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A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong. As To The Species Of Exercises, I Advise The Gun. While This Gives Moderate Exercise To The Body, It Gives Boldness, Enterprise And Independence To The Mind. Games Played With The Ball, And Others Of That Nature, Are Too Violent For The Body And Stamp No Character On The Mind. Let Your Gun Therefore Be Your Constant Companion Of Your Walks.

-Thomas Jefferson

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A Strong Body Makes

Thomas Jefferson

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A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong. As To The Species Of Exercises, I Advise The Gun. While This Gives Moderate Exercise To The Body, It Gives Boldness, Enterprise And Independence To The Mind. Games Played With The Ball, And Others Of That Nature, Are Too Violent For The Body And Stamp No Character On The Mind. Let Your Gun Therefore Be Your Constant Companion Of Your Walks.

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The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple And Tend All To The Happiness Of Man, That There Is Only One God And God Is Perfect. That God And Man Are One. That To Love God With All Your Heart, And Your Neighbor As Yourself, Is The Sum Of Religion. These Are The Great Points On Which I Endeavor To Reform And Live My Life.

I Advance It Therefore As A Suspicion Only, That The Blacks, Whether Originally A Distinct Race, Or Made Distinct By Time And Circumstances, Are Inferior To The Whites In The Endowments Of Both Body And Mind.

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

Ridicule Is The Only Weapon Which Can Be Used Against Unintelligible Propositions. Ideas Must Be Distinct Before Reason Can Act Upon Them; And No Man Ever Had A Distinct Idea Of The Trinity. It Is The Mere Abracadabra Of The Mountebanks Calling Themselves The Priests Of Jesus.

If, In My Retirement To The Humble Station Of A Private Citizen, I Am Accompanied With The Esteem And Approbation Of My Fellow Citizens, Trophies Obtained By The Bloodstained Steel, Or The Tattered Flags Of The Tented Field, Will Never Be Envied. The Care Of Human Life And Happiness, And Not Their Destruction, Is The First And Only Legitimate Object Of Good Government.

This Doctrine ['that The Condition Of Man Cannot Be Ameliorated, That What Has Been Must Ever Be, And That To Secure Ourselves Where We Are We Must Tread With Awful Reverence In The Footsteps Of Our Fathers']is The Genuine Fruit Of The Alliance Between Church And State, The Tenants Of Which Finding Themselves But Too Well In Their Present Condition, Oppose All Advances Which Might Unmask Their Usurpations And Monopolies Of Honors, Wealth And Power, And Fear Every Change As Endangering The Comforts They Now Hold.

Are We To Have A Censor Whose Imprimatur Shall Say What Books May Be Sold, And What We May Buy? And Who Is Thus To Dogmatize Religious Opinions For Our Citizens? Whose Foot Is To Be The Measure To Which Ours Are All To Be Cut Or Stretched? Is A Priest To Be Our Inquisitor, Or Shall A Layman, Simple As Ourselves, Set Up His Reason As The Rule Of What We Are To Read, And What We Must Believe?

When You Are Doubting Whether A Thing Is Worth The Trouble Of Going To See, Recollect That You Will Never Again Be So Near It. You May Repent Not Having Seen It, But You Can Never Repent Having Seen It.

I Tremble For My Country When I Reflect That God Is Just: That His Justice Cannot Sleep Forever: That, Considering Numbers, Nature, And Natural Means Only, A Revolution Of The Wheel Of Fortune, An Exchange Of Situation, Is Among Possible Events: That It May Become Probable By Supernatural Interference! The Almighty Has No Attribute Which Can Take Side With Us In Such A Contest.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

I Have Learned To Be Less Confident In The Conclusions Of Human Reason, And Give More Credit To The Honesty Of Contrary Opinions.

One Had Rather Have No Opinion Than A False One.

Creeds Have Been The Bane Of The Christian Church ... Made Of Christendom A Slaughter-house.

A Cold-blooded, Calculation, Unprincipled, Usurper, Without A Virtue, No Statesman, Knowing Nothing Of Commerce, Political Economy, Or Civil Government, And Supplying Ignorance By Bold Presumption.

