To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms...

If Parliament may take from me one shilling in the pound, what security have I for the other nineteen?

It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people.

To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying.

The first maxim of a man who loves liberty, should be never to grant to rulers an atom of power that is not most clearly and indispensably necessary for the safety and well being of society.

That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

And I see the danger in either case will arise principally from the conduct and views of two very unprincipled parties in the United States-two fires, between which the honest and substantial people have long found themselves situated.

A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... and include all men capable of bearing arms.