Quote#Politics & Power
It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army…
Quote bySamuel Adams · 1722–1803
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Writings of Samuel Adams, Vol. III, 1773-1777, collected and edited by Harry Alonzo Gushing, P.G. Putnam & Sons, New York and London, 1907, pp. 230 and 251.
English (original)
It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control... The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no danger of their making use of their Power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them.
— Samuel Adams
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It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.
He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a …
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The Utopian schemes of levelling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable, as those which vest all property in the Crown, are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government unconstitutional.