Knowing Nothing

Defend Our Liberties And Fashion Into One United People The Multitudes Brought Hither Out Of Many Kindred And Tongues.

Government Is Being Founded On Opinion, The Opinion Of The Public, Even When It Is Wrong, Ought To Be Respected To A Certain Degree.

When We Consider How Much Climate Contributes To The Happiness Of Our Condition, By The Fine Sensation It Excites, And The Productions It Is The Parent Of, We Have Reason To Value Highly The Accident Of Birth In Such A One As That Of Virginia.

With Your Talents And Industry, With Science, And That Steadfast Honesty Which Eternally Pursues Right, Regardless Of Consequences, You May Promise Yourself Every Thing-but Health, Without Which There Is No Happiness. An Attention To Health Then Should Take Place Of Evey Other Object. The Time Necessary To Secure This By Active Exercises, Should Be Devoted To It In Preference To Every Other Pursuit.

[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 Know Nothing More Important To Inculcate Into The Minds Of Young People Than The Wisdom, The Honor, And The Blessed Comfort Of Living Within Their Income.

Single Acts Of Tyranny May Be Ascribed To The Accidental Opinion Of The Day; But A Series Of Oppressions, Begun At A Distinguished Period, And Pursued Unalterably Through Every Change Of Ministers (adminstrators) Too Plainly Proves A Deliberate, Systematic Plan Of Reducing Us To Slavery.

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

We Ought Not To Schismatize On Either Men Or Measures. Principles Alone Can Justify That.

We Must Train And Classify The Whole Of Our Male Citizens, And Make Military Instruction A Regular Part Of Collegiate Education.

No One More Sincerely Wishes The Spread Of Information Among Mankind Than I Do, And None Has Greater Confidence In It's Effect Towards Supporting Free & Good Government.

Opinion, And The Just Maintenance Of It, Shall Never Be A Crime In My View.

If Thinking Men Would Have The Courage To Think For Themselves, And To Speak What They Think, It Would Be Found They Do Not Differ In Religious Opinions As Much As Is Supposed.

One Imputation In Particular Has Been Repeated Till It Seems As If Some At Least Believed It: That I Am An Enemy To Commerce. They Admit Me A Friend Of Agriculture, And Suppose Me An Enemy To The Only Means Of Disposing Of Its Produce.

The Day Is Not Distant When We Must Bear And Adopt [the Abolition Of Slavery], Or Worse Will Follow.

Abolition Of Slavery

You And I Have Formerly Seen Warm Debates And High Political Passions. But Gentlemen Of Different Politics Would Then Speak To Each Other And Separate The Business Of The Senate From That Of Society. It Is Not So Now. Men Who Have Been Intimate All Their Lives, Cross The Streets To Avoid Meeting, And Turn Their Heads Another Way, Lest They Should Be Obliged To Touch Their Hats. This May Do For Young Men With Whom Passion Is Enjoyment. But It Is Afflicting To Peaceable Minds. Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

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.

It Is In Our Lives And Not Our Words That Our Religion Must Be Read.

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

My Religious Reading Has Long Been Confined To The Moral Branch Of Religion, Which Is The Same In All Religions; While In That Branch Which Consists Of Dogmas, All Differ[.

Born In The Same Land, We Ought To Live As Brothers, Doing To Each Other All The Good We Can, And Not Listening To Wicked Men, Who May Endeavor To Make Us Enemies. By Living In Peace, We Can Help And Prosper One Another; By Waging War, We Can Kill And Destroy Many On Both Sides; But Those Who Survive Will Not Be The Happier For That.

The Foundation On Which (our Government Is) Built Is The Natural Equality Of Man, The Denial Of Every Pre-eminence But That Annexed To Legal Office, And Particularly The Denial Of A Pre-eminence By Birth.

I Served With General Washington In Die Legislature Of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin In Congress. I Never Heard Neither Of Them Speak Ten Minutes At A Time, Nor To Any But The Main Point.

