Pithy Thoughts on a Saturday Morning

Passing on some pithy quotations from Founder's Quote Daily of Patriot Post (they have tons of great stuff - even cartoons!)

"It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia Query 19, 1781

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." --Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775

Notice both Jefferson and Adams declare that when virtue, manners & spirit are present in abundance, liberty is assured. Likewise, when they are lacking, liberty will wane and the nation will be undone. Public virtue (leading to good manners & strong spirit) is just that important.