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A Country Whose Buildings Are Of Wood, Can Never Increase In Its Improvements To Any Considerable Degree.... Whereas When Buildings Are Of Durable Materials, Every New Edifice Is An Actual And Permanent Acquisition To The State, Adding To Its Value As Well As To Its Ornament.

-Thomas Jefferson

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A Country Whose Buildings

Thomas Jefferson

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A Country Whose Buildings Are Of Wood, Can Never Increase In Its Improvements To Any Considerable Degree.... Whereas When Buildings Are Of Durable Materials, Every New Edifice Is An Actual And Permanent Acquisition To The State, Adding To Its Value As Well As To Its Ornament.

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Civil Officials Have No Business Meddling In Private Religious Affairs.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle. The Real Extent Of This State Of Misinformation Is Known Only To Those Who Are In Situations To Confront Facts Within Their Knowledge With The Lies Of The Day.

The Two Principles On Which Our Conduct Towards The Indians Should Be Founded Are Justice And Fear. After The Injuries We Have Done Them, They Cannot Love Us.

It Is Between Fifty And Sixty Years Since I Read It (i.e. The Book Of Revelations), And I Then Considered It Merely The Ravings Of A Maniac, No More Worthy Nor Capable Of Explanation Than The Incoherence Of Our Own Nightly Dreams.

When Two Parties Make A Compact, There Results To Each A Power Of Compelling The Other To Execute It.

I Deem It The Duty Of Every Man To Devote A Certain Portion Of His Income For Charitable Purposes; And That It Is His Further Duty To See It So Applied And To Do The Most Good For Which It Is Capable.

Health Is The Requisite After Morality

Great Innovations Should Not Be Forced On Slender Majorities.

Our Cause Is Just. Our Union Is Perfect. ... With Hearts Fortified ... We Most Solemnly, Before God And The World, Declare That... We Will, In Defiance Of Every Hazard, With Unabating Firmness And Perseverence, Employ For The Preservation Of Our Liberties; Being With One Mind Resolved To Die Freemen Rather Than To Live Slaves.

I Have But One System Of Ethics For Men And For Nations - To Be Grateful, To Be Faithful To All Engagements Under All Circumstances, To Be Open And Generous, Promoting In The Long Run Even The Interests Of Both

The Mobs Of Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body.

All Men Are Created Equal.

I Hope The Necessity Will At Length Be Seen Of Establishing Institutions, Here As In Europe, Where Every Branch Of Science, Useful At This Day, May Be Taught In It's Highest Degrees.

I Have Great Confidence In The Common Sense Of Mankind In General.

Nothing Can Be Believed But What One Sees, Or Has From An Eye Witness.

There Is Not A Truth Existing Which I Fear... Or Would Wish Unknown To The Whole World.

When Tempted To Do Any Thing In Secret, Ask Yourself If You Would Do It In Public.

That Paper Money Has Some Advantages Is Admitted. But That Its Abuses Also Are Inevitable And, By Breaking Up The Measure Of Value, Makes A Lottery Of All Private Property, Cannot Be Denied.

Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science, By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight. But The Enormities Of The Times In Which I Have Lived, Have Forced Me To Take A Part In Resisting Them, And To Commit Myself On The Boisterous Ocean Of Political Passions.

I Shall Often Go Wrong Through Defect Of Judgment. When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground. I Ask Your Indulgence For My Own Errors, Which Will Never Be Intentional, And Your Support Against The Errors Of Others, Who May Condemn What They Would Not If Seen In All Its Parts.

A Room Without Books Is Like A Life Without Meaning.

If You Have To Eat Crow, Eat It While It's Young And Tender.

It Is Neither Wealth Nor Splendor; But Tranquility And Occupation Which Give You Happiness.

Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight.

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle Grateful That They Are Not Worse Rather Than The Rough Handle, Bitter That They Are Not Better.

Whenever The People Are Well-informed, They Can Be Trusted With Their Own Government.

Honor, Justice, And Humanity, Forbid Us Tamely To Surrender That Freedom Which We Received From Our Gallant Ancestors, And Which Our Innocent Posterity Have A Right To Receive From Us.

Difference Of Opinion Leads To Enquiry, And Enquiry To Truth; And I Am Sure...we Both Value Too Much The Freedom Of Opinion Sanctioned By Our Constitution, Not To Cherish Its Exercise Even Where In Opposition To Ourselves.