It Is Too Late In The Day For Men Of Sincerity To Pretend They Believe In The Platonic Mysticisms That Three Are One, And One Is Three; And Yet That The One Is Not Three, And The Three Are Not One.

How Did Jefferson Feel About The People Of His Day Who Were The Equivalent Of Our Modern Day Penecostals? You Know, Those Revelation Reveling Tongue Speaking Idiots.

The Functionaries Of Public Power Rarely Strengthen In Their Dispositions To Abridge It, And An Unorganized Call For Timely Amendment Is Not Likely To Prevail Against An Organized Opposition To It. We Are Always Told That Things Are Going On Well; Why Change Them? 'chi Sta Bene, No Si Mueve,' Said The Italian, 'let Him Who Stands Well, Stand Still.' This Is True; And I Verily Believe They Would Go On Well With Us Under An Absolute Monarch, While Our Present Character Remains, Of Order, Industry And Love Of Peace, And Restrained As He Would Be, By The Proper Spirit Of The People.

I Was Dupedby The Secretary Of The Treasury [alexander Hamilton], And Made A Fool For Forwarding His Schemes, Not Then Sufficiently Understood By Me; And Of All The Errors Of My Political Life, This Has Occasioned The Deepest Regret.

My God! How Little Do My Countrymen Know What Precious Blessings They Are In Possession Of, And Which No Other People On Earth Enjoy!

We Love And We Value Peace; We Know Its Blessings From Experience. We Abhor The Follies Of War, And Are Not Untried In Its Distresses And Calamities.

The True Theory Of Our Constitution Is Surely The Wisest And Best, That The States Are Independent As To Everything Within Themselves, And United As To Everything Respecting Foreign Affairs. Let The General Government Be Reduced To Foreign Concerns Only, And Let Our Affairs Be Disentangled From Those Of All Other Nations, Except As To Commerce, Which The Merchants Will Manage The Better, The More They Are Left Free To Manage For Themselves, And Our General Government May Be Reduced To A Very Simple Organization, And A Very Inexpensive One; A Few Plain Duties To Be Performed By A Few Servants.

Circumstances Sometimes Require, That Rights The Most Unquestionable Should Be Advanced With Delicacy.

Experience Has Taught Me That Manufacturers Are Now As Necessary To Our Independence As To Our Comfort.

The Functionaries Of Every Government Have Propensities To Command At Will The Liberty And Property Of Their Constituents.

The Fortune Of Our Lives Depends On Employing Well The Short Period Of Our Youth.

I Agree With You That It Is The Duty Of Every Good Citizen To Use All The Opportunities, Which Occur To Him, For Preserving Documents Relating To The History Of Our Country.

The Order Of Nature [is] That Individual Happiness Shall Be Inseparable From The Practice Of Virtue.

Individual Happiness

With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties.

We Confide In Our Strength, Without Boasting Of It, We Respect That Of Others, Without Fearing It.

Nature [has] Implanted In Our Breasts A Love Of Others, A Sense Of Duty To Them, A Moral Instinct, In Short, Which Prompts Us Irresistibly To Feel And To Succor Their Distresses.

The More A Subject Is Understood, The More Briefly It May Be Explained.

No Government Should Be Without Critics. If Its Intentions Are Good Then It Has Nothing To Fear From Criticism.

I... [proposed] Three Distinct Grades Of Education, Reaching All Classes. 1. Elementary Schools For All Children Generally, Rich And Poor. 2. Colleges For A Middle Degree Of Instruction, Calculated For The Common Purposes Of Life And Such As Should Be Desirable For All Who Were In Easy Circumstances. And 3d. An Ultimate Grade For Teaching The Sciences Generally And In Their Highest Degree... The Expenses Of [the Elementary] Schools Should Be Borne By The Inhabitants Of The County, Every One In Proportion To His General Tax-rate. This Would Throw On Wealth The Education Of The Poor.

I Am A Sect By Myself, As Far As I Know.

We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

Government Welfare

Government Debt

We Did Not Raise Armies For Glory Or For Conquest.

