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But With Respect To Future Debt; Would It Not Be Wise And Just For That Nation To Declare In The Constitution They Are Forming That Neither The Legislature, Nor The Nation Itself Can Validly Contract More Debt, Than They May Pay Within Their Own Age, Or Within The Term Of 19 Years.

-Thomas Jefferson

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But With Respect To

Thomas Jefferson

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But With Respect To Future Debt; Would It Not Be Wise And Just For That Nation To Declare In The Constitution They Are Forming That Neither The Legislature, Nor The Nation Itself Can Validly Contract More Debt, Than They May Pay Within Their Own Age, Or Within The Term Of 19 Years.

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I Acknowledge That Such A Debt [of Service To My Fellow-citizens] Exists, That A Tour Of Duty In Whatever Line He Can Be Most Useful To His Country, Is Due From Every Individual. It Is Not Easy Perhaps To Say Of What Length Exactly That Tour Should Be, But We May Safely Say Of What Length It Should Not Be. Not Of Our Whole Life, For Instance, For That Would Be To Be Born A Slave-not Even Of A Very Large Portion Of It.

There Is A Fulness Of Time When Men Should Go, And Not Occupy Too Long The Ground To Which Others Have A Right To Advance.

[t]he States Can Best Govern Our Home Concerns And The General Government Our Foreign Ones. I Wish, Therefore . . . Never To See All Offices Transferred To Washington, Where, Further Withdrawn From The Eyes Of The People, They May More Secretly Be Bought And Sold At Market.

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

Victory And Defeat Are Each Of The Same Price.

Victory And Defeat

I Feel... An Ardent Desire To See Knowledge So Disseminated Through The Mass Of Mankind That It May, At Length, Reach Even The Extremes Of Society: Beggars And Kings.

The Fore Horse Of This Frightful Team Is Public Debt. Taxation Follow That, And In Its Turn Wretchedness And Oppression.

It Is More Honorable To Repair A Wrong Than To Persist In It.

I Am Ever Unwilling That [peace] Should Be Disturbed As Long As The Rights And Interests Of The Nations Can Be Preserved. But Whensoever Hostile Aggressions On These Require A Resort To War, We Must Meet Our Duty And Convince The World That We Are Just Friends And Brave Enemies.

The Equal Rights Of Man And The Happiness Of Every Individual Are Now Acknowledged To Be The Only Legitimate Objects Of Government.

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.

It Is Our Duty Still To Endeavor To Avoid War; But If It Shall Actually Take Place, No Matter By Whom Brought On, We Must Defend Ourselves. If Our House Be On Fire, Without Inquiring Whether It Was Fired From Within Or Without, We Must Try To Extinguish It.

The Public School System: "usually A Twelve Year Sentence Of Mind Control. Crushing Creativity, Smashing Individualism, Encouraging Collectivism And Compromise, Destroying The Exercise Of Intellectual Inquiry, Twisting It Instead Into Meek Subservience To Authority." - Walter Karp, Editor Harper's Magazine The Ground Of Liberty Is To Be Gained By Inches, And We Must Be Contented To Secure What We Can Get From Time To Time And Eternally Press Forward For What Is Yet To Get. It Takes Time To Persuade Men To Do Even What Is For Their Own Good.

I Could Think Of No Worse Example For Nations Abroad, Who For The First Time Were Trying To Put Free Electoral Procedures Into Effect, Than That Of The United States Wrangling Over The Results Of Our Presidential Election, And Even Suggesting That The Presidency Itself Could Be Stolen By Thievery At The Ballot Box.

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

The Human Character, We Believe, Requires In General Constant And Immediate Control To Prevent Its Being Biased From Right By The Seductions Of Self-love.

Games Played With The Ball, And Others Of That Nature, Are Too Violent For The Body And Stamp No Character On The Mind.

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

Knowledge Is Power

We Are Completely Saddled And Bridled, And... The Bank Is So Firmly Mounted On Us That We Must Go Where It Will Guide.

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 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.

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.

I Never Considered A Difference Of Opinion In Politics, In Religion, In Philosophy, As Cause For Withdrawing From A Friend.

