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A Private Central Bank Issuing The Public Currency Is A Greater Menace To The Liberties Of The People Than A Standing Army. We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

-Thomas Jefferson

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A Private Central Bank

Thomas Jefferson

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A Private Central Bank Issuing The Public Currency Is A Greater Menace To The Liberties Of The People Than A Standing Army. We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

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Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.

In The Legislature, The House Of Representatives Is Chosen By Less Than Half The People, And Not At All In Proportion To Those Who Do Choose. The Senate Are Still More Disproportionate, And For Long Terms Of Irresponsibility. In The Executive, The Governor Is Entirely Independent Of The Choice Of The People, And Of Their Control; His Council Equally So, And At Best But A Fifth Wheel To A Wagon. In The Judiciary, The Judges Of The Highest Courts Are Dependent On None But Themselves.

In The Middle Ages Of Christianity Opposition To The State Opinions Was Hushed. The Consequence Was, Christianity Became Loaded With All The Romish Follies. Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery & Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.

An Informed Citizenry Is The Only True Repository Of The Public Will.

Informed Citizens

Informed Citizenry

It Has Also Been A Great Solace To Me, To Believe That You Are Engaged In Vindicating To Posterity The Course We Have Pursued For Preserving To Them, In All Their Purity, The Blessings Of Self-government, Which We Had Assisted Too In Acquiring For Them. If Ever The Earth Has Beheld A System Of Administration Conducted With A Single And Steadfast Eye To The General Interest And Happiness Of Those Committed To It, One Which, Protected By Truth, Can Never Know Reproach, It Is That To Which Our Lives Have Been Devoted.

Time Indeed Changes Manners And Notions, And So Far We Must Expect Institutions To Bend To Them. But Time Produces Also Corruption Of Principles, And Against This It Is The Duty Of Good Citizens To Be Ever On The Watch, And If The Gangrene Is To Prevail At Last, Let The Day Be Kept Off As Long As Possible.

While The Farmer Holds The Title To The Land, Actually, It Belongs To All The People Because Civilization Itself Rests Upon The Soil.

Those Who Labour In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God, If Ever He Had A Chosen, People, Whose Breasts He Has Made His Peculiar Deposit For Substantial And Genuine Virtue.

Female Education ... Has Occupied My Attention So Far Only As The Education Of My Own Daughters ... I Thought It Essential To Give Them A Solid Education Which Might Enable Them, When Become Mothers, To Educate Their Own Daughters, And Even To Direct The Course For Sons, Should Their Fathers Be.

Had The Doctrines Of Jesus Been Preached Always As Pure As They Came From His Lips, The Whole Civilized World Would Now Have Been Christians.

The Colleges Of Edinburgh And Geneva As Seminaries Of Science, Are Considered As The Two Eyes Of Europe. While Great Britain And America Give The Preference To The Former, All Other Countries Give It To The Latter.

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People... They Are The Only Sure Reliance For The Preservation Of Our Liberty.

No Nation Is Drunken Where Wine Is Cheap, And None Sober Where The Dearness Of Wine Substitutes Ardent Spirits As The Common Beverage

Does The Government Fear Us? Or Do We Fear The Government? When The People Fear The Government, Tyranny Has Found Victory. The Federal Government Is Our Servant, Not Our Master!

We Are Now Vibrating Between Too Much And Too Little Government, And The Pendulum Will Rest Finally In The Middle.

One Man With Courage Is A Majority.

Man [is] A Rational Animal, Endowed By Nature With Rights And With An Innate Sense Of Justice.

There Is Nothing More Unequal Than The Equal Treatment Of Unequal People.

Equal Treatment

On The Subject Of The History Of The American Revolution, You Ask Who Shall Write It? Who Can Write It? And Who Will Ever Be Able To Write It? Nobody, Except Merely Its External Facts... All Its Councils, Designs And Discussions Having Been Conducted By Congress [behind] Closed Doors - And No Members, As Far As I Know, Having Even Made Notes Of Them. These, Which Are The Life And Soul Of History, Must Forever Be Unknown.

The Execution Of The Laws Is More Important Than The Making Of Them.

