Contribute
Sign In
Quotes
Founders
Documents
What is WWFD?
Contact Us
Quotes by Founder:
Abigail Adams (2)
Adam Smith (2)
Alexander Hamilton (22)
Alexander McDougal (1)
Andrew Hamilton (1)
Archibald MacLaine (1)
Benjamin Church (1)
Benjamin Franklin (50)
Benjamin Rush (5)
Charles Carroll (1)
Charles Pinckney (2)
Daniel Webster (4)
Edmund Burke (1)
Edmund Randolph (1)
Elbridge Gerry (1)
Elias Boudinot, LL.D. (1)
Fisher Ames (4)
Francis Bacon (2)
George Berkeley (1)
George Mason (6)
George Washington (48)
Gouverneur Morris (4)
James Iredell (4)
James Madison (39)
James Monroe (9)
James Otis (2)
James Wilson (6)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (2)
John Adams (38)
John Barnard (1)
John Dickinson (2)
John Hancock (1)
John Howard Paine (1)
John Jay (5)
John Joseph Henry (1)
John Locke (1)
John Marshall (1)
John Paul Jones (1)
John Quincy Adams (7)
John Rutledge (1)
John Witherspoon (2)
Joseph Warren (1)
Michel Jean De Crevecoeur (3)
Nathan Hale (1)
Nathanael Greene (2)
Noah Webster (8)
Oliver Ellsworth (1)
Patrick Henry (7)
Rev. Jonathan Mayhew (1)
Richard Henry Lee (1)
Rufus King (1)
Samuel Adams (13)
Samuel Phillips Payson (1)
Samuel West (1)
Sarah Updike Goddard (1)
Silas Downer (1)
Simeon Howard (1)
Sir William Blackstone (1)
Thomas Hobbes (1)
Thomas Jefferson (80)
Thomas Paine (47)
Washington Irving (2)
William Blackstone (1)
William Bradford (1)
William Cullen Bryant (1)
William Goudy (1)
William Johnson (2)
William Penn (28)
William Pierce (1)
William Pitt (1)
Zephaniah Swift (1)
Your search for "
source of authority
" returned 17 results from 12 Founders.
James Madison:
"The adversaries
of
the Constitution seem to have lost sight
of
the people altogether in their reasoning on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities
of
each other. These gentlemen must here be reminded
of
their error. They must be told that the ultimate
authority
, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone."
source: Federalist Papers, No. 46, p. 294
source
of
authority
,
corruption
of
officials
Alexander Hamilton:
"The fabric
of
American empire ought to rest on the solid basis
of
the consent
of
the people. The streams
of
national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain
of
all legitimate
authority
."
source: Federalist Papers, No. 22, p.152.
source
of
power
,
right to authority
Thomas Jefferson:
"I consider the people who constitute a society or nation as the
source
of
all
authority
in that nation."
source: Bergh, 3:227
true authority
,
people governement
Thomas Jefferson:
"All
authority
belongs to the people."
source: Ford, 10:190
ture authority
,
people government
,
authority holder
William Penn:
"An husband and wife that love and value on another, show their children and servants, that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their
authority
in their families, by their contempt
of
one another: and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples."
source: Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693.
marriage
,
union
,
example
,
love
,
parents and children
,
authority
Thomas Jefferson:
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."
source: Summary View of the Rights of British America 1775
source
of
freedom
,
gifts from God
Andrew Hamilton:
"We ought at the same time to be upon our guard against Power, wherever we apprehend that it may affect ourselves or our Fellow-Subjects. ... Power may be justly compared to a great river which, while kept within its due bounds is both beautiful and useful; but when it overflows its banks, is then too impetuous to be stemmed, it bears down all before it and brings destruction and desolation wherever it goes. If this then is the nature
of
power, let us at least do our duty, and likewise men use our utmost care to support liberty, the only bulwark against lawless power."
source: Defense of Peter Zenger, 1735.
power
,
authority
,
liberty
,
freedom
,
oppression
Abigail Adams:
"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave cries, "Give, Give."
source: Letter to John Adams, November 27, 1775.
power
,
authority
,
freedom
,
corruption
,
control
James Madison:
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
source: Speech to the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787.
power
,
trust
,
authority
,
balance
of
power
,
corruption
,
deals
James Madison:
"No axiom is more clearly established in law, or in reason, than that wherever the end is required, the means are authorized; whenever a general power to do a thing is given, every particular power necessary for doing it, is included."
source: The Federalist Papers, 1788.
power
,
authority
,
law
,
means to an end
,
the end justifies the means
Noah Webster:
"[O]ur citizens should early understand that the genuine
source
of
correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion."
source: History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 6.
Republic
,
Christianity
,
Bible
,
education
,
Separation
of
Church and State
James Wilson:
"All [laws], however, may be arranged in two different classes. 1) Divine. 2) Human. . . . But it should always be remembered that this law, natural or revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same Divine
source
: it is the law
of
God. . . . Human law must rest its
authority
ultimately upon the
authority
of
that law which is Divine."
source: The Works of the Honorable James Wilson, Bird Wilson, editor (Philadelphia: Lorenzo Press, 1804), Vol. I, pp. 103-105, "Of the General Principles of Law and Obligation."
Natural Law
,
Divine Law
,
Human Law
James Iredell:
"The
authority
over money will do everything. A government cannot be supported without money. Our representatives may at any time compel the Senate to agree to a reasonable measure, by withholding supplies till the measure is consented to."
source: Ibid., p.129
power
of
House
of
Representatives
,
compromise
,
creation
of
law
Benjamin Franklin:
"Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs
of
men. These are ambition and avarice; the love
of
power and the love
of
money. Separately, each
of
these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view
of
the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes
of
such men a post
of
honor, that shall at the same time be a place
of
profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number
of
such places it is that renders the British government so tempestuous. The struggles for them are the true
source
of
all those factions which are perpetually dividing the nation, distracting its councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless and mischievous wars, and often compelling a submission to dishonorable terms
of
peace."
source: Ibid., 9:591
war
,
motive
,
corruption
,
tendency
of
man
,
oppression
Thomas Paine:
"Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class
of
men to another; for who is he who could be the first giver, or by what principle, or on what
authority
could he possess the right
of
giving?"
source: Dissertation on First Principles of Government, 1795
Rights
,
George Mason:
"Now all acts
of
legislature apparently contrary to natural right and justice, are, in our laws, and must be in the nature
of
things considered as void. The laws
of
nature are the laws
of
God; whose
authority
can be superseded by no power on earth. A legislature must not obstruct our obedience to him from whose punishments they cannot protect us."
source: Robin v. Hardaway, 1772.
natural law
,
balance
of
powers
,
legislature
James Madison:
"The appointment to offices is,
of
all the functions
of
Republican and perhaps every other form
of
Government, the most difficult to guard against abuse. Bive it to a numerous body, and you at once destroy all responsibility, and create a perpetual
source
of
faction and corruption. Give it to the Executive wholly, and it may be made an engine
of
improper influence and favoritism."
source: Observations on Jefferson's Draft Constitution, October 15, 1788.
appointments
,
elections
,
balance
of
powers
Quote of the Day!
Enter your email and get daily quotes of genius from the Founders sent to your inbox!
Sponsors
The 9.12 Project Network rights reserved.