A few quotes by the Founding Fathers on the threat of tyranny.

A few quotes by the Founding Fathers on the threat of tyranny.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
— Benjamin Franklin

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
—Thomas Jefferson

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
—Thomas Jefferson

"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
—Thomas Jefferson

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
—George Washington

"Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to liberty."
—George Washington

"Guard against impostures of pretended patriotism."
—George Washington

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
—George Washington

"The means of defense against a foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
—James Madison

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be under the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
—James Madison

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home..If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be under the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." President James Madison

"When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil."
— Thomas Jefferson

"It is the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins."
—Benjamin Franklin

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God"
—Benjamin Franklin

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
—Benjamin Franklin

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect its country from its government."
—Thomas Paine