We Have Counted The Cost Of This Contest, And Find Nothing So Dreadful As Voluntary Slavery.-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. We Cannot Endure The Infamy And Guilt Of Resigning Succeeding Generations To That Wretchedness Which Inevitably Awaits Them, If We Basely Entail Hereditary Bondage Upon Them.

The Purse Of The People Is The Real Seat Of Sensibility. Let It Be Drawn Upon Largely, And They Will Then Listen To Truths Which Could Not Excite Them Through Any Other Organ.

I Would Rather Be Exposed To The Inconveniences Attending Too Much Liberty Than Those Attending Too Small A Degree Of It.

It Is A Melancholy Truth, That A Suppression Of The Press Could Not More Completely Deprive The Nation Of Its Benefits Than Is Done By Its Abandoned Prostitution To Falsehood.

The Great Cause Which Divides Our Countries Is Not To Be Decided By Individual Animosities. The Harmony Of Private Societies Cannot Weaken National Efforts.

Where Thought Is Free In Its Range, We Need Never Fear To Hazard What Is Good In Itself.

Of All The Errors Which Can Possibly Be Committed To The Education Of Youth, That Of Sending Them To Europe Is The Most Fatal. I See [clearly] That No American Should Come To Europe Under 30 Years Of Age.

That This Privilege Of Giving Or Of Withholding Our Monies Is An Important Barrier Against The Undue Exertion Of Prerogative, Which If Left Altogether Without Control May Be Exercised To Our Great Oppression; And All History Shews How Efficacious Is Its Intercession For Redress Of Grievances And Re-establishment Of Rights, And How Improvident Would Be The Surrender Of So Powerful A Mediator

The Elective Franchise, If Guarded As The Ark Of Our Safety, Will Peaceably Dissipate All Combinations To Subvert A Constitution, Dictated By The Wisdom, And Resting On The Will Of The People.

A Man's Management Of His Own Purse Speaks Volumes About Character

It Is The Old Practice Of Despots To Use A Part Of The People To Keep The Rest In Order.

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.

Those Who Labor In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God.

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

Preachers Dread The Advance Of Science As Witches Do The Approach Of Daylight.

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.

Neither Pagan Nor Mahamedan Nor Jew Ought To Be Excluded From The Civil Rights Of The Commonwealth Because Of His Religion. -quoting John Locke's Argument.

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

The Best Commentary On The Principles Of Government Which Has Ever Been Written.

So Confident Am I In The Intentions, As Well As Wisdom, Of The Government, That I Shall Always Be Satisfied That What Is Not Done, Either Cannot, Or Ought Not To Be Done.

God Grant That Men Of Principle Shall Be Our Principal Men.

Taxes Should Be Continued By Annual Or Biennial Reeactments, Because A Constant Hold, By The Nation, Of The Strings Of The Public Purse Is A Salutary Restraint From Which An Honest Government Ought Not Wish, Nor A Corrupt One To Be Permitted, To Be Free.

Ministers Of The Gospel Are Excluded [from Serving As Visitors Of The County Elementary Schools] To Avoid Jealousy From The Other Sects, Were The Public Education Committed To The Ministers Of A Particular One; And With More Reason Than In The Case Of Their Exclusion From The Legislative And Executive Functions.

Difficulties Indeed Sometimes Arise; But Common Sense And Honest Intentions Will Generally Steer Through Them.

It Is Proof Of Sincerity, Which I Value Above All Things; As, Between Those Who Practice It, Falsehood And Malice Work Their Efforts In Vain.

Let Those Flatter Who Fear; It Is Not An American Art .

The Concentrating Of Powers In The Same Hands Is Precisely The Definition Of Despotic Government. It Will Be No Alleviation That These Powers Will Be Exercised By A Plurality Of Hands, And Not By A Single One.

What A Stupendous, What An Incomprehensible Machine Is Man! Who Can Endure Toil, Famine, Stripes, Imprisonment & Death Itself In Vindication Of His Own Liberty, And The Next Moment ... Inflict On His Fellow Men A Bondage, One Hour Of Which Is Fraught With More Misery Than Ages Of That Which He Rose In Rebellion To Oppose.