No Person Shall Be Restrained Of His Liberty But By Regular Process From A Court Of Justice, Authorized By A General Law. . . . On Complaint Of An Unlawful Imprisonment To Any Judge Whatsoever, He Shall Have The Prisoner Immediately Brought Before Him And Shall Discharge Him If His Imprisonment Be Unlawful. The Officer In Whose Custody The Prisoner Is Shall Obey The Order Of The Judge, And Both Judge And Officer Shall Be Responsible Civilly And Criminally For A Failure Of Duty Herein.

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.

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

The Best (remedy) I Can Devise Would Be To Give Future Commissions To (federal) Judges For Six Years With A Re-appointability By The President With The Approbation Of Both Houses. If This Would Not Be Independence Enough, I Know Not What Would Be.

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.

"it Astonishes Me To Find... [that So Many] Of Our Countrymen... Should Be Contented To Live Under A System Which Leaves To Their Governors The Power Of Taking From Them The Trial By Jury In Civil Cases, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce, The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Of Yoking Them With A Standing Army. This Is A Degeneracy In The Principles Of Liberty... Which I [would Not Have Expected For At Least] Four Centuries."

[i]n Great-britain It Is Said That Their Constitution Relies On The House Of Commons For Honesty, And The Lords For Wisdom; Whichwould Be A Rational Reliance If Honesty Were To Be Bought With Money, And If Wisdom Were Hereditary.

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

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.

The Question Whether The Judges Are Invested With Exclusive Authority To Decide On The Constitutionality Of A Law Has Been Heretofore A Subject Of Consideration With Me In The Exercise Of Official Duties. Certainly There Is Not A Word In The Constitution Which Has Given That Power To Them More Than To The Executive Or Legislative Branches.

Merchants Have No Country.

Ours Are The Only Farmers Who Can Read Homer

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

If We Could Believe That Jesus...countenanced The Follies, Falsehoods And Charlatanisms Which His Biographers Father On Him, ...the Conclusion Would Be Irresistible...that He Was An Imposter.

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.

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

I Never Told My Own Religion Nor Scrutinized That Of Another. I Never Attempted To Make A Convert, Nor Wished To Change Another's Creed. I Am Satisfied That Yours Must Be An Excellent Religion To Have Produced A Life Of Such Exemplary Virtue And Correctness. For It Is In Our Lives, And Not From Our Words, That Our Religion Must Be Judged.

Every Society Has A Right To Fix The Fundamental Principles Of Its Association, And To Say To All Individuals, That If They Contemplate Pursuits Beyond The Limits Of These Principles And Involving Dangers Which The Society Chooses To Avoid, They Must Go Somewhere Else For Their Exercise; That We Want No Citizens, And Still Less Ephemeral And Pseudo-citizens, On Such Terms. We May Exclude Them From Our Territory, As We Do Persons Infected With Disease.

Was The Government To Prescribe To Us Our Medicine And Diet, Our Bodies Would Be In Such Keeping As Our Souls Are Now.

Nothing Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Unalienable Rights Of Man.

The Firmness With Which The (american) People Have Withstood The... Abuses Of The Press, The Discernment They Have Manifested Between Truth And Falsehood, Show That They May Safely Be Trusted To Hear Everything True And False And To Form A Correct Judgment Between Them.

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.

Government Governed Least Is Government Governed Best.

It Is A Wise Rule And Should Be Fundamental In A Government Disposed To Cherish Its Credit, And At The Same Time To Restrain The Use Of It Within The Limits Of Its Faculties, "never To Borrow A Dollar Without Laying A Tax In The Same Instant For Paying The Interest Annually, And The Principal Within A Given Term; And To Consider That Tax As Pledged To The Creditors On The Public Faith."

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

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

When The Heart Is Right, The Feet Are Swift.

It Has Been Thought That The People Are Not Competent Electors Of Judges Learned In The Law. But I Do Not Know This To Be True, And, If Doubtful, We Should Follow Principle.

