96 Forefathers Quotes

Following is our list of forefathers quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about founding fathers.

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Famous Forefathers Quotes

Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness. — William Bradford

Whereas our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil. — Richard Allen

My forefathers didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat. — Will Rogers

Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties. — Pete Seeger

Let us be the ancestors our descendants will thank. - Winona LaDuke

Let us be the ancestors our descendants will thank. — Winona LaDuke

Let us listen to the voices of our Forebears ... In the smoky cabin, souls that wish us well are murmuring. — Leopold Sedar Senghor

We must strive to become good ancestors. — Ralph Nader

They who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground. — Francis Bacon

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let our posterity know that we their ancestors, uncultured and unlearned, amid all trials and temptations, were men of integrity. — Alexander Crummell

If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs. — Mary Mcleod Bethune

So, as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants. — Tacitus

You have the same DNA as the greats of the past who started revivals. — Lou Engle

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. — Herbert Spencer

Your great great grandfather lived most of his life without running water or electricity, and he was probably more racist than you are. You’ve never met him, but without him, you wouldn’t exist. — Tim Urban

Short Forefathers Quotes

  • The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson
  • All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they should. — Samuel Adams
  • I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man. — Thomas Jefferson
  • Because I was in Atlanta, people didn't realize I'm one of the real forefathers in the game. — Jermaine Dupri
  • Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. — John Adams
  • I have sworn upon the altar of god. — Thomas Jefferson
  • What we should have fought for was representation without taxation. — Sam Levenson
  • What you have inherited from your forefathers, it takes work to make it your own. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. — Thomas Gray
  • Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity. — John Adams

American Forefathers Quotes

The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams

To us Americans much has been given; of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes, it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power. — Norman Thomas

It is hard to know how many people do, but given that the people are so docile towards the rulers, nowadays, very few Americans show the passion for freedom that our forefathers had. — James Bovard

Today, few Americans are aware of the spiritual epidemic that wiped out the land of our Christian forefathers. Even fewer are aware that the same epidemic has reached our own shores, spreading like a virus. — Ken Ham

We're Americans! Do you know what that means? It means our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. — Bill Murray

The typical American of today has lost all the love of liberty, that his forefathers had, and all their disgust of emotion, and pride in self- reliance. He is led no longer by Davy Crocketts; he is led by cheer leaders, press agents, word mongers, uplifters. — H. L. Mencken

Founding Fathers Quotes

If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking. — Benjamin Franklin

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government. - Edward Abbey

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government. — Edward Abbey

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances. — Benjamin Franklin

When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil. — Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry. — Unknown Author

Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He's sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped. — Charles Stanley

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. — Thomas Jefferson

A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother. — Benjamin Franklin

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. — Thomas Jefferson

Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Forebears Quotes

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history. — Carter G. Woodson

The war... was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides. — Robert E. Lee

My forebears refused to cut the sugar cane for plantation owners, and I am recognisably a product of that background. — Diane Abbott

The mark of a Scot of all classes [is that] he ... remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation. — Robert Louis Stevenson

All of our forebears contributed to what South Africa has become. That does not, however, mean that I must apologize to anyone for being born a Zulu, or for having that culture. — Mangosuthu Buthelezi

The fact that boys are allowed to exist at all is evidence of a remarkable Christian forebearance among men. — Ambrose Bierce

OK, well maybe I have to get back to Judaism. In the sense that if I look at me and my forebears forever stretching back to I don't know, whenever there's no sense of place and therefore no sense of nationality. — Janet Suzman

He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebearers, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them. — James Reston, Jr.

Eugenics was central to the entire Nazi enterprise, joined with romantic nativist and racist myths of the pure-bred Nordic. The emphasis on 'blood' called for a purifying of the nation's gene pool, so that Germans could regain the nobility and greatness of their genetically pure forebears. — Alison Thompson

Jefferson never entertained the folly that he was of immigrant stock. He considered the English settlers of America courageous conquerors, much like his Saxon forebears, to whom he compared them. To Jefferson, early Americans were the contemporary carriers of the Anglo-Saxon project. — Ilana Mercer

People Writing About Forefathers

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Read quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson
quotes on government, constitution and education

1788 19141
Read quotes by John Adams

John Adams
quotes on democracy, government and education

384 4168
Read quotes by William Bradford

William Bradford
quotes on thanksgiving

14 605
Read quotes by Will Rogers

Will Rogers
quotes on politics, death and aging

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Read quotes by Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger
quotes on recycling

176 762
Read quotes by Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke
quotes on education, climate change and slavery

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More Forefathers Quotes

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. — Noah Webster

Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive. — David Ben-Gurion

The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador attain liberty, and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States' independence, cannot die. Today, this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti. — Jean-Bertrand Aristide

A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river. We will make an alliance with it. When we smash the Arab Legion's strength and bomb Amman, we will eliminate Transjordan too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo. — David Ben-Gurion

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters — Daniel Webster

The development of Africa will not happen without the effective participation of women. Our forefathers' image of women must be buried once for all. — Ousmane Sembene

What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived. — Moshe Dayan

If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian! — Tom Brown, Jr.