By... [selecting] The Youths Of Genius From Among The Classes Of The Poor, We Hope To Avail The State Of Those Talents Which Nature Has Sown As Liberally Among The Poor As The Rich, But Which Perish Without Use If Not Sought For And Cultivated.

The Fantastical Idea Of Virtue And The Public Good Being A Sufficient Security To The State Against The Commission Of Crimes, Which You Say You Have Heard Insisted On By Some, I Assure You Was Never Mine.

If The Happiness Of The Mass Of Mankind 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.

Experience Hath Shewn, That Even Under The Best Forms Of Government Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time, And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.

Democracies Have

Even In Europe A Change Has Sensibly Taken Place In The Mind Of Man. Science Has Liberated The Ideas Of Those Who Read And Reflect, And The American Example Has Kindled Feelings Of Right In The People. An Insurrection Has Consequently Begun Of Science Talents And Courage Against Rank And Birth, Which Have Fallen Into Contempt. It Has Failed In Its First Effort, Because The Mobs Of The Cities, The Instrument Used For Its Accomplishment, Debased By Ignorance, Poverty And Vice, Could Not Be Restrained To Rational Action. But The World Will Soon Recover From The Panic Of This First Catastrophe.

To The Corruptions Of Christianity I Am Indeed Opposed; But Not To The Genuine Precepts Of Jesus Himself.

We Are Afraid Of The Known And Afraid Of The Unknown. That Is Our Daily Life And In That There Is No Hope, And Therefore Every Form Of Philosophy, Every Form Of Theological Concept, Is Merely An Escape From The Actual Reality Of What Is. All Outward Forms Of Change Brought About By Wars, Revolutions, Reformations, Laws And Ideologies Have Failed Completely To Change The Basic Nature Of Man And Therefore Of Society.

People Generally Have More Feeling For Canals And Roads Than Education. However, I Hope We Can Advance Them With Equal Pace.

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 Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.

An Individual, Thinking Himself Injured, Makes More Noise Than A State.

Every People May Establish What Form Of Government They Please, And Change It As They Please, The Will Of The Nation Being The Only Thing Essential.

How Much Pain They Have Cost Us, The Evils Which Have Never Happened.

Congress Has Scarcely Any Thing To Employ Them, And Complain That The Place [washington, D.c.] Is Remarkably Dull.

Trial By Jury Is Part Of That Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.

The Constitution Has Erected No Such Single Tribunal, Knowing That To Whatever Hands Confided, With The Corruption's Of Time And Party, Its Members Would Become Despots.

Who Will Govern The Governors? There Is Only One Force In The Nation That Can Be Depended Upon To Keep The Government Pure And The Governors Honest, And That Is The People Themselves. They Alone, If Well Informed, Are Capable Of Preventing The Corruption Of Power, And Of Restoring The Nation To Its Rightful Course If It Should Go Astray. They Alone Are The Safest Depository Of The Ultimate Powers Of Government.

The Price Of Barbecue Is Eternal Vigilance.

The Only Greater [evil] Than Separation... [is] Living Under A Government Of Discretion.

They Are Nations Of Eternal War. All Their Energies Are Expended In The Destruction Of The Labor, Property, And Lives Of Their People.

You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts. But It Is An Enthusiasm Of Which I Am Not Ashamed, As Its Object Is To Improve The Taste Of My Countrymen, To Increase Their Reputation, To Reconcile To Them The Respect Of The World, And Procure Them Its Praise.

A Determination Never To Do What Is Wrong, Prudence, And Good-humor, Will Go Far Toward Securing To You The Estimation Of The World.

The Bloom Of Monticello Is Chilled By My Solitude.

Freedom, The First-born Of Science.

Taxes Should Be Proportioned To What May Be Annually Spared By The Individual.

The Information Of The People At Large Can Alone Make Them The Safe As They Are The Sole Depositary Of Our Political And Religious Freedom.

The Application Requisite To The Duties Of The Office I Hold [governor Of Virginia] Is So Excessive, And The Execution Of Them After All So Imperfect, That I Have Determined To Retire From It At The Close Of The Present Campaign.

