1089 – Alexander Hamilton on a President Betraying the Nation for Their Own Benefit

“An avaricious man might be tempted to betray the interests of the State to the acquisition of wealth. An ambitious man might make his own aggrandizement, by the aid of a foreign power, the price of his treachery to his constituents. The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue, which would make it wise in a Nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind, as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a Magistrate created and circumstanced as would be a President of the United States.”

-Alexander Hamilton

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831 – “The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.”

–Hannah Arendt

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825 – “History shows that no Administration from the time of Washington to the present has been free from … mistakes. I leave comparisons to history, claiming only that I have acted in every instance from a conscientious desire to do what was right, constitutional, within the law, and for the very best interests of the whole people. Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent.”

–Ulysses S Grant, 18th President of the United States of America

628 – “In conclusion it may be permitted to me to remark that I have often warned my countrymen of the dangers which now surround us. … I feel that my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly, performed, and, whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country.”

–James Buchannan, 15th President of the United States of America

530 – “There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another. This conception is a potent menace to social regeneration. All human experience teaches that methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim. The means employed become, through individual habit and social practice, part and parcel of the final purpose; they influence it, modify it, and presently the aims and means become identical.”

–Emma Goldman

458 – “History shows that almost all tyrants have been demagogues who gained the favor of the people by their accusations of the notables.”

Alternative Translation: “For the generality of tyrants were indeed mere demagogues, who gained credit with the people by oppressing the nobles.”

–Aristotle

371 – “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

–James Madison, 4th President of the United States of America [See Source Notes for context of this quote]

349 – “The GOP tax bill’s bringing out my inner socialist. The sex scandals are bringing out my inner feminist. Donald Trump and Roy Moore are bringing out my inner liberal. WHAT IS HAPPENING?”

–Bill Kristol, Founder and Editor-at-Large of The Weekly Standard

295 – “The United States is not so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable that we can ignore what the world thinks of us or our record.”

–Howard Zinn

250 – “Teachers are on the front lines with young people to help them understand that they can be part of a positive change for a better future.”

–Roger Brooks [For the full message, see the link in the source]