The Ernest Chronicler

With all of the hubbub and health care fighting, I've looked through this web page and find some good Jefferson quotes that still speak today.  Everything should be taken in context, but I'm afraid that I only have snippets, so here goes:


"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"


"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."


"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all."


"Never spend your money before you have it."


"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."


"The accounts of the United States ought to be, and may be made, as simple as those of a common farmer, and capable of being understood by common farmers."


"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."


My personal favorite:
"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!"


and similarly:
"When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."