Above All Things, Lose No Occasion Of Exercising Your Dispositions To Be Grateful, To Be Generous, To Be Charitable, To Be Humane, To Be True, Just, Firm, Orderly, Courageous, Etc. Consider Every Act Of This Kind As An Exercise Which Will Strengthen Your Moral Faculties And Increase Your Worth.

It Should Be Our Endeavor To Cultivate The Peace And Friendship Of Every Nation . . . . Our Interest Will Be To Throw Open The Doors Of Commerce, And To Knock Off All Its Shackles, Giving Perfect Freedom To All Persons For The Vent To Whatever They May Choose To Bring Into Our Ports, And Asking The Same In Theirs.

Freedom [is] The First-born Daughter Of Science

What Are The Objects Of An Useful American Education? Classical Knowlege, Modern Languages & Chiefly French, Spanish, & Italian; Mathematics; Natural Philosophy; Natural History; Civil History; Ethics.

I Trust There Is Not A Young Man Now Living In The United States Who Will Not Die A Unitarian.

The Germ Of Dissolution Of Our Federal Government Is In The Constitution Of The Federal Judiciary; An Irresponsible Body, (for Impeachment Is Scarcely A Scare-crow) Working Like Gravity By Night And By Day, Gaining A Little Today And A Little Tomorrow, And Advancing Its Noiseless Step Like A Thief, Over The Field Of Jurisdiction, Until All Shall Be Usurped From The States, And The Government Of All Be Consolidated Into One.

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.

Were Parties Here Divided Merely By A Greediness For Office,...to Take A Part With Either Would Be Unworthy Of A Reasonable Or Moral Man.

It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods Or No God.

The Same Facts Impress Us Differently.

The Reward Of Esteem, Respect And Gratitude [is] Due To Those Who Devote Their Time And Efforts To Render The Youths Of Every Successive Age Fit Governors For The Next.

Gouverneur Morris Had Often Told Me That General Washington Believed No More Of That System (christianity) Than Did He Himself.

May It Be To The World... To Assume The Blessings And Security Of Self-government.

If I Could Not Go To Heaven But With A Party, I Would Not Go There At All.

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

It Is So Difficult To Draw A Clear Line Of Separation Between The Abuse And The Wholesome Use Of The Press, That As Yet We Have Found It Better To Trust The Public Judgment, Rather Than The Magistrate, With The Discrimination Between Truth And Falsehood. And Hitherto The Public Judgment Has Performed That Office With Wonderful Correctness.

Resort Is Had To Ridicule Only When Reason Is Against Us.

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.

What We Learn To Do, We Learn By Doing.

Courts Love The People Always, As Wolves Do The Sheep.

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. . . .

[t]he Opinion Which Gives To The Judges The Right To Decide What Laws Are Constitutional And What Not, Not Only For Themselves, In Their, Own Sphere Of Action, But For The Legislature And Executive Also In Their Spheres, Would Make The Judiciary A Despotic Branch.

With Those Who Wish To Think Amiss Of Me, I Have Learnt To Be Perfectly Indifferent: But Where I Know A Mind To Be Ingenuous, Andto Need Only Truth To Set It To Rights, I Cannot Be As Passive.

Above All Things, And At All Times, Practice Yourself In Good Humor.

If [god] Has Made It A Law In The Nature Of Man To Pursue His Own Happiness, He Has Left Him Free In The Choice Of Place As Well As Mode, And We May Safely Call On The Whole Body Of English Jurists To Produce The Map On Which Nature Has Traced For Each Individual The Geographical Line Which She Forbids Him To Cross In Pursuit Of Happiness.

Pursuit Of Happiness

The Executive, In Our Government Is Not The Sole, It Is Scarcely The Principle, Object Of My Jealousy. The Tyranny Of The Legislature Is The Most Formidable Dread At Present And Will Be For Many Years. That Of The Executive Will Come In Its Turn, But It Will Be At A Remote Period.

We Discover In The Gospels A Groundwork Of Vulgar Ignorance, Of Things Impossible, Of Superstition, Fanaticism And Fabrication .

