To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

John Adams: A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, 1787-1788

• Adams, John
• Adams, Samuel
• Bartlett, Josiah
• Braxton, Carter
• Carroll, Charles
• Chase, Samuel
• Clark, Abraham
• Clymer, George
• Ellery, William
• Floyd, William
• Franklin, Benjamin
• Gerry, Elbridge
• Gwinnett, Button
• Hall, Lyman
• Hamilton, Alexander
• Hancock, John
• Harrison V, Benjamin
• Hart, John
• Hewes, Joseph
• Heyward, Thomas
• Hooper, William
• Hopkins, Stephen
• Hopkinson, Francis
• Huntington, Samuel
• Jefferson, Thomas
• Lee, Francis Lightfoot
• Lee, Richard Henry
• Lewis, Francis
• Livingston, Philip
• Lynch, Thomas
• Madison, James

• McKean, Thomas
• Middleton, Arthur
• Morris, Lewis
• Morris, Robert
• Morton, John
• Nelson, Thomas
• Paca, William
• Paine, Thomas
• Paine, Robert Treat
• Penn, John
• Read, George
• Rodney, Caesar
• Ross, George
• Rush, Benjamin
• Rutledge, Edward
• Sherman, Roger
• Smith, James
• Stockton, Richard
• Stone, Thomas
• Taylor, George
• Thomson, Charles
• Thornton, Matthew
• Walton, George
• Washington, George
• Whipple, William
• Williams, William
• Wilson, James
• Witherspoon, John
• Wolcott, Oliver
• Wythe, George

The people… to be encouraged in all cases to follow truth as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession

Thomas Jefferson: to John Adams, 1819

Truth and reason are eternal. They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail; however, in times and places they may be overborne for a while by violence, military, civil, or ecclesiastical

Thomas Jefferson: 1810

Freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is… sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth

Thomas Jefferson: Second Inaugural Address, 1805

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell and untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and 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. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

Thomas Jefferson: to Peter Carr, 1785

Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself;… she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflicts unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

Thomas Jefferson: Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1779

Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men, to whom she is rarely know and seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men

Thomas Jefferson: 1776

I know but one code of morality for men, whether acting singly or collectively. He who says I will be a rouge when I act in company with a hundred others, but an honest man when I act alone, will be believed in former assertion, but not in the latter… if the morality of one man produces a just line of conduct in him, acting individually, why should not the morality of one hundred men produce a just line of conduct in them, acting together?

Thomas Jefferson: 1789

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest

Thomas Jefferson: Summary view of the Rights of British American – 1774

Let me add that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters

Benjamin Franklin: 1787

Without virtue, man can have no happiness in this world

Benjamin Franklin: 1728