...the Science Of Calculation Also Is Indispensable As Far As The Extraction Of The Square And Cube Roots: Algebra As Far As The Quadratic Equation And The Use Of Logarithms Are Often Of Value In Ordinary Cases: But All Beyond These Is But A Luxury; A Delicious Luxury Indeed; But Not Be In Indulged In By One Who Is To Have A Profession To Follow For His Subsistence.

Nothing Was Or Is Farther From My Intentions, Than To Enlist Myself As The Champion Of A Fixed Opinion, Where I Have Only Expressed Doubt.

He Wove Those Three Threads Into A Talk Ranging From Annually Spending A Week At Halloween As A Child Collecting Candy To Giving Candy To Hundreds Of Children At Halloween As An Adult; From Childhood Assistance He Received From Adults, Particularly After His Parents Divorced, To Saying I Challenge You To Be A Caring Adult In Someone's Life ... Great Times Call Forth Great Leaders.

Peace And Abstinence From European Interferences Are Our Objects, And So Will Continue While The Present Order Of Things In America Remain Uninterrupted.

History By Apprising Them [the People] Of The Past Will Enable Them To Judge Of The Future. . . . It Will Qualify Them As Judges Of The Actions And Designs Of Men: It Will Enable Them To Know Ambition Under Every Disguise It May Assume; And Knowing It, To Defeat Its Views.

To Every Obstacle Oppose Patience, Perseverance And Soothing Language.

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

In Europe The Object Is To Make The Most Of Their Land, Labour Being Abundant: Here It Is To Make The Most Of Our Labour, Land Being Abundant.

Men Of High Learning And Abilities Are Few In Every Country; And By Taking In Those Who Are Not So, The Able Part Of The Body Have Their Hands Tied By The Unable.

Printers Shall Be Liable To Legal Prosecution For Printing And Publishing False Facts Injurious To The Party Prosecuting: But They Shall Be Under No Other Restraint.

Books Constitute Capital. A Library Book Lasts As Long As A House, For Hundreds Of Years. It Is Not, Then, An Article Of Mere Consumption But Fairly Of Capital, And Often In The Case Of Professional Men, Setting Out In Life, It Is Their Only Capital.

The Rights Of The People To The Exercise And Fruits Of Their Own Industry Can Never Be Protected Against The Selfishness Of Rulers Not Subject To Their Control At Short Periods.

History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government.

I Leave To Others The Sublime Delights Of Riding In The Storm, Better Pleased With Sound Sleep & A Warmer Berth Below It Encircled, With The Society Of Neighbors, Friends & Fellow Laborers Of The Earth Rather Than With Spies & Sycophants ... I Have No Ambition To Govern Men. It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

By A Declaration Of Rights, I Mean One Which Shall Stipulate Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce Against Monopolies, Trial By Juries In All Cases, No Suspensions Of The Habeas Corpus, No Standing Armies. These Are Fetters Against Doing Evil Which No Honest Government Should Decline.

[if A Book Were] Very Innocent, And One Which Might Be Confided To The Reason Of Any Man; Not Likely To Be Much Read If Let Alone, But If Persecuted, It Will Be Generally Read. Every Man In The United States Will Think It A Duty To Buy A Copy, In Vindication Of His Right To Buy And To Read What He Pleases.

Bind Them Down By The Chains Of The Constitution Where They Can Do No Mischief.

Our Judges Are As Honest As Other Men And Not More So. They Have, With Others, The Same Passions For Party, For Power, And The Privilege Of Their Corps.

What We Learn To Do, We Learn By Doing.

The Sentiments Of Men Are Known Not Only By What They Receive, But What They Reject Also.

Laws ... Proportionate And Mild Should Never Be Dispensed With. Let Mercy Be The Character Of The Law-giver, But Let The Judge Be A Mere Machine.

Where Everyman Is Participator In The Government Of Affairs, Not Merely At An Election One Day In The Year But Everyday, He Will Let The Heart Be Torn Out Of His Body Sooner Than His Power Be Wrested From Him By A Caesar Or A Bonaparte.

I Have A Right To Nothing Which Another Has A Right To Take Away.

I Am Conscious That An Equal Division Of Property Is Impracticable, But The Consequences Of This Enormous Inequality Producing So Much Misery To The Bulk Of Mankind, Legislators Cannot Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property.

If Nature Has Made Any One Thing Less Susceptible Than All Others Of Exclusive Property, It Is The Action Of The Thinking Power Called An Idea... No One Possesses The Less, Because Every Other Possess The Whole Of It. He Who Receives An Idea From Me, Receives Instruction Himself Without Lessening Mine; As He Who Lights His Taper At Mine, Receives Light Without Darkening Me.