Our Duty To Ourselves, To Posterity, And To Mankind, Call On Us By Every Motive Which Is Sacred Or Honorable, To Watch Over The Safety Of Our Beloved Country During The Troubles Which Agitate And Convulse The Residue Of The World, And To Sacrifice To That All Personal And Local Considerations.

The Opinions And Beliefs Of Men Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds.

If We Suffer Ourselves To Be Frightened From Our Post By Mere Lying, Surely The Enemy Will Use That Weapon; For What One So Cheap To Those Of Whose System Of Politics Morality Makes No Part?

Perfection In Wisdom, As Well As In Integrity, Is Neither Required Nor Expected In These Agents (public Servants). It Belongs Not To Man. The Wise Know Too Well Their Weaknesses To Assume Infallibility; And He Who Knows Most, Knows Best How Little He Knows.

The Only Thing A Man Can Take Beyond This Lifetime Is His Ethics.

You Have Not Been Mistaken In Supposing My Views And Feeling To Be In Favor Of The Abolition Of War. Of My Dispos[i]tion To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself, The World Has Had Proofs, And More, Perhaps, Than It Has Approved. I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Dispos[i]tion To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

The Will Of The People Is The Only Legitimate Foundation Of Any Government, And To Protect Its Free Expression Should Be Our First Object.

Those Who Don’t Read The Newspapers Are Better Off Than Those Who Do Insofar As Those Who Know Nothing Are Better Off Than Those Whose Heads Are Filled With Half-truths And Lies.

Whether I Retire To Bed Early Or Late, I Rise With The Sun.

I Hope Our Wisdom Will Grow With Our Power, And Teach Us, That The Less We Use Our Power The Greater It Will Be.

For An Unarmed Man May Be Attacked With Greater Confidence Than An Armed Man.

Knowledge Is Power...knowled Ge Is Safety...knowle Dge Is Happiness.

Knowledge Is Power

Every Day Is Lost In Which We Do Not Learn Something Useful. Man Has No Nobler Or More Valuable Possession Than Time.

I Value Peace, And I Should Unwillingly See Any Event Take Place Which Would Render War A Necessary Resource.

One Single Object . . . [will Merit] The Endless Gratitude Of The Society: That Of Restraining The Judges From Usurping Legislation.

[states And The Federal Government Are] Coordinate Departments Of One Simple And Integral Whole... The One Is The Domestic, The Other The Foreign Branch Of The Same Government.

Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

It Is Rare That The Public Sentiment Decides Immorally Or Unwisely, And The Individual Who Differs From It Ought To Distrust And Examine Well His Own Opinion.

The Earth Is Given As A Common For Men To Labor And Live In.

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

The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time.

The Care Of Human Life And Happiness, And Not Their Destruction, Is The First And Only Object Of Good Government.

The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom And Happiness Of Man. . . . [are] The Sole Objects Of All Legitimate Government. A Plaque With This Quotation, With The First Phrase Omitted, Is In The Stairwell Of The Pedestal Of The Statue Of Liberty.

In Every Free And Deliberating Society, There Must, From The Nature Of Man, Be Opposite Parties, And Violent Dissensions And Discords; And One Of These, For The Most Part, Must Prevail Over The Other For A Longer Or Shorter Time.

While Wading Through The Whimsies, The Puerilities, And Unintelligible Jargon Of This Work [plato's Republic], I Laid It Down Often To Ask Myself How It Could Have Been That The World Should Have So Long Consented To Give Reputation To Such Nonsense As This?

Truth Is Great And Will Prevail If Left To Herself.

Church And State

To All Of Which Is Added A Selection From The Elementary Schools Of Subjects Of The Most Promising Genius, Whose Parents Are Too Poor To Give Them Further Education, To Be Carried At The Public Expense Through The College And University. The Object Is To Bring Into Action That Mass Of Talents Which Lies Buried In Poverty In Every Country, For Want Of The Means Of Development, And Thus Give Activity To A Mass Of Mind, Which, In Proportion To Our Population, Shall Be Double Or Treble Of What It Is In Most Countries.

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

Take Care That You Never Spell A Word Wrong. Always Before You Write A Word, Consider How It Is Spelled, And, If You Do Not Remember, Turn To A Dictionary. It Produces Great Praise To A Lady To Spell Well. To His Daughter Martha

The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time; The Hand Of Force May Destroy, But Cannot Disjoin Them. ... Love Your Neighbor As Yourself And Your Country More Than Yourself. ... The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave. ... I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man. ... The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants. It Is Its Natural Manure.

What Is It Men Cannot Be Made To Believe!

Societies Exist Under Three Forms Sufficiently Distinguishable. 1. Without Government, As Among Our Indians. 2. Under Governments Wherein The Will Of Every One Has A Just Influence, As Is The Case In England In A Slight Degree, And In Our States, In A Great One. 3. Under Governments Of Force: As Is The Case In All Other Monarchies And In Most Of The Other Republics. To Have An Idea Of The Curse Of Existence Under These Last, They Must Be Seen. It Is A Government Of Wolves Over Sheep.

I Have Ever Deemed It More Honorable And More Profitable, Too, To Set A Good Example Than To Follow A Bad One.

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effective Agents Against Error. Give A Loose To Them, They Will Support The True Religion By Bringing Every False One To Their Tribunal, To The Test Of Their Investigation. They Are The Natural Enemies Of Error And Error Only. Had Not The Roman Government Permitted Free Inquiry, Christianity Could Never Have Been Introduced. Had Not Free Inquiry Been Indulged At The Era Of The Reformation, The Corruption Of Christianity Could Not Have Been Purged Away.

Lay Down True Principles And Adhere To Them Inflexibly. Do Not Be Frightened Into Their Surrender By The Alarms Of The Timid, Or The Croakings Of Wealth Against The Ascendency Of The People.

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.

I Endeavor To Keep Their Attention Fixed On The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom & Happiness Of Man.

I Believe From What I Have Lately Seen That We Should Be Substantially Safe Were Our Citizens Armed, But We Have Not As Many Arms As We Have Enemies In The State.

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

A Community Of Small Farmers... Land Property Owners, Will Be The Only Assurance That The Freedom Our Republic Offers Will Be Guaranteed To Each And Every Citizen.

The Several States Composing The United States Of America Are Not United On The Principle Of Unlimited Submission To Their General Government

It Should Be Remembered, As An Axiom Of Eternal Truth In Politics, That Whatever Power In Any Government Is Independent, Is Absolute Also.

War Is An Instrument Entirely Inefficient Toward Redressing Wrong; And Multiplies, Instead Of Indemnifying Losses.

I Candidly Confess That I Have Ever Looked On Cuba As The Most Interesting Addition Which Could Ever Be Made To Our System Of States. The Control Which, With Florida, This Island Would Give Us Over The Gulf Of Mexico, And The Countries And Isthmus Bordering On It, As Well As All Those Whose Waters Flow Into It, Would Fill Up The Measure Of Our Political Well-being.

This Interesting Subject, Which, If The Condition Of Man Is To Be Progressively Ameliorated, As We Fondly Hope And Believe, Is To Be The Chief Instrument In Effecting It.

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 Am An Epicurean. I Consider The Genuine (not The Imputed) Doctrines Of Epicurus As Containing Everything Rational In Moral Philosophy Which Greece And Rome Have Left Us.

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.

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

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.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

Truth And Reason Are Eternal. They Have Prevailed. And They Will Eternally Prevail; However, In Times And Places They May Be Overborne For A While By Violence, Military, Civil, Or Ecclesiastical.

From Candlelight To Early Bedtime, I Read.

It Is Highly Interesting To Our Country, And It Is The Duty Of Its Functionaries, To Provide That Every Citizen In It Should Receive An Education Proportioned To The Condition And Pursuits Of His Life.

We Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little.

Where The Law Of The Majority Ceases To Be Acknowledged, There Government Ends; The Law Of The Strongest Takes Its Place, And Life And Property Are His Who Can Take Them.

I Discharge Every Person Under Punishment Or Prosecution Under The Sedition Law, Because I Considered, And Now Consider, That Law To Be A Nullity As Absolute And Palpable As If Congress Had Ordered Us To Fall Down And Worship A Golden Image.