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

My Opinion Is That There Would Never Have Been An Infidel, If There Had Never Been A Priest. The Artificial Structures They Have Built On The Purest Of All Moral Systems, For The Purpose Of Deriving From It Pence And Power, Revolts Those Who Think For Themselves, And Who Read In That System Only What Is Really There.

We May Consider Each Generation As A Distinct Nation, With A Right, By The Will Of Its Majority, To Bind Themselves, But None To Bind The Succeeding Generation, More Than The Inhabitants Of Another Country.

We Are Now Trusting To Those Who Are Against Us In Position And Principle, To Fashion To Their Own Form The Minds And Affections Of Our Youth... This Canker Is Eating On The Vitals Of Our Existence, And If Not Arrested At Once, Will Be Beyond Remedy.

The Same Political Parties Which Now Agitiate The Us Have Existed Through All Time. And In Fact The Terms Of Whig And Tory Belong To Natural As Well As To Civil History. They Denote The Temper And Constitution And Mind Of Different Individuals.

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.

If The Game Runs Sometimes 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.

Blest Is That Nation Whose Silent Course Of Happiness Furnishes Nothing For History To Say.

Nothing Is So Disgusting To Our Sex As Want Of Cleanliness And Delicacy In Yours.

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.

Politics, Like Religion, Hold Up The Torches Of Martyrdom To The Reformers Of Error.

He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It The Second Time.

We Have The Wolf By The Ears, And We Can Neither Hold Him, Nor Safely Let Him Go. Justice Is In One Scale, And Self-preservation In The Other.

I Am Not An Advocate For Frequent Changes In Laws And Constitutions. But Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind. As That Becomes More Developed, More Enlightened, As New Discoveries Are Made, New Truths Discovered And Manners And Opinions Change, With The Change Of Circumstances, Institutions Must Advance Also To Keep Pace With The Times. We Might As Well Require A Man To Wear Still The Coat Which Fitted Him When A Boy As Civilized Society To Remain Ever Under The Regimen Of Their Barbarous Ancestors.

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

In A World Which Furnishes So Many Employments Which Are Useful, And So Many Which Are Amusing, It Is Our Own Fault If We Ever Know What Ennui [boredom] Is, Or If We Are Ever Driven To The Miserable Resource Of Gaming, Which Corrupts Our Dispositions, And Teaches Us A Habit Of Hostility Against All Mankind.

And Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences, Whether We Consider Its Subjects As Furnishing The Principal Subsistence Of Life To Man And Beast, Delicious Varieties For Our Tables, Refreshments From Our Orchards, The Adornments Of Our Flower-borders, Shade And Perfume Of Our Groves, Materials For Our Buildings, Or Medicaments For Our Bodies.

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

The Spirit Of Resistance To Government Is So Valuable On Certain Occasions That I Wish It To Be Always Kept Alive.

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.

A Judiciary Independent Of A King Or Executive Alone, Is A Good Thing; But Independence Of The Will Of The Nation Is A Solecism, At Least In A Republican Government.

[oppose] With Manly Firmness [any] Invasions On The Rights Of The People.

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.

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.

From Forty Years' Experience Of The Wretched Guess-work Of The Newspapers Of What Is Not Done In Open Daylight, And Of Their Falsehood Even As To That, I Rarely Think Them Worth Reading, And Almost Never Worth Notice.

The Mass Of Our Citizens May Be Divided Into Two Classes -- The Laboring And The Learned. The Laboring Will Need The First Grade Of Education To Qualify Them For Their Pursuits And Duties; The Learned Will Need It As A Foundation For Further Acquirements.

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong.

Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences.

Why Suspend The Habeas Corpus In Insurrections And Rebellions? Examine The History Of England. See How Few Of The Cases Of The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Law Have Been Worthy Of That Suspension. They Have Been Either Real Treasons, Wherein The Parties Might As Well Have Been Charged At Once, Or Sham Plots, Where It Was Shameful They Should Ever Have Been Suspected. Yet For The Few Cases Wherein The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Has Done Real Good, That Operation Is Now Become Habitual And The Minds Of The Nation Almost Prepared To Live Under Its Constant Suspension.

Christian Creeds And Doctrines, The Clergy's Own Fatal Inventions, Through All The Ages Has Made Of Christendom A Slaughterhouse, And Divided It Into Sