Famous Quotes from US History in the 1700s

Mr. Sedivy's
History Classes:

More Features:

Highlands Ranch High School - Mr. Sedivy
Highlands Ranch, Colorado American History

- Famous Quotes from American History -
Quotes from America in the 1700s

Patrick Henry 1736 - 1799

May 1765
"Caesar had his Brutus - Charles the First, his Cromwell - and George the Third - ('Treason,' cried the Speaker) ... may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it."

March 23, 1775
"I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

John Adams 1735 - 1826

1774
"A government of laws, and not of men."

March 23, 1776
"In politics the middle way is none at all."

1776 - Thoughts on Government
"The happiness of society is the end of government."

1776 - Thoughts on Government
"Fear is the foundation of most government."

July 15, 1813 - Letter to Thomas Jefferson
"You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other."

Samuel Adams 1722 - 1803

April 19, 1775 - On hearing gunfire at Lexington:
"What a glorious morning is this."

(Traditionally quoted as: "What a glorious morning for America.")

Nathan Hale 1755 - 1776

September 22, 1776 - Prior to his execution by the British for spying
"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

John Paul Jones 1747 - 1792

September 23, 1779 - As his ship was about to sink, after having been asked whether he had lowered his flag:
"I have not yet begun to fight."

Thomas Paine 1737 - 1809

"A share in two revolutions is living to some purpose."

1776 - Common Sense
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise."

1776 - Common Sense
"As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith."

December 1776 - The Crisis
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women."

1792 - On Edmund Burke losing the debate on the French Revolution to Charles James Fox, in the House of Commons:
"As he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick."

1792 - The Rights of Man
"When, in countries that are called civilized, we see age going to the workhouse and youth to the gallows, something must be wrong in the system of government."

1792 - The Rights of Man
"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

1794 - The Age of Reason
"It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe, what one does not believe."

1794 - The Age of Reason
"Any system of religion that has any thing in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system."

1795 - The Age of Reason Part 2
"The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again."

- Famous Quotes Throughout World History -

Highlands Ranch High School 9375 South Cresthill Lane Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80126 303-471-7000

| Home | Back to top of page | Site Contents |