When, In The Course Of Human Events, It Becomes Necessary For One People To Dissolve The Political Bands Which Have Connected Them With Another, And To Assume Among The Powers Of The Earth The Separate And Equal Station To Which The Laws Of Nature And Of Nature's God Entitle Them, A Decent Respect To The Opinions Of Mankind Requires That They Should Declare The Causes Which Impel Them To The Separation.

The Opinions Of Men Are Not The Object Of Civil Government, Nor Under Its Jurisdiction.

It Is My Disposition To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself.

Law Is Often The Tyrant's Will, And Always So When It Violates The Right Of An Individual.

Inalienable Rights

Our Country Is Now Taking So Steady A Course As To Show By What Road It Will Pass To Destruction, To Wit: By Consolidation Of Power First, And Then Corruption, Its Necessary Consequence.

I Wish I Was A Despot That I Might Save The Noble, The Beautiful Trees That Are Daily Falling Sacrifice To The Cupidity Of Their Owners, Or The Necessity Of The Poor. The Unnecessary Felling Of A Tree, Perhaps The Growth Of Centuries, Seems To Me A Crime Little Short Of Murder.

I Have Recently Been Examining All The Known Superstitions Of The World And Do Not Find In Our Particular Superstition [christianity] One Redeeming Feature.

In Every Country Where Man Is Free To Think And To Speak, Difference Of Opinion Will Arise From Difference Of Perception, And The Imperfection Of Reason; But These Differences, When Permitted, As In This Happy Country, To Purify Themselves By Free Discussion, Are But As Passing Clouds Overspreading Our Land Transiently, And Leaving Our Horizon More Bright And Serene.

If We Cannot Secure All Our Rights, Let Us Secure What We Can.

Adore God. Reverence And Cherish Your Parents. Love Your Neighbor As Yourself, And Your Country More Than Yourself. Be Just. Be True. Murmur Not At The Ways Of Providence. So Shall The Life Into Which You Have Entered Be The Portal To One Of Eternal And Ineffable Bliss.

The Majority, Oppressing An Individual, Is Guilty Of A Crime, Abuses Its Strength, And By Acting On The Law Of The Strongest Breaks Up The Foundations Of Society.

A Great Deal Of Love Given To A Few Is Better Than A Little To Many.

The Construction Applied . . . To Those Parts Of The Constitution Of The United States Which Delegate Congress A Power . . . Ought Not To Be Construed As Themselves To Give Unlimited Powers, Nor A Part To Be So Taken As To Destroy The Whole Residue Of That Instrument.

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

The Only Foundation For Useful Education In A Republic Is To Be Laid In Religion.

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

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

... I Am Not Afraid Of Priests. They Have Tried Upon Me All Their Various Batteries Of Pious Whining, Hypocritical Canting, Lying And Slandering. I Have Contemplated Their Order From The Magi Of The East To The Saints Of The West And I Have Found No Difference Of Character, But Of More Or Less Caution, In Proportion To Their Information Or Ignorance On Whom Their Interested Duperies Were To Be Played Off. Their Sway In New England Is Indeed Formidable. No Mind Beyond Mediocrity Dares There To Develop Itself.

In A Government Bottomed On The Will Of All, The... Liberty Of Every Individual Citizen Becomes Interesting To All.

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

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.

The Judiciary Of The United States Is The Subtle Corps Of Sappers And Miners Constantly Working Under Ground To Undermine The Foundations Of Our Confederated Fabric. They Are Construing Our Constitution From A Co-ordination Of A General And Special Government To A General And Supreme One Alone.

I Have Never Conceived That Having Been In Public Life Required Me To Belie My Sentiments, Or To Conceal Them. Opinion And The Just Maintenance Of It Shall Never Be A Crime In My View, Nor Bring Injury On The Individual. I Never Will By Any Word Or Act, Bow To The Shrine Of Intolerance. I Never Had An Opinion In Politics Or Religion Which I Was Afraid To Own; A Reserve On These Subjects Might Have Procured Me More Esteem From Some People, But Less From Myself.

Man Is Fed With Fables Through Life, And Leaves It In The Belief He Knows Something Of What Has Been Passing, When In Truth He Knows Nothing But What Has Passed Under His Own Eyes.

