You can’t really understand what is going on unless you understand what came before.
– Steve Jobs
You can’t make sense of the present without understanding the past, and few eras offer more enduring wisdom than the founding of our great nation.
America’s Founding Fathers would have been modern-day best-selling authors and people you needed to follow on social media.
They wrote a lot.
They read a lot.
They debated a lot.
They needed to be excellent communicators.
They understood that carefully chosen words could shape public opinion, build consensus, and literally form a nation.
The Essential Wisdom of the Founding Fathers, edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi, is a short collection of quotes from George Washington to Alexander Hamilton and every prominent leader during the formation of the United States of America.
Here are some of my favorites.
Freedom
The Founders agonized over freedom.
This first quote is from John Adams written in 1818 to his best friend, Thomas Jefferson:
When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking, or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists, but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
They had won freedom from England, set the foundation for a new nation, and were still figuring things out as they went.
They could only dream about the American Dream – an idea that we can pursue every day.
The following quote is from Thomas Paine in his The American Crisis work, written on September 12, 1777:
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Running a republic is hard.
No one gets everything they want, and there is always someone upset about the laws and procedures passed.
Our system may not be perfect, but it’s still the best we’ve got.
As Winston Churchill said:
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
The Revolutionary War
This next quote is from Patrick Henry speaking to the Virginia legislature on March 23, 1775:
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable. And let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun. The next gale that surveys from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand idle here? Is life so dark or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains – and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
After reading this, I felt like running through a wall for Henry.
He had the intensity of a battlefield general and the delivery of a 1775 Tony Robbins.
The colonists were willing and able to risk everything for the opportunity to break from the tyranny of the King of England.
Here’s a great speech John Adams gave to the Continental Congress on July 1, 1776, that had similar vibes as Henry’s:
Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life. I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment: Independence now and Independence forever!
The following quote made my eyes water.
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
This quote was from Captain Nathan Hale, a 21-year-old American soldier who was captured behind enemy lines while scouting for George Washington. He was hanged by the British in 1776.
His final words before execution remind us how deeply some believed in the cause.
The Founding of the Nation
The author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the following words on July 4, 1776:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
He was helped by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.
Jefferson alone wrote the first draft.
The quote below is from Benjamin Franklin written on January 26, 1784, criticizing the choice of the bald eagle:
I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharpening and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.
I like seeing eagles. I love eating turkey.
Government and Democracy
The Founding Fathers wanted us to have power, and that meant we needed to be informed.
Here are two quotes from Thomas Jefferson on this matter:
Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion by education.
Wisdom of the Founding Fathers
Contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.
– Benjamin Franklin, Maxims and Morals from Dr. Franklin, 1807
There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy.
– George Washington, January 29, 1780
Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
– Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1758
Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
– George Washington, “Rules of Civility,” 1747
Final Thoughts
The Founding Fathers weren’t perfect, but they were principled, thoughtful, and deeply committed to an idea that had never been tested to this extent: self-government.
Their words still guide us.
The book is only 114 pages and is packed with invaluable wisdom.
This last one is just practical life advice from Thomas Jefferson:
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened?
When angry, count to ten, before you speak; if very angry, one hundred.
Now here’s what I’ve been reading, listening, and watching:
Just Keep Buying by Nick Maggiulli
The Seven Frequencies of Communication by Erwin Raphael McManus
The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom
Children’s book (I have a 5-year old): Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems
Here’s what I’ve been writing:
