Great Quotes from Abraham Lincoln & Thomas Jefferson

From Abraham Lincoln...

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just
encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down
the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by
example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."


From Thomas Jefferson...

"To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association
- the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."

"I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive."

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."