Ignorance Is Preferable To Error, And He Is Less Remote From The Truth Who Believes Nothing Than He Who Believes What Is Wrong.

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.

No People Can Be Both Ignorant And Free.

He Alone Who Walks Strict And Upright, And Who, In Matters Of Opinion, Will Be Contented That Others Should Be As Free As Himself And Acquiesce When His Opinion Is Freely Overruled, Will Attain His Object In The End.

It Is Better To Tolerate The Rare Instance Of A Parent Refusing To Let His Child Be Educated, Than To Shock The Common Feelings And Ideas By Forcible Asportation And Education Of The Infant Against The Will Of The Father.

Peace With All Nations, And The Right Which That Gives Us With Respect To All Nations, Are Our Object.

We May Say With Truth And Meaning, That Governments Are More Or Less Republican, As They Have More Or Less Of The Element Of Popular Election And Control In Their Composition; And Believing As I Do, That The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depository Of Their Own Rights And Especially That The Evils Flowing From The Duperies Of The People Are Less Injurious Than Those From The Egoism Of Their Agents, I Am A Friend To That Composition Of Government Which Has In It The Most Of This Ingredient.

The Ordinary Affairs Of A Nation Offer Little Difficulty To A Person Of Any Experience.

I Sincerely Pray That All The Members Of The Human Family May, In The Time Prescribed By The Father Of Us All, Find Themselves Securely Established In The Enjoyment Of Life, Liberty, And Happiness.

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.

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

I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Power Of The Society But The People Themselves.

The Whole Body Of The Nation Is The Sovereign Legislative, Judiciary, And Executive Power For Itself. The Inconvenience Of Meeting To Exercise These Powers In Person, And Their Inaptitude To Exercise Them, Induce Them To Appoint Special Organs To Declare Their Legislative Will, To Judge And To Execute It. It Is The Will Of The Nation Which Makes The Law Obligatory.

Were I To Be The Founder Of A New Sect, I Would Call Them Apiarians, And, After The Example Of The Bee, Advise Them To Extract The Honey Of Every Sect. My Fundamental Principle Would Be ... That We Are To Be Saved By Our Good Works Which Are Within Our Power, And Not By Our Faith Which Is Not Within Our Power.

Take Painsto Write A Neat Round, Plain Hand, And You Will Find It A Great Convenience Through Life To Write A Small And Compact Hand As Well As A Fair And Legible One.

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.

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.

This I Hope Will Be The Age Of Experiments In Government, And That Their Basis Will Be Founded In Principles Of Honesty, Not Of Mere Force.

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

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.

What We Learn To Do, We Learn By Doing.

A Man Has A Right To Use A Saw, An Axe, A Plane, Separately; May He Not Combine Their Uses On The Same Piece Of Wood? He Has A Right To Use His Knife To Cut His Meat, A Fork To Hold It; May A Patentee Take From Him The Right To Combine Their Use On The Same Subject? Such A Law, Instead Of Enlarging Our Conveniences, As Was Intended, Would Most Fearfully Abridge Them, And Crowd Us By Monopolies Out Of The Use Of The Things We Have.

Man, Once Surrendering His Reason, Has No Remaining Guard Against Absurdities The Most Monstrous. . . .

Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind. . . . We Might As Well Require A Man To Wear The Coat Which Fitted Him When A Boy As Civilized Society To Remain Forever Under The Regimen Of Their Barbarous Ancestors.

I Have Ever Deemed It Fundamental For The United States Never To Take Active Part In The Quarrels Of Europe.... They Are Nations Of Eternal War.

The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depositary Of Their Own Rights.

It Is Time Enough, For The Rightful Purposes Of Civil Government, For Its Officers To Interfere [in The Propagation Of Religious Teachings] When Principles Break Out Into Overt Acts Against Peace And Good Order.

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?

I Hold It That A Little Rebellion Now And Then Is A Good Thing, And As Necessary In The Political World As Storms In The Physical.