Our forefathers made one mistake. What they should have fought for was representation without taxation. — Fletcher Knebel

I am Shawnee! I am a warrior! My forefathers were warriors. From them I took only my birth into this world. From my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own destiny! And of that I might make the destiny of my red people, of our nation, as great as I conceive to in my mind, when I think of Weshemoneto, who rules this universe! — Tecumseh

And quit bringing up our forefathers and saying they were civil libertarians. Our founding fathers would have never tolerated any of this crap. For God's sake, they were blowing peoples' heads off because they put a tax on their breakfast beverage. And it wasn't even coffee. — Dennis Miller

As for America and the rest of European world, I want to live in a nation that reflects my traditions and values, and I do not want my people to become a minority in the nations my own forefathers built. Interestingly, that is same goal that most Israelis and most Jews who support Israel endorse for the Jewish state. — David Duke

The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery. The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves, and then the name of the slave master was given, which we refuse, we reject that name today and refuse it. I never acknowledge it whatsoever. — Malcolm X

We need the historian and philosopher to give us with trenchant pen, the story of our forefathers, and let our soul and body, with phosphorescent light, brighten the chasm that separates us. We should cling to them just as blood is thicker than water. — Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all. Our forefathers opened the Bible to all. — Samuel Adams

Teach nothing new, but instill into all men's breasts those things which the Fathers of revered memory have with harmony of statement taught... Preach nothing else than what we received from our forefathers... Accordingly, both in the rule of faith and in the observance of discipline, let the standard of antiquity be maintained throughout. — Pope Leo I

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers. — Herbert Hoover

I have observed that the prosperity or misery of each people is in direct proportion to its liberties or its prejudices and, accordingly, to the sacrifices or the selfishness of its forefathers. -Juan Crisostomo Ibarra — Jose Rizal

The time has come to recover the valiant courage of our forefathers, who understood that faith and freedom are inseparable, and that they are worth fighting for. — Roy Moore

As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it. — Barack Obama

Our German forefathers had a very kind religion. They believed that, after death, they would meet again all the good dogs that had been their companions in life. I wish I could believe that too. — Otto von Bismarck

The flag of your nation - wave it! Begin to separate your nation from whatever covenant your forefathers must have had. Break the covenant of corruption/ stealing/ killing/ destruction/ idolatry - break it right now! — T. B. Joshua

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. — Noah Webster

Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers. — Caleb Cushing

Happy the man who, removed from all cares of business, after the manner of his forefathers cultivates with his own team his paternal acres, freed from all thought of usury. — Horace

Our forefathers were not only brave. I believe they were right. I believe that what they meant was that every man born had equal right to grow from scratch by way of his own power unhindered to the highest expression of himself possible to him. — Frank Lloyd Wright

So (if) some cracker come and tell you 'Well, my mother and father blood go back to the Mayflower,' you better hold your pocket. That ain't nothing to be proud of. That means their forefathers was crooks. — Al Sharpton

If we are to preserve the integrity of golf as left to us by our forefathers, it is up to all of us to carry on the true spirit of the game. — Ben Crenshaw

I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior. From them, I take my only existence. — Tecumseh

To restore morality we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs. From our earliest history in 1776 when we were declared to be the United States of America, our forefathers recognized the sovereignty of God. — Roy Moore

The less we understand of what our fathers and forefathers sought, the less we understand ourselves, and thus we help with all our might to rob the individual of his roots and his guiding instincts, so that he becomes a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called the spirit of gravity. — Carl Jung

Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers. — Roh Moo-hyun

I have come to the conclusion that none of us in our generation feels as guilty about sin as we should or as our forefathers did. — Francis Schaeffer

By playing down to the idea of the common man, dogmatic political authority exploits him... So the ideal of innate aristocracy of which hour forefathers dreamed is betrayed for votes in the name of democracy. — Frank Lloyd Wright

Modern man has not only thrown away Christian theology, he has thrown away the possibility of what our forefathers had as a basis for morality and law. — Francis Schaeffer

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