I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Powers Of The Society But The People Themselves; And If We Think Them Not Enlightened Enough To Exercise Their Control With A Wholesome Discretion, The Remedy Is Not To Take It From Them But To Inform Their Discretion.

A Society That Will Trade A Little Liberty For A Little Order Will Lose Both, And Deserve Neither.

Of The Various Executive Abilities, No One Excited More Anxious Concern Than That Of Placing The Interests Of Our Fellow-citizens In The Hands Of Honest Men, With Understanding Sufficient For Their Stations. No Duty Is At The Same Time More Difficult To Fulfil. The Knowledge Of Character Possessed By A Single Individual Is Of Necessity Limited. To Seek Out The Best Through The Whole Union, We Must Resort To The Information Which From The Best Of Men, Acting Disinterestedly And With The Purest Motives, Is Sometimes Incorrect.

... The Common Law Existed While The Anglo-saxons Were Yet Pagans, At A Time When They Had Never Yet Heard The Name Of Christ Pronounced Or Knew That Such A Character Existed.

I Set Out On This Ground, Which I Suppose To Be Self Evident, "that The Earth Belongs In Usufruct To The Living": That The Dead Have Neither Powers Nor Rights Over It.

The Interests Of The States... Ought To Be Made Joint In Every Possible Instance In Order To Cultivate The Idea Of Our Being One Nation, And To Multiply The Instances In Which The People Shall Look Up To Congress As Their Head.

Our Fellow-citizens Think They Have A Right To Full Information, In A Case Of Such Great Concernment To Them. It Is Their Sweat Which Is To Earn All The Expenses Of The War, And Their Blood Which Is To Flow In Expiation Of The Causes Of It.

It Is Comfortable To See The Standard Of Reason At Length Erected, After So Many Ages, During Which The Human Mind Has Been Held In Vassalage By Kings, Priests, And Nobles; And It Is Honorable For Us To Have Produced The First Legislature Who Had The Courage To Declare That The Reason Of Man May Be Trusted With The Formation Of His Own Opinions.

But The Chief Justice Says, 'there Must Be An Ultimate Arbiter Somewhere.' True, There Must; But Does That Prove It Is Either Party? The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union, Assembled By Their Deputies In Convention, At The Call Of Congress Or Of Two-thirds Of The States. Let Them Decide To Which They Mean To Give An Authority Claimed By Two Of Their Organs. And It Has Been The Peculiar Wisdom And Felicity Of Our Constitution, To Have Provided This Peaceable Appeal, Where That Of Other Nations Is At Once To Force.

If Once The People Become Inattentive To The Public Affairs, You And I, And Congress And Assemblies, Judges And Governors, Shall All Become Wolves. It Seems To Be The Law Of Our General Nature, In Spite Of Individual Exceptions.

So Inscrutable Is The Arrangement Of Causes And Consequences In This World, That A Two-penny Duty On Tea, Unjustly Imposed In A Sequestered Part Of It, Changes The Condition Of All Its Inhabitants.

I Place Economy Among The First And Most Important Virtues And Public Debt As The Greatest Dangers To Be Feared. To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. If We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And In Our Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

Let It Be Signified To Me Through Any Channelthat The Possession Of The Floridas Would Be Desirable To The United States, Andin Sixty Days It Will Be Accomplished. ...penned In The Language Of Truth, And Divested Of Those Expressions Of Servility Which Would Persuade His Majesty That We Are Asking Favors And Not Rights.

The Past Stays Put, I Just Keep Moving Farther Away From It.

New York, Like London, Seems To Be A Cloacina [toilet] Of All The Depravities Of Human Nature.

The Same Facts Impress Us Differently.

From Breakfast, Or Noon At The Latest, To Dinner, I Am Mostly On Horseback, Attending To My Farm Or Other Concerns, Which I Find Healthful To My Body, Mind, And Affairs.

Men Fight For Freedom; Then They Begin To Accumulate Laws To Take It Away From Themselves.

When I Contemplate The Immense Advances In Science And Discoveries In The Arts Which Have Been Made Within The Period Of My Life, I Look Forward With Confidence To Equal Advances By The Present Generation, And Have No Doubt They Will Consequently Be As Much Wiser Than We Have Been As We Than Our Fathers Were, And They Than The Burners Of Witches.

Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory.

The Best Defense Of Democracy Is An Informed Electorate.