Only A Government That Is Afraid Of Its Citizens Tries To Control Them.

I Was Bold In The Pursuit Of Knowledge, Never Fearing To Follow Truth And Reason To Whatever Results They Led, And Bearding Every Authority Which Stood In Their Way.

Scenes Are Now To Take Place As Will Open The Eyes Of Credulity And Of Insanity Itself, To The Dangers Of A Paper Medium Abandoned To The Discretion Of Avarice And Of Swindlers.

A Good Neighbor Is A Very Desireable Thing.

[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.

Wine Brightens The Life And Thinking Of Anyone

An Enemy Generally Says And Believes What He Wishes.

Many Are The Exercises Of Power Reserved To The States Wherein A Uniformity Of Proceeding Would Be Advantageous To All. Such Are Quarantines, Health Laws, Regulations Of The Press, Banking Institutions, Training Militia, Etc., Etc.

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

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.

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.

Never Buy What You Do Not Want, Because It Is Cheap; It Will Be Dear To You.

My Construction Of The Constitution Is Very Different From That You Quote. It Is That Each Department Is Truly Independent Of The Others, And Has An Equal Right To Decide For Itself What Is The Meaning Of The Constitution In The Cases Submitted To Its Action; And Especially, Where It Is To Act Ultimately And Without Appeal.

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.

Be Assured That It Gives Much More Pain To The Mind To Be In Debt, Than To Do Without Any Article Whatever Which We May Seem To Want.

But, You May Ask, If The Two Departments [i.e., Federal And State] Should Claim Each The Same Subject Of Power, Where Is The Common Umpire To Decide Ultimately Between Them? In Cases Of Little Importance Or Urgency, The Prudence Of Both Parties Will Keep Them Aloof From The Questionable Ground; But If It Can Neither Be Avoided Nor Compromised, A Convention Of The States Must Be Called To Ascribe The Doubtful Power To That Department Which They May Think Best.

If Anything Pass In A Religious Meeting Seditiously And Contrary To The Public Peace, Let It Be Punished In The Same Manner And No Otherwise Than As If It Had Happened In A Fair Or Market.

Positive Atheism

The Christian God Is A Being Of Terrific Character - Cruel, Vindictive, Capricious And Unjust.

I Can Never Join Calvin In Addressing His God. He Was Indeed An Atheist, Which I Can Never Be; Or Rather His Religion Was Daemonism. If Ever Man Worshipped A False God, He Did.

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.

No Provision In Our Constitution Ought To Be Dearer To Man Than That Which Protects The Rights Of Conscience Against The Enterprises Of The Civil Authority.

Let The Eye Of Vigilance Never Be Closed.

The Most Valuable Of All Talents Is That Of Never Using Two Words When One Will Do.

When The People Are Afraid Of The Government, That's Tyranny. But When The Government Is Afraid Of The People, That's Liberty.

You Know Well That Government Always Kept A Kind Of Standing Army Of Newswriters Who, Without Any Regard To Truth Or To What Should Be Like Truth, Invented And Put Into The Papers Whatever Might Serve The [government] Ministers. This Suffices With The Mass Of The People Who Have No Means Of Distinguishing The False From The True Paragraphs Of A Newspaper.

A Departure From Principle In One Instance Becomes A Precedent For A Second; That Second For A Third; And So On, Till The Bulk Of The Society Is Reduced To Be Mere Automatons Of Misery, To Have No Sensibilities Left But For Sin And Suffering.

It Behooves Our Citizens To Be On Their Guard, To Be Firm In Their Principles, And Full Of Confidence In Themselves. We Are Able To Preserve Our Self-government If We Will But Think So.

Earnestly Recommended To All Officers And Soldiers, Diligently To Attend Divine Services.

Material Abundance Without Character Is The Surest Way To Destruction.

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

I Have Been Happy . . . In Believing That . . . Whatever Follies We May Be Led Into As To Foreign Nations, We Shall Never Give Up Our Union, The Last Anchor Of Our Hope, And That Alone Which Is To Prevent This Heavenly Country From Becoming An Arena Of Gladiators.

