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National Defense Quotations

Thomas Jefferson letter to James Monroe
Categories: National Defense
Date: October 24, 1823
Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace.

James Madison The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 14
Categories: National Defense
Date: November 30, 1787
America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.

George Washington letter to Alexander Hamilton
Categories: National Defense
Date: April 4, 1783
The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.

James Madison essay in the National Gazette
Categories: National Defense
Date: February 2, 1792
A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.

John Adams letter to James Lloyd
Categories: National Defense
Date: January, 1815
National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.

George Washington First Annual Message
Categories: National Defense
Date: January 8, 1790
To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

George Washington Fifth Annual Message
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 3, 1793
There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.

Thomas Paine The American Crisis, No. 1
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 19, 1776
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

John Jay The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 4
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war.

Joseph Story Commentaries on the Constitution
Categories: National Defense
Date: 1833
It should therefore be difficult in a republic to declare war; but not to make peace.

Joseph Story Commentaries on the Constitution
Categories: National Defense
Date: 1833
It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace.

James Madison Second Inaugural Address
Categories: National Defense
Date: March, 1813
To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed.

Thomas Paine The American Crisis, No. 1
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 19, 1776
Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?

Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 23
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 17, 1787
The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed.

Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 26
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
The idea of restraining the legislative authority in the means of providing for the national defense is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened.

Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 34
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: January 4, 1788
To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquillity would be to calculate on the weaker springs of human character.
Robert Harper Address
Categories: National Defense
Date: June 18, 1798
Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.
George Washington fifth annual address to Congress
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 13, 1793
If we desire to insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.

Thomas Paine The Crisis, no. 4
Categories: National Defense
Date: September 11, 1777
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.

Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 74
Categories: National Defense, The Presidency
Date: March 25, 1788
Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: National Defense
Date: October 19, 1796
If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
James Madison The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 41
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: 1788
Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the American Union
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 16
Categories: Arms, Human Nature, National Defense, War
Date: Unknown
When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson to James Bowdoin
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: 1806
Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson to George Washington
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: 1788
The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.
James Madison The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 62
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: Unknown
One nation is to another what one individual is to another; with this melancholy distinction perhaps, that the former with fewer of the benevolent emotions than the latter, are under fewer restraints also from taking undue advantage of the indiscretions of each other.
James Madison The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 41
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: Unknown
How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?
James Madison The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 45
Categories: National Defense, War
Date: Unknown
The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 23
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
These powers ought to exist without limitation, because it is impossible to foresee or to define the extent and variety of national exigencies, and the correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them.
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 23
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
This power ought to be coextensive with all the possible combinations of such circumstances; and ought to be under the direction of the same councils which are appointed to preside over the common defense.
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 23
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
There can be no limitation of that authority which is to provide for the defense and protection of the community in any matter essential to the formation, direction, or support of the NATIONAL FORCES.
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 31
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
As the duties of superintending the national defense and of securing the public peace against foreign or domestic violence involve a provision for casualties and dangers to which no possible limits can be assigned, the power of making that provision ought to know no other bounds than the exigencies of the nation and the resources of the community.
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 24
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of confidence or security.
Alexander Hamilton The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 24
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
The increasing remoteness of consanguinity is everyday diminishing the force of the family compact between France and Spain. And politicians have ever with great reason considered the ties of blood as feeble and precarious links of political connection.
Ronald Reagan
Categories: International Relations, National Defense
Date: Unknown
History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
Thomas Jefferson
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
[T]he essential principles of government (are)... Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none
Calvin Coolidge
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
Our country represents nothing but peaceful intentions toward all the earth, but it ought not to fail to maintain such a military force as comports with the dignity and security of a great people.
Ronald Reagan
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
A truly successful army is one that, because of its strength and ability and dedication, will not be called upon to fight, for no one will dare to provoke it.
Ronald Reagan
Categories: National Defense
Date: Unknown
Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used.
Samuel Adams Letter to Joseph Warren
Categories: National Defense, Virtue
Date: January 27, 1775
We may look up to Armies for Defence, but Virtue is our best Security. It is not possible that any state shd long remain free, where Virtue is not supremely honord.