[an] Act Of The Congress Of The United States... Which Assumes Powers... Not Delegated By The Constitution, Is Not Law, But Is Altogether Void And Of No Force.

I Believe In Good Luck, And The Harder I Work And The More I Believe In Myself, The Luckier I Get.

[we Should Be] Determined... To Sever Ourselves From The Union We So Much Value Rather Than Give Up The Rights Of Self-government... In Which Alone We See Liberty, Safety And Happiness.

My Views And Feelings (are) In Favor Of The Abolition Of War-and I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Disposition To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

The Last Hope Of Human Liberty In This World Rests On Us. We Ought, For So Dear A Stake, To Sacrifice Every Attachment & Every Enmity.

Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace

National Defense

Laws Are Made For Men Of Ordinary Understanding And Should, Therefore, Be Construed By The Ordinary Rules Of Common Sense. Their Meaning Is Not To Be Sought For In Metaphysical Subtleties Which May Make Anything Mean Everything Or Nothing At Pleasure.

It [appears] That However Certain Forms Of Government Are Better Calculated Than Others To Protect Individuals In The Free Exercise Of Their Natural Rights, And Are At The Same Time Themselves Better Guarded Against Degeneracy, Yet Experience [has] Shown That, Even Under The Best Forms, Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.

Morals Were Too Essential To The Happiness Of Man, To Be Risked On The Uncertain Combinations Of The Head. Nature Laid Their Foundation, Therefore, In Sentiment, Not In Science.

In Every Government On Earth Is Some Trace Of Human Weakness, Some Germ Of Corruption And Degeneracy, Which Cunning Will Discover, And Wickedness Insensibly Open, Cultivate And Improve.

I Do Not Know Whether You Are Fond Of Chemical Reading. There Are Some Things In This Science Worth Reading.

The Commotions That Have Taken Place In America, As Far As They Are Yet Known To Me, Offer Nothing Threatening. They Are A Proof That The People Have Liberty Enough, And I Could Not Wish Them Less Than They Have. If The Happiness Of The Mass Of The People Can Be Secured At The Expense Of A Little Tempest Now And Then, Or Even Of A Little Blood, It Will Be A Precious Purchase. 'malo Libertatem Periculosam Quam Quietem Servitutem.' Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

The End Of Democracy And The Defeat Of The American Revolution Will Occur When Government Falls Into The Hands Of Lending Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations.

The Way To Have Good And Safe Government Is Not To Trust It All To One, But To Divide It Among The Many, Distributing To Everyone Exactly The Functions In Which He Is Competent ... It Is By Dividing And Subdividing These Republics From The Great National One Down Through All Its Subordinations Until It Ends In The Administration Of Everyman's Farm By Himself, By Placing Under Everyone What His Own Eye May Superintend, That All Will Be Done For The Best.

A True Patriot Will Defend His Country From Its Government.

I Shall Rejoin Myself To My Native Country, With New Attachments, And With Exaggerated Esteem For Its Advantages; For Though There Is Less Wealth There, There Is More Freedom, More Ease, And Less Misery.

Required To Be Constantly Recumbent I Write Slowly And With Difficulty.... Weakened In Body By Infirmities And In Mind By Age, Now Far Gone Into My 83rd Year, Reading One Newspaper Only And Forgetting Immediately What I Read.

Paper Money Is Liable To Be Abused, Has Been, Is, And Forever Will Be Abused, In Every Country In Which It Is Permitted.

Inspirational Quotes On: Honesty, Simplicity, Secret, Universe, Modesty, Peace Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

The Rights [to Religious Freedom] Are Of The Natural Rights Of Mankind, And ... If Any Act Shall Be ... Passed To Repeal [an Act Granting Those Rights] Or To Narrow Its Operation, Such Act Will Be An Infringement Of Natural Right.

Stock Dealers And Banking Companies, By The Aid Of A Paper System, Are Enriching Themselves To The Ruin Of Our Country, And Swaying The Government By Their Possession Of The Printing Presses, Which Their Wealth Commands And By Any Other Means, Not Always Honorable To The Character Of Our Countrymen.

[t]he True Key For The Construction Of Everything Doubtful In A Law Is The Intention Of The Law-makers. This Is Most Safely Gathered From The Words, But May Be Sought Also In Extraneous Circumstances Provided They Do Not Contradict The Express Words Of The Law.

Man Is Not Made For The State But The State For Man And It Derives Its Just Powers Only From The Consent Of The Governed.

To Be Really Useful, We Must Keep Pace With The State Of Society, And Not Dishearten It By Attempts At What Its Population, Means, Or Occupations Will Fail In Attempting.

