. – Samuel Adams

“The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.” – Samuel Adams

“The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams

“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” – Samuel Adams

“It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control.” – Samuel Adams

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” – Samuel Adams

“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.” – Samuel Adams

“We cannot make Events. Our Business is wisely to improve them.” – Samuel Adams

“The country shall never want, virtuous and able legislators, while men are educated who know the rights of freemen and their own importance.” – Samuel Adams

“If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.” – Samuel Adams

“The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.” – Samuel Adams

“Let us consider, brethren, we are struggling for our best birthrights and inheritance, which being infringed, renders all our blessings precarious in their enjoyments, and, consequently trifling in their value. Let us disappoint the Men who are raising themselves on the ruin of this Country.” – Samuel Adams

“One of the greatest services that can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.” – Samuel Adams

“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 … If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.” – Samuel Adams

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” – Samuel Adams

“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.” – Samuel Adams

“The rights of the colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Lawgiver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.” – Samuel Adams

“May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams

“It is indeed a very great honor to be accounted worthy to act such a part, as to be called to contend, single-handed, with a great people. To add to their condescension and indulgence, they tell us, that though their conduct toward Americans, for ten years past, has been quite faultless, yet, if we confess our fault in a proper manner, the past shall be forgotten, and all the usual rewards of confessions shall be granted.” – Samuel Adams

“The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.” – Samuel Adams

“The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams

“The rights of the colonists may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Lawgiver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.” – Samuel Adams

“When men have a power, without any check or control, to keep men in awe, they will use it without any restraint, until they come to that state of things as to be too late to subsist of themselves, either to conquer or to propose terms of peace.” – Samuel Adams

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” – Samuel Adams

“I have always been in favor of the freedom of religion. For whilst all other religions are innocent games, my religion is the only serious matter. It was sincerely troubling to be insulted by being an interested man. But it can not have a proper influence on my political behaviors in this republic.” – Samuel Adams

“The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” – Samuel Adams

“The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.” – Samuel Adams

“The public debt is the greatest of dangers to be feared; it is the interest cunning of oppressors, its forces are the forces of all those who are interested in giving them strength, and all measures are open to pacify them all the time.” – Samuel Adams

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” – Samuel Adams

“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” – Samuel Adams

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” – Samuel Adams

“If a minority of a popular people will give the people weapons, we will not be deprived of the right to revolutionize tyrants, and we should not use the weapons we have more than to prevent wrong.” – Samuel Adams

“The greatest friends of an assembly are noisy; tell them to be tenacious on all their rights, and to be severe in demanding them, and they will be the most popular body that ever existed.” – Samuel Adams 3

“Great emergencies remind me of the starry night; they only appear in their splendor when all other lights are extinguished” – Samuel Adams 3

“The best way to see faith, I am told, is to close your eyes.” – Samuel Adams 3

“Slaves are natural when I remember that it is possible to rob people at all costs and looking at their rights as if it were of no consequence.” – Samuel Adams 40. “It is the duty of no interest to do harm to any other, nor is it consistent with justice to require of a man what is incompatible either with justice or good policy.” – Samuel Adams 4

“It is in the interest of the republic that each citizen receives public education, and the right to that education is equal and the same for all citizens.” – Samuel Adams 4

“It is, indeed, a very strong interest, to be accounted worthy of such a challenge, as if called on single-handed, by a great number of people. To add glory to his humility and happiness, they tell us, that while their behavior towards Americans for the past ten years has been quite complete with less frills, yet if we confess our mistakes properly, the past will be forgotten, and all the young rewards will be given.” – Samuel Adams 4

“Let us consider, brother, while we are struggling for our rights and inheritance, which have been dissolved and rendered all our blessings precarious in their enjoyment, and accordingly insignificant in their value. Let’s stop people who are represented by the fallen land.” – Samuel Adams 4

“One of the greatest services that can be provided to any country is the use of useful plants.” – Samuel Adams 4

“The decision of the people may fail, but the institution of responsibility with the people, with power, is beyond the general resistance; resistance and a tougher minority who can keep a fire between people.” – Samuel Adams 4

“The country will never matter worthy and comfortable legislators, while there is little education for those who know the rights of veterans and their importance.” – Samuel Adams 4

“Party delay has irritated people the most. Delay causes irritation and prejudice causes difference; the only thing that makes a difference, the party fades and people naturally prevent. – Samuel Adams 4

“It does not require a large majority, but a person who is too irritable and steadfastly active, to have minds infallible.” – Samuel Adams 4

“It is always dangerous to make public freedoms not so controlled by the majority” – Samuel Adams 50. “When people become ignorant, ignorant, and corrupted in their behavior, they will go beyond their own weight even if they are not underperformers from abroad or from home.” – Samuel Adams