Laws Abridging The Natural Right Of The Citizen Should Be Restrained By Rigorous Constructions Within Their Narrowest Limits.

I Am Never Tempted To Pray But When A Warm Feeling For My Friends Comes Athwart My Heart.

Dispositions Of The Mind, Like Limbs Of The Body, Acquire Strength By Exercise.

It Is A Misnomer To Call A Government Republican In Which A Branch Of The Supreme Power Is Independent Of The Nation.

A Noiseless Course, Not Meddling With The Affairs Of Others, Unattractive Of Notice, Is A Mark That Society Is Going On In Happiness. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labors Of The People Under The Pretense Of Taking Care Of Them, They Must Become Happy.

The Same Prudence Which In Private Life Would Forbid Our Paying Our Own Money For Unexplained Projects, Forbids It In The Dispensation Of The Public Moneys.

I Never Did, Or Countenanced, In Public Life, A Single Act Inconsistent With The Strictest Good Faith; Having Never Believed There Was One Code Of Morality For A Public, And Another For A Private Man.

When I Hear Another Express An Opinion Which Is Not Mine, I Say To Myself, He Has A Right To His Opinion, As I To Mine. Why Should I Question It? His Error Does Me No Injury, And Shall I Become A Don Quixote, To Bring All Men By Force Of Argument To One Opinion? ...be A Listener Only, Keep Within Yourself, And Endeavor To Establish With Yourself The Habit Of Silence, Especially In Politics.

If Ever This Vast Country Is Brought Under A Single Government, It Will Be One Of The Most Extensive Corruption.

The Hocus-pocus Phantasm Of A God, Like Another Cerberus, With One Body And Three Heads, Had Its Birth And Growth In The Blood Of Thousands And Thousands Of Martyrs.

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.

The Man Who Would Choose Security Over Freedom Deserves Neither.

It Is Not Too Soon To Provide By Every Possible Means That As Few As Possible Shall Be Without A Little Portion Of Land. The Small Landholders Are The Most Precious Part Of A State.

Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve Of The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blind-folded Fear.

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.... Do Not Be Frightened From This Inquiry From Any Fear Of Its Consequences. If It Ends In The Belief That There Is No God, You Will Find Incitements To Virtue In The Comfort And Pleasantness You Feel In Its Exercise.

The States Should Be Watchful To Note Every Material Usurpation On Their Rights; To Denounce Them As They Occur In The Most Peremptory Terms; To Protest Against Them As Wrongs To Which Our Present Submission Shall Be Considered, Not As Acknowledgments Or Precedents Of Rights, But As A Temporary Yielding To The Lesser Evil, Until Their Accumulation Shall Overweigh That Of Separation.

In Truth, Politeness Is Artificial Good Humor, It Covers The Natural Want Of It, And Ends By Rendering Habitual A Substitute Nearly Equivalent To The Real Virtue.

It Is Well Known, That On The Ohio, And In Many Parts Of America Further North, Tusks, Grinders, And Skeletons Of Unparalleled Magnitude Are Found In Great Numbers, Some Lying On The Surface Of The Earth, And Some A Little Below It ... But To Whatever Animal We Ascribe These Remains, It Is Certain That Such A One Has Existed In America, And That It Has Been The Largest Of All Terrestrial Beings.

Most Codes Extend Their Definitions Of Treason To Acts Not Really Against One's Country. They Do Not Distinguish Between Acts Against The Government, And Acts Against The Oppressions Of The Government. The Latter Are Virtues, Yet Have Furnished More Victims To The Executioner Than The Former. Real Treasons Are Rare; Oppressions Frequent. The Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.

By Nature's Law, Every Man Has A Right To Seize And Retake By Force His Own Property Taken From Him By Another, By Force Of Fraud. Nor Is This Natural Right Among The First Which Is Taken Into The Hands Of Regular Government After It Is Instituted. It Was Long Retained By Our Ancestors. It Was A Part Of Their Common Law, Laid Down In Their Books, Recognized By All The Authorities, And Regulated As To Circumstances Of Practice.