The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us. It Is Better To Keep The Wolf Out Of The Fold, Than To Trust To Drawing His Teeth And Talons After He Shall Have Entered.

A Good Cause Is Often Injured More By Ill-timed Efforts Of Its Friends Than By The Arguments Of Its Enemies. Persuasion, Perseverance And Patience Are The Best Advocates On Questions Depending On The Will Of Others.

...let Us Save What Remains; Not By Vaults And Locks Which Fence Them From The Public Eye And Use In Consigning Them To The Waste Of Time, But By Such A Multiplication Of Copies, As Shall Place Them Beyond The Reach Of Accident.

All We Can Do Is To Make The Best Of Our Friends, Love And Cherish What Is Good In Them, And Keep Out Of The Way What Is Bad.

Evil Triumphs When Good Men Do Nothing.

No Government Ought To Be Without Censors; And Where The Press Is Free No One Ever Will.

I Love To See Honest And Honorable Men At The Helm, Men Who Will Not Bend Their Politics To Their Purses, Nor Pursue Measures By Which They May Profit, And Then Profit By Their Measures.

Whiskey Claims To Itself Alone The Exclusive Office Of Sot-making.

On Every Question Of Construction (of The Constitution) Let Us Carry Ourselves Back To The Time When The Constitution Was Adopted, Recollect The Spirit Of The Debates, And Instead Of Trying What Meaning May Be Squeezed Out Of The Text, Or Invented Against It, Conform To The Probable One In Which It Was Passed.

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error... They Are The Natural Enemies Of Error, And Of Error Only... If [free Enquiry] Be Restrained Now, The Present Corruptions Will Be Protected, And New Ones Encouraged.

A Morsel Of Genuine History Is A Thing So Rare As To Be Always Valuable.

Pride Costs Us More Than Hunger, Thirst, And Cold.

Hunger And Thirst

Up Until The Late Unpleasantness Of The Civil War, Then, The Right Of Secession Was More Or Less Taken For Granted In Many Quarters, And There Has Never Been Any Amendment Or Even A Supreme Court Decision Saying It's Improper. - Samual Francis, Secession May Be Legal But Not Expedient, Conservative Chronicles If There Be Any Among Us Who Wish To Dissolve The Union Or To Change Its Republican Form, Let Them Stand Undisturbed, As Monuments Of The Safety With Which Error Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

I Have Been Long Sensible That While I Was Endeavoring To Render Our Country The Greatest Of All Services, That Of Regenerating The Public Education, And Placing Our Rising Generation On The Level Of Our Sister States (which They Have Proudly Held Heretofore), I Was Discharging The Odious Function Of A Physician Pouring Medicine Down The Throat Of A Patient Insensible Of Needing It.

Mankind Are More Disposed To Suffer, While Evils Are Sufferable, Than To Right Themselves By Abolishing The Forms To Which They Are Accustomed.

Unalienable Rights

Trade Liberty For Safety Or Money And You'll End Up With Neither. Liberty, Like A Grain Of Salt, Easily Dissolves. The Power Of Questioning - Not Simply Believing - Has No Friends. Yet Liberty Depends On It.

The Uniform Tenor Of A Man's Life Furnishes Better Evidence Of What He Has Said Or Done On Any Particular Occasion Than The Word Of Any Enemy.

Under The Law Of Nature, All Men Are Born Free, Every One Comes Into The World With A Right To His Own Person, Which Includes The Liberty Of Moving And Using It At His Own Will. This Is What Is Called Personal Liberty, And Is Given Him By The Author

Error Is To Be Pitied And Pardoned: It Is The Weakness Of Human Nature. But Vice Is A Foul Blemish, Not Pardonable In Any Character.

No Man Has Greater Confidence Than I Have In The Spirit Of The People, To A Rational Extent. Whatever They Can, They Will.

Our Tenet Ever Was . . . That Congress Had Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Were Restrained To Those Specifically Enumerated; And That, As It Was Never Meant That They Should Provide For That Welfare But By The Exercise Of The Enumerated Powers, So It Could Not Have Been Meant They Should Raise Money For Purposes Which The Enumeration Did Not Place Under Their Action.

I Concur With You Strictly In Your Opinion Of The Comparative Merits Of Atheism And Demonism, And Really See Nothing But The Latter In The Being Worshipped By Many Who Think Themselves Christians.

[t]o Preserve The Republican Form And Principles Of Our Constitution And Cleave To The Salutary Distribution Of Powers Which That [the Constitution] Has Established . . . Are The Two Sheet Anchors Of Our Union. If Driven From Either, We Shall Be In Danger Of Foundering.

Distribution Of Power

In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.

Now I Will Avow, That I Then Believed And Now Believe That Those General Principles Of Christianity Are As Eternal And Immutable As The Existence And Attributes Of God; And That Those Principles Of Liberty Are As Unalterable As Human Nature And Our Terrestrial, Mundane System.

The Art Of Life Is The Art Of Avoiding Pain.

To Compel A Man To Furnish Contributions Of Money For The Propagation Of Opinions Which He Disbelieves And Abhors, Is Sinful And Tyrannical; . . . Even The Forcing Him To Support This Or That Teacher Of His Own Religious Persuasion, Is Depriving Him Of The Comfortable Liberty Of Giving His Contributions To The Particular Pastor Whose Morals He Would Make His Pattern. . . .

My General Plan Would Be To Make The States One As To Everything Connected With Foreign Nations And Several As To Everything Purely Domestic.

I Wish It Were Possible To Obtain A Single Amendment To Our Constitution. I Would Be Willing To Depend On That Alone For The Reduction Of The Administration Of Our Government; I Mean An Additional Article Taking From The Federal Government The Power Of Borrowing.

If Some Period Be Not Fixed, Either By The Constitution Or By Practice, To The Services Of The First Magistrate, His Office, Though Nominally Elective, Will, In Fact, Be For Life, And That Will Soon Degenerate Into An Inheritance.

There Is A Natural Aristocracy Among Men. The Grounds Of This Are Virtue And Talents.

Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To God Alone.

In Matters Of Religion, I Have Considered That Its Free Exercise Is Placed By The Constitution Independent Of The Powers Of The General Government. I Have Therefore Undertaken On No Occasion To Prescribe The Religious Exercises Suited To It; But Have Left Them As The Constitution Found Them, Under The Direction And Discipline Of State Or Church Authorities Acknowledged By The Several Religious Societies.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle.

Freedom Of The Press

Here Was Buried Thomas Jefferson, Author Of The Declaration Of American Independence, Of The Statute Of Virginia For Religious Freedom, And Father Of The University Of Virginia.

Every Citizen Should Be A Soldier. This Was The Case With The Greeks And Romans, And Must Be That Of Every Free State.

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People.

The Fact Is That One New Idea Leads To Another, That To A Third And So On Through A Course Of Time, Until Someone, With Whom No One Of These Ideas Was Original, Combines All Together, And Produces What Is Justly Called A New Invention.

It Is Of Great Importance To Set A Resolution, Not To Be Shaken, Never To Tell An Untruth. There Is No Vice So Mean, So Pitiful, So Contemptible; And He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second And A Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual.

Nothing Is More Certainly Written In The Book Of Fate Than That These People Are To Be Free.

Timid Men Prefer The Calm Of Despotism To The Tempestuous Sea Of Liberty.

The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.

The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union.

Yet The Hour Of Emancipation Is Advancing ... This Enterprise Is For The Young; For Those Who Can Follow It Up, And Bear It Through To It's Consummation. It Shall Have All My Prayers, And These Are The Only Weapons Of An Old Man.

The Chief Purpose Of Government Is To Protect Life. Abandon That And You Have Abandoned All.

Shake Off All The Fears And Servile Prejudices Under Which Weak Minds Are Servilely Crouched. Fix Reason Firmly In Her Seat, And Call To Her Tribunal Every Fact, Every Opinion. Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blindfolded Fear... Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven, And You Are Answerable Not For The Rightness But Uprightness Of The Decision.

I Set Out On This Ground Which I Suppose To Be Self-evident, That The Earth Belongs In Usufruct To The Living. . . . We Seem Not To Perceive That, By The Law Of Nature, One Generation Is To Another As One Independent Nation Is To Another. . . . The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generations.

There Is Not A Single Crowned Head In Europe Whose Talents Or Merit Would Entitle Him To Be Elected A Vestryman By The People Of Any Parish In America.

The Declaration Of Independence . . . [is The] Declaratory Charter Of Our Rights, And The Rights Of Man.

You Will Perceive By My Preaching That I Am Growing Old: It Is The Privilege Of Years, And I Am Sure You Will Pardon It From The Purity Of It's Motives.

We Are Firmly Convinced, And We Act On That Conviction, That With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties, And History Bears Witness To The Fact That A Just Nation Is Trusted On Its Word When Recourse Is Had To Armaments And Wars To Bridle Others.

