“A democracy cannot be both ignorant and free.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused. A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power which knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. – James Madison

“If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.” Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf

“When the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
Thomas Jefferson

“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. ” ―     William L. Shirer

“The great object is that every man be armed.” and “Everyone who is able may have a gun.” Patrick Henry

“Congress has no power to disarm the militia.  Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American …the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.” – Tench Coxe (a post on the subject Militia) (American definition)

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. ” – Thomas Jefferson

“…to disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them…” – George Mason (pertaining to England disarming Americans)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. C. S. Lewis

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting.” Walter Lippmann

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms…” – Richard Henry Lee

“As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business government has to do therewith.” – Thomas Paine

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech.” Benjamin Franklin

I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. – Thomas Jefferson (a post)

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.– George Washington

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but the newspapers. – Thomas Jefferson

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody. – Thomas Paine

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. – Thomas Jefferson

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns and the federal government our foreign ones. – Thomas Jefferson (a post)

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any body of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. – Noah Webster

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. – Thomas Jefferson

When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny. – Thomas Paine

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms. -Thomas Jefferson

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. – Thomas Jefferson (paraphrase)

When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated. – Thomas Jefferson

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation. – James Madison

If we were directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we would soon want for bread. – Thomas Jefferson

In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. – Thomas Jefferson

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. – Daniel Webster

“Beware the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” –Thomas Paine

“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” Edmund Burke

“The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.” Thomas Jefferson

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants.  It is the creed of slaves.” -William Pitt

“We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The whole of the Bill is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals…It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has the right to deprive them of.” – Albert Gallatin (Bill of Rights)

“Government is not reason.  It is not eloquence.  It is a force, like fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master.” – George Washington

Understand the context in which this was written concerning Shays’ Rebellion, Jefferson is not being double tongued or inciting violence but rather accepting that it is what it is. And consider which is worse lethargy or the occasional necessity? What are the concerns that we are presented with for this generation? What path are we on? What will we do about it?

“…Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure…” -Thomas Jefferson

Remember that the debates of our founding fathers were in large over the distrust of the government. We had broken away from tyranny and were careful to set up a form of self-government that would preserve our liberty. With that in mind the founding fathers acknowledged that ultimately freedom was in our hands.

Resource: In Search of Liberty