Compulsion In Religion Is Distinguished Peculiarly From Compulsion In Every Other Thing. ...i Cannot Be Saved By A Worship I Disbelieve And Abhor.

The Following [addition To The Bill Of Rights] Would Have Pleased Me: The People Shall Not Be Deprived Or Abridged Of Their Right To Speak, To Write, Or Otherwise To Publish Anything But False Facts Affecting Injuriously The Life, Liberty Or Reputation Of Others, Or Affecting The Peace Of The [united States] With Foreign Nations.

Anarchy [is] Necessarily Consequent To Inefficiency.

It Is A Moot Question Whether The Origin Of Any Kind Of Property Is Derived From Nature At All. It Is Agreed By Those Who Have Seriously Considered The Subject That No Individual Has, Of Natural Right, A Separate Property In An Acre Of Land, For Instance. By A Universal Law, Indeed, Whatever, Whether Fixed Or Movable, Belongs To All Men Equally And In Common Is The Property For The Moment Of Him Who Occupies It; But When He Relinquishes The Occupation, The Property Goes With It. Stable Ownership Is The Gift Of Social Law, And Is Given Late In The Progress Of Society.

Progress Of Society

To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. We Must Make Our Election Between Economy And Liberty, Or Profusion And Servitude.

Government Debt

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

Informed Citizenry

[emigrants] Will Bring With Them The Principles Of The Governments They Leave, Imbibed In Their Early Youth; Or, If Able To Throw Off, It Will Be In Exchange For An Unbounded Licentiousness, Passing, As Is Usual, From One Extreme To Another. It Would Be A Miracle Were They To Stop Precisely At The Point Of Temperate Liberty.

I Thank Heaven That The 4th. Of July Is Over. It Is Always A Day Of Great Fatigue To Me, And Of Some Embarrassments From Improper Intrusions And Some From Unintended Exclusions.

I Do Not Like [in The New Federal Constitution] The Omission Of A Bill Of Rights Providing Clearly And Without The Aid Of Sophisms For... Protection Against Standing Armies

If The Wise Be The Happy Man... He Must Be Virtuous Too; For, Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be. This Then Is The True Scope Of All Academical Emulation.

All The Capital Employed In Paper Speculation Is Barren And Useless, Producing, Like That On A Gaming Table, No Accession To Itself, And Is Withdrawn From Commerce And Agriculture Where It Would Have Produced Addition To The Common Mass It Nourishes In Our Citizens Habits Of Vice And Idleness Instead Of Industry And Morality It Has Furnished Effectual Means Of Corrupting Such A Portion Of The Legislature As Turns The Balance Between The Honest Voters Whichever Way It Is Directed.

[f]alsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.

A Mind Always Employed Is Always Happy. This Is The True Secret, The Grand Recipe, For Felicity.

I Think Myself That We Have More Machinery Of Government Than Is Necessary, Too Many Parasites Living On The Labor Of The Industrious. Government Big Enough To Supply Everything You Need Is Big Enough To Take Everything You Have ... The Course Of History Shows That As A Government Grows, Liberty Decreases. The Two Enemies Of The People Are Criminals And Government, So Let Us Tie The Second Down With The Chains Of The Constitution So The Second Will Not Become The Legalized Version Of The First.

No Man Shall Be Compelled To Frequent Or Support Any Religious Worship, Place, Or Ministry Whatsoever.

I Have Much Confidence That We Shall Proceed Successfully For Ages To Come. My Hope Of Its Duration Is Built Much On The Enlargement Of The Resources Of Life Going Hand In Hand With The Enlargement Of Territory.

Don't Spend Your Money Till You Have It.

Success In Life

Never Use One Word When Two Will Do.

I Have Sometimes Asked Myself Whether My Country Is The Better For My Having Lived At All? I Do Not Know That It Is. I Have Been The Instrument Of Doing The Following Things; But They Would Have Been Done By Others; Some Of Them, Perhaps, A Little Better.

We Do Not Mean To Count Or Weigh Our Contributions By Any Standard Other Than That Of Our Abilities.

Private Enterprise Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal.

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