I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery.

I Do Not Find In Orthodox Christianity One Redeeming Feature.

Should Look Forward To A Time, And That Not A Distant One, When Corruption In This, As In The Country From Which We Derive Our Origin, Will Have Seized The Heads Of Government, And Be Spread By Them Through The Body Of The People; When They Will Purchase The Voices Of The People, And Make Them Pay The Price.

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.

One War, Such As That Of Our Revolution, Is Enough For One Life.

A Government Held Together By The Bands Of Reason Only, Requires Much Compromise Of Opinion.

...is The Spirit Of The People An Infallible, A Permanent Reliance? ...the Spirit Of The Times May Alter, Will Alter. Our Rulers Will Become Corrupt, Our People Careless.

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.

Every Christian Sect Gives A Great Handle To Atheism By Their General Dogma That, Without A Revelation, There Would Not Be Sufficient Proof Of The Being Of God.

Be A Listener Only, Keep Within Yourself, And Endeavor To Establish With Yourself The Habit Of Silence, Especially In Politics.

I Look To The Diffusion Of Light And Education As The Resource Most To Be Relied On For Ameliorating The Condition, Promoting The Virtue And Advancing The Happiness Of Man.

A Little Patience, And We Shall See The Reign Of Witches Pass Over, Their Spells Dissolve, And The People, Recovering Their True Sight, Restore Their Government To Its True Principles. It Is True That In The Meantime We Are Suffering Deeply In Spirit, And Incurring The Horrors Of A War And Long Oppressions Of Enormous Public Debt...if The Game Runs Sometime Against Us At Home, We Must Have Patience Till Luck Turns, And Then We Shall Have An Opportunity Of Winning Back The Principles We Have Lost, For This Is A Game Where Principles Are At Stake.

I Believe That Banking Institutions Are More Dangerous To Our Liberties Than Standing Armies. Already They Have Raised Up A Moneyed Aristocracy That Has Set The Government At Defiance. The Issuing Power Should Be Taken From The Banks And Restored To The People To Whom It Properly Belongs.

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

A Professorship Of Theology Should Have No Place In Our Institution [the University Of Virginia]

I Am For Freedom Of Religion, And Against All Maneuvers To Bring About A Legal Ascendency Of One Sect Over Another.

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

In Our Early Struggles For Liberty, Religious Freedom Could Not Fail To Become A Primary Object.

Politics Is Such A Torment That I Advise Everyone I Love Not To Mix With It.

Exercise And Application Produce Order In Our Affairs, Health Of Body, Cheerfulness Of Mind, And These Make Us Precious To Our Friends

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.

The Suppression Of Unnecessary Offices, Of Useless Establishments And Expenses Enabled Us To Discontinue Our Internal Taxes. These Covering Our Land With Officers, And Opening Our Doors To Their Intrusions, Had Already Begun That Process Of Domiciliary Vexation Which, Once Entered, Is Scarcely To Be Restrained From Reaching Successively Every Article Of Produce And Property.

The Purpose Of Government Is To Enable The People Of A Nation To Live In Safety And Happiness. Government Exists For The Interests Of The Governed, Not For The Governors.

The Central Bank Is An Institution Of The Most Deadly Hostility Existing Against The Principles And Form Of Our Constitution.

My Only Fear Is That I May Live Too Long. This Would Be A Subject Of Dread To Me.

The Further The Departure From Direct And Constant Control By The Citizens, The Less Has The Government Of The Ingredient Of Republicanism.

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

Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoded To Exercise, And Weather Should Be Little Regarded. A Person Not Sick Will Not Be Injured By Getting Wet. It Is But Taking A Cold Bath, Which Never Gives A Cold To Any One. Brute Animals Are The Most Healthy, And They Are Exposed To All Weather, And Of Men, Those Are Healthiest Who Are The Most Exposed.

Every Man's Reason Is His Own Rightful Umpire. This Principle, With That Of Acquiescence In The Will Of The Majority, Will Preserve Us Free And Prosperous As Long As They Are Sacredly Observed.

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