“Kings and tyrants have armed guards wherewith to chastise certain persons, though they be themselves evil. But to the Cynic conscience gives this power—not arms and guards.”

— Epictetus

119
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

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Epictetus 175

philosopher from Ancient Greece 50–138

Elizabeth Peters The Last Camel Died at Noon

Source: The Last Camel Died at Noon

“Guard thee from the power of evil;
Who cannot trust, vows to the devil.”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

Life Without and Life Within (1859), My Seal-Ring

“My God, but I command King Ferdinand's guard and-" "And King Ferdinand, sir, is a prisoner! Which does not speak, sir, for the efficacy of his guard.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Lord Kiely and Major General Arthur Wellesley, p. 218
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

“Huge as the snakes that armed the Giants when they stormed heaven, or as the hydra that wearied Hercules by the waters of Lerna, or as Juno's snake that guarded the boughs with golden foliage.”
Quantis armati caelum petiere Gigantes anguibus, aut quantus Lernae lassavit in undis Amphitryoniaden serpens, qualisque comantis auro servauit ramos Junonius anguis.

Silius Italicus Punica

Book VI, lines 181–184
Punica

“But who will guard the guardians themselves?”
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Juvenal book Satires

VI, line 347
Variant translations:
But who is to guard the guards themselves?
Translated by Lewis Evans, in The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius (1861), p. 51
Who watches the watchmen?
Famous variant used in the graphic novel, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
The original context is that a husband might lock his wife in the house to prevent her adulteries, but she is cunning and will start with the guards; hence, who guards the guards? The phrase has come to be applied broadly to people or organisations acting against dishonesty or corruption, esp. in public life. See Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? at Wikipedia.
Satires, Satire VI

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Letter to W.T. Barry http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s35.html (4 August 1822), in The Writings of James Madison (1910) edited by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 9, p. 103; these words, using the older spelling "Governours", are inscribed to the left of the main entrance, Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building.
1820s
Context: A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.