"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1791
"It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1797
[To my fellow Americans and anybody else here joining in the celebrations: happy Independence Day!]