The Mobs Of The Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body. 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.

In A Virtuous And Free State, No Rewards Can Be So Pleasing To Sensible Minds, As Those Which Include The Approbation Of Our Fellow Citizens. My Great Pain Is, Lest My Poor Endeavours Should Fall Short Of The Kind Expectations Of My Country.

The Small Landholders Are The Most Precious Part Of A State.

Dependence Begets Subservience And Venality, Suffocates The Germ Of Virtue, And Prepares Fit Tools For The Designs Of Ambition.

An Informed Citizenry Is At The Heart Of A Dynamic Democracy.

Informed Citizenry

I Would Rather Have Newspapers Without A Government Than A Government Without Newspapers.

But The Fact Being Once Established, That The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood, I Leave To Others To Restore It To Its Strength, By Recalling It Within The Pale Of Truth. Within That, It Is A Noble Institution, Equally The Friend Of Science And Of Civil Liberty.

Religions Are All The Same...based Upon Legends And Fantasies

I See Now Our Fireside Formed Into A Groupe, No One Member Of Which Has A Fibre In Their Composition Which Can Ever Produce Any Jarring Or Jealousies Among Us. No Irregular Passions, No Dangerous Bias, Which May Render Problematical The Future Fortunes And Happiness Of Our Descendants.

If By Religion We Are To Understand Sectarian Dogmas, In Which No Two Of Them Agree, Then Your Exclamation On That Hypothesis Is Just, "that This Would Be The Best Of Worlds If There Were No Religion In It.

[the People] Are The Ultimate, Guardians Of Their Own Liberty.

Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoted To Exercise.

By Nature's Law, Man Is At Peace With Man Till Some Aggression Is Committed, Which, By The Same Law, Authorizes One To Destroy Another As His Enemy.

Anarchy [is] Necessarily Consequent To Inefficiency.

No Knowledge Can Be More Satisfactory To A Man Than That Of His Own Frame, Its Parts, Their Functions And Actions.

Nothing Is More Incumbent On The Old Than To Know When They Should Get Out Of The Way And Relinquish To Younger Successors The Honors They Can No Longer Earn, And The Duties They Can No Longer Perform.

Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

I Find Friendship To Be Like Wine, Raw When New, Ripened With Age, The True Old Man's Milk And Restorative Cordial.

He Who Receives An Idea From Me, Receives Instruction Himself Without Lessening Mine; As He Who Lights His Taper At Mine, Receives Light Without Darkening Me.

Although We Are Free By The Law, We Are Not So In Practice.

In A Republican Nation Whose Citizens Are To Be Led By Reason And Persuasion And Not By Force, The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance.

I Am Entirely Persuaded That The Agitations Of The Public Mind Advance Its Powers, And That At Every Vibration Between The Points Of Liberty And Despotism, Something Will Be Gained For The Former. As Men Become Better Informed, Their Rulers Must Respect Them The More.

The Truth Is That The Want Of Common Education With Us Is Not From Our Poverty, But From The Want Of An Orderly System. More Money Is Now Paid For The Education Of A Part Than Would Be Paid For That Of The Whole If Systematically Arranged.

I Have Come To A Resolution Myself As I Hope Every Good Citizen Will, Never Again To Purchase Any Article Of Foreign Manufacture Which Can Be Had Of American Make, Be The Difference Of Price What It May.

The People Of Every Country Are The Only Safe Guardians Of Their Own Rights.

We Exist, And Are Quoted, As Standing Proofs That A Government, So Modeled As To Rest Continually On The Will Of The Whole Society, Is A Practicable Government.

The Greatest Honor Of A Man Is In Doing Good To His Fellow Men, Not In Destroying Them.

I Deplore With You The Putrid State Into Which Our Newspapers Have Passed, And The Malignity, The Vulgarity, And Mendacious Spirit Of Those Who Write For Them. ... This Has In A Great Degree Been Produced By The Violence And Malignity Of Party Spirit.

Those Who Live By Mystery & Charlatanerie, Fearing You Would Render Them Useless By Simplifying The Christian Philosophy - The Most Sublime And Benevolent, But Most Perverted System That Ever Shone On Man - Endeavored To Crush Your Well-earned & Well-deserved Fame.

Government Can Do Something For The People Only In Proportion As It Can Do Something To The People.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident: That All Men Are Created Equal; That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Unalienable Rights; That Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Democrats Consider The People As The Safest Depository Of Power In The Last Resort; They Cherish Them, Therefore, And Wish To Leave In Them All The Powers To The Exercise Of Which They Are Competent.

But Of All The Views Of This Law [universal Education] None Is More Important, None More Legitimate, Than That Of Rendering The People The Safe, As They Are The Ultimate, Guardians Of Their Own Liberty.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed That Is Seen In A Newspaper.

The Qualifications For Self-government In Society Are Not Innate. They Are The Result Of Habit And Long Training.

But Under The Beaming, Constant And Almost Vertical Sun Of Virginia, Shade Is Our Elysium. In The Absence Of This No Beauty Of The Eye Can Be Enjoyed.

A Lottery Is A Salutary Instrument And A Tax... Laid On The Willing Only, That Is To Say, On Those Who Can Risk The Price Of A Ticket Without Sensible Injury, For The Possibility Of A Higher Prize.

I Would Observe To You That What Is Called Style In Writing Or Speaking Is Formed Very Early In Life While The Imagination Is Warm, And Impressions Are Permanent.

There Is Not A Sprig Of Grass That Shoots Uninteresting To Me.

I Am Convinced That Those Societies (such As The Native American Peoples) Which Live Without Government Enjoy In Their General Mass An Infinitely Greater Degree Of Happiness Than Those Who Live Under The European Governments. Among The Former, Public Opinion Is In The Place Of Law, & Restrains Morals As Powerfully As Laws Ever Did Anywhere. Among The Latter, Under Pretence Of Governing They Have Divided Their Nations Into Two Classes, Wolves & Sheep. I Do Not Exaggerate.

Native American

Some Men Look At Constitutions With Sanctimonious Reverence, And Deem Them, Like The Ark Of The Covenant, Too Sacred To Be Touched. They Ascribe To The Men Of The Preceding Age A Wisdom More Than Human, And Suppose What They Did To Be Beyond Amendment. I Knew That Age Well; I Belonged To And Labored With It. It Deserved Well Of Its Country. It Was Very Like The Present, But Without The Experience Of The Present; And Forty Years Of Experience In Government Is Worth A Century Of Book-reading; And This They Would Say Themselves, Were They To Rise From The Dead.

Our Public Credit Is Good, But The Abundance Of Paper Has Produced A Spirit Of Gambling In The Funds, Which Has Laid Up Our Ships At The Wharves As Too Slow Instruments Of Profit, And Has Even Disarmed The Hand Of The Tailor Of His Needle And Thimble. They Say The Evil Will Cure Itself. I Wish It May; But I Have Rarely Seen A Gamester Cured, Even By The Disasters Of His Vocation.

Though [the People] May Acquiesce, They Cannot Approve What They Do Not Understand.

We Generally Learn Languages For The Benefit Of Reading The Books Written In Them

I Suppose, Indeed, That In Public Life, A Man Whose Political Principles Have Any Decided Character And Who Has Energy Enough To Give Them Effect Must Always Expect To Encounter Political Hostility From Those Of Adverse Principles.

Having Labored Faithfully In Establishing The Right Of Self-government, We See In The Rising Generation, Into Whose Hands It Is Passing, That Purity Of Principle And Energy Of Character Which Will Protect And Preserve It Through Their Day, And Deliver It Over To Their Sons As They Receive It From Their Fathers.

The Great Object Of My Fear Is The Federal Judiciary. That Body, Like Gravity, Ever Acting, With Noiseless Foot, And Unalarming Advance, Gaining Ground Step By Step, And Holding What It Gains, Is Ingulfing Insidiously The Special Governments Into The Jaws Of That Which Feeds Them.

Whensoever The General Government Assumes Undelegated Powers, Its Acts Are Unauthoritative, Void, And Of No Force.

To Lay Taxes To Provide For The General Welfare Of The United States, That Is To Say, 'to Lay Taxes For The Purpose Of Providing For The General Welfare.' For The Laying Of Taxes Is The Power, And The General Welfare The Purpose For Which The Power Is To Be Exercised. They Are Not To Lay Taxes Ad Libitum For Any Purpose They Please; But Only To Pay The Debts Or Provide For The Welfare Of The Union.

This Institution Will Be Based On The Illimitable Freedom Of The Human Mind. For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead, Not Tolerate Error As Long As Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

We Shall All Consider Ourselves Unauthorized To Saddle Posterity With Our Debts, And Morally Bound To Pay Them Ourselves; And Consequently Within What May Be Deemed The Period Of A Generation, Or The Life Of The Majority.

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