The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. — George Washington

My Take – It is long past time to halt the decline of our country.  If we hope to pass on a world worth having to our children and their children, we must get off our butts and start making it so.  We can no longer put off the hard decisions or avoid the painful steps.  The time has come to return to what we truly are and leave behind that which we have become.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. — Thomas Jefferson

My Take – Good government is small government.  For over a century, we have forgotten the adage “Mind your own bloody business” when it comes to the government.  The goal of my generation should be to trim back government to at least the level of overreach under which our grandparents lived.  If we can do that, the momentum should be strong enough for our children to continue until government returns to its proper, minor role in the lives of the citizenry.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. — John Adams

My Take – Do not be fooled by your heart when you should be thinking with your head.  Do not let your feelings get in the way of doing the right thing.  Work with what you know, not what you believe.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power. — Benjamin Franklin

My Take – How much of our freedom has been traded for the illusion of safety?  How much of the value of our countries character has been wasted in order to make us rich paupers in an unethical world?  What is it going to cost to get back our liberty and our virtue?

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it. — Thomas Jefferson

My Take – Freedom means that people are going to do things that piss you off.  It’s the side effect of your freedom to do things that will piss others off.  But that is nothing compared to the problems inherent in a system that does not allow its members to do things that are controversial or annoying.  Being kept from saying what you want, believing what you want, or living your own life is much worse than having to deal with other people exercising their rights in a way that gets on your last nerve.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. — George Washington

My Take – Can’t really add much to this.  Washington pretty much gets to the point.  If the goblins of the world know that you have the tools and determination to defend yourself, they will tend to let you live in peace.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. — Thomas Jefferson

My Take :

I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.  — John Adams

My Take – The payoff for all of the blood, sweat, and treasure that has been expended to defend the Republic is that our children sleep secure at night, that they have hope to do better than we do if they only work hard, and that no person can claim primacy over another before the law.  It can be hard to see above the hard work and pain, but when we exercise our rights and defend the revolution, we are giving our children the world their ancestors provided us.

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. — George Washington

My Take – All it takes is for one generation of Americans to forget how precious and lucky our situation is, and it will all be over.  Our nation is not hereditary, and our freedoms are not genetic.  A few short years of tyranny or apathy is all it will take to destroy what has taken over two centuries to build.