Timeless words from those who stood against tyranny.

“Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe, until a trespass on the constitutional provisions for either, shall be felt with the same keenness that resents an invasion of the dearest rights; until every citizen shall be an Argus to espy, and an Ægeon to avenge, the unhallowed deed.” “Charters,” published in the National Gazette on January 19, 1792 (dated January 18, 1792).

“[Man] has by nature a power… to preserve his property—that is, his life, liberty, and estate—against the injuries and attempts of other men… which is not only consistent with, but absolutely necessary to, the state of nature; and no human laws can abrogate this fundamental right.” —(Second Treatise of Government, Chapter II, Section 6)

"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule."

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

“ The only resource against usurpation, is the inherent right of the people to prevent its exercise.”

“The strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it.”

“So long as people will submit to arbitrary measures, so long will they find masters”

“People hold the invasion of their rights and liberties the most horrid rebellion , and the neglect to defend them against any power whatsoever, the highest treason”

“By the principles of the American Revolution, arbitrary power may and ought to be resisted, even by arms if necessary.”

“An act against the constitution is void: an act against natural equity is void: and if an act of parliament should be made, in the very words of this petition, it would be void. The executive courts must pass such acts into disuse.”

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards. And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”

“ Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed.”

“ Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."

“Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.”

"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

“That which is not just, is not law, and that which is not law, ought not to be obeyed.”

“When our rights are invaded it's high time to throw out prudence”

“The very idea of law originates in men's natural rights. There is no other standard, than natural rights, by which civil law can be measured. Law has always been the name of that rule or principle of justice, which protects those rights. Thus we speak of natural law.”

“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority, and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.” — Federalist 33

“A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.”

“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering.”

[Man] has by nature a power… to preserve his property—that is, his life, liberty, and estate—against the injuries and attempts of other men… which is not only consistent with, but absolutely necessary to, the state of nature; and no human laws can abrogate this fundamental right.”

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth.”

“Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.” He feared that judicial supremacy allowed courts to reshape the Constitution arbitrarily, undermining the checks and balances he saw as essential.”

“ It is their duty to watch, and their right to take care, that the Constitution be preserved; or in the Roman phrase on perilous occasions—to provide, that the republic receive no damage.”

“It may not be amiss here, Gentlemen, to remind you of the good old rule, that juries in criminal cases are not bound to convict, although the evidence should be full and clear, if they in their consciences believe the law, under which the defendant is tried, to be unjust or oppressive.”

This constitutional security for “the right to keep and bear arms,” implies the right to use them,—as much as a constitutional security for the right to buy and keep food, would have implied the right to eat it."

“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.”

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them” Letters from the Federal Farmer” (No. 18, 1788).

"For what can be more absurd than ... one who neither understands the constitution nor the law, should boldly adventure to administer the government!"

"What innumerable acts of injustice may be committed, and how fatally may the principles of liberty be sapped, by a succession of judges utterly independent of the people?"

“No power was given to Congress to infringe on any one of the natural rights of the people”

“The defense of oneself, justly called the primary law of nature, is not, nor can it be abrogated by any regulation of municipal law.“

“Nothing destroys liberty more than a prevailing opinion that it is better to tamely submit than nobly assert and vindicate our privileges.”

“ Peaceful noncompliance starts with knowing your rights—and wielding ’em like a loaded flintlock.”

“An unconstitutional judicial decision is no more binding than an unconstitutional legislative enactment… a man has the same right to resist by force one as the other…”

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"

"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American … The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."