Danger

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Source: Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1752)
Taken From: International Man, The Worst Advice You'll Ever Get, 2011/12/13

Mental Attitudes

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude 

Source:  Unknown, commonly attributed to Thomas Jefferson
Taken From: InternetIndependence.com; The Passion Myth 8/5/2011

The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms

No slave shall keep any arms whatever, nor pass, unless with written orders from his master or employer, or in his company, with arms from one place to another. Arms in possession of a slave contrary to this prohibition shall be forfeited to him who will seize them.

Source: Thomas Jefferson
Taken From:  A Bill Concerning Slaves, Virginia Assembly, 1779

Resistance to Government

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Source: Thomas Jefferson
Letter to James Madison (30 January 1787); referring to Shays' Rebellion

Resistance to Government

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

Source: Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Abigail Smith Adams from Paris while a Minister to France (22 February 1787), referring to Shay's Rebellion

On Government

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. 

Source:  George Washington (Disputed, see Wikiquote)
Taken From: Wikiquote

Religion and Law

it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Source: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781
Taken From:  Ron Paul, Liberty Defined (pg 107) section on Evolution Versus Creation, 2011

Lazy Liberty

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.

Source: John Philpot Curran (1790)
Taken From:  Does Secession Without a State Militia Make Sense?

Moral Blindness

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference of age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.

Source:  Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, p. 128
Taken From: Casey Research, Conversations with Casey, 12/22/2010, My Favorite Quotes

Justice and Trepidation

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever . . ." 

Source: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia1781-1782
Taken From:  Chris Manion, LRC Blog 4/18/2011

God's Help

It is the diligent hand that gathers in, because its works are blessed. . . . And now, not any further, and more particularly to add, how it is most God's glory, and man's good, that we should help ourselves, that God may help us.

Samuel Moodey in 1715, "The Debtors Monitor."
Source:  http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3370987
Taken From:  http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north956.html 

Destroyers and Benefactors

As long as mankind shall bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst for military glory will remain the vice of the most exalted characters. 

Edward Gibbon (Unsourced)

Edward Gibbon is most famous for his work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 
Taken From:  http://www.antiwar.com/quotes.php

The Military Spirit

The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these states ... Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America.

Gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789

O Peace!

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.

Alexander Pope (3rd most quoted writer behind Shakespeare & Tennyson)

Jefferson and Gun Control [edited]

The laws ... which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. ... It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.

Cesare Beccaria (1764, Essay on Crimes and Punishments)

A similar quote is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but he merely included the above passage in his "Legal Commonplace" Book.  That quote that is often attributed to him is below.  Thanks to "Josh" in the comments section for bring this to my attention.

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Jefferson and Bacon

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.

Thomas Jefferson (February 7, 1788, Letter to Alexander Donald)

Public Opinion v Pretense of Governing

I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe.

Thomas Jefferson (Jan. 16. 1787, Letter to Edward Carrington)

Rise and Fall

The best instituted governments, carry in them the seeds of their destruction: and, though they grow and improve for a time, they will soon tend visibly to their dissolution. Every hour they live is an hour the less that they have to live.

Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke, 1738

  A British political philosopher who was very influential for the US Founding Fathers and Voltaire

The Man of the System

The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests, or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it. He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse to impress upon it. If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful. If they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder.

Adam Smith (Theory of Moral Sentiments, Paragraph VI.II.42, 1759)

Contradictions in Leading

The statesmen who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. 

Adam Smith (1776, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations)