Interesting Quotes of Famous People

(Do you get the impression that early Presidents would be Libertarian if they were alive today?)

George Washington - President - 1789 - 1797

"Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

Martin Van Buren - President - Sept. 4, 1837

"All communities are apt to look to government too much ... The framers of our excellent Constitution ... wisely judged the less government interferes with private pursuits the better for the general prosperity."

James Madison - President - 1809 - 1817

"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

William Harrison - President - March 1841 - April 1841

"If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends."

John Tyler - President - 1841 - 1845

"Let it, then, be henceforth proclaimed to the world, that man's conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God."

James Polk - President - 1845 - Nov. 1795

"Melancholy is the condition of that people whose government can be sustained only by a system which periodically transfers large amounts from the labor of the many to the coffers of the few."

James A. Garfield - President - March 1881 - September 1881

"It is a wise and safe rule to follow in all legislation that whatever the people can do without legislation will be better than by the intervention of the State and Nation."