| Damn the sword! When Virginia wanted a sword, I gave her one. Now she sends me a toy! I require bread! | — George Rogers Clark |
| Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. | — Edgar Allan Poe |
| Delay is preferable to error. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments. | — Andrew Jackson |
| Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. | — John Adams |
| Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.
— Letter to Marquis de Lafayette, July 25, 1785 | — George Washington |
| Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
— Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 19, 1787 | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere. | — James Madison |
| Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good, my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately. — Letter to Martha Jefferson, May 5, 1787 | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety? | — John Adams |
| Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. | — William Ellery |
| Diligence is the mother of good luck. | — Benjamin Franklin |
| Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. | — George Washington |
| Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order. | — Francis Bacon |
| Disguise our bondage as we will, 'Tis woman, woman, rules us still. | — Thomas Moore |
| Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Distrust and caution are the parents of security. | — Benjamin Franklin |
| Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Disunion by force is treason. | — Andrew Jackson |
| Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. | — John Wesley |
| Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them. | — Benjamin Franklin |
| Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. | — Benjamin Franklin |
| Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. | — Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do not lose hold of your dreams or asprirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. | — James Madison |
| Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of. | — Benjamin Franklin |
| Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die....I am, however, much consoled by reflecting that the religion of Christ has, from its first appearance in the world, been attacked in vain by all the wits, philosophers, and wise ones, aided by every power of man, and its triumphs have been complete. | — Patrick Henry |
| Don't be sad, don't be angry, if life deceives you! Submit to your grief - your time for joy will come, believe me. | — Alexander Pushkin |
| Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here. — on siting British Troops (attributed), April 19, 1775 | — John Parker |
| Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. | — Benjamin Franklin |
| Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. | — Voltaire |
| Dreams are the touchstones of our character. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? | — Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks. | — John James Audubon |
| During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. — General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785 | — James Madison |
| During its development the animal passes through all stages of the animal kingdom. The foetus is a representation of all animal classes in time.
— Elements of Physiophilosophy (1847) | — Lorenz Oken |
| During our travels, the Indians entertained me well; and their affection for me was so great, that they utterly refused to leave me there with the others, although the Governor offered them one hundred pounds sterling for me, on purpose to give me a parole to go home. | — Daniel Boone |
| During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety.
— Second Inaugural Address, December 9, 1805 | — Thomas Jefferson |
| During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man. — from Leviathan, 1651, Pt. I, ch. 13 | — Thomas Hobbes |
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A collection of notable quotations from a variety of Early Modern Era individuals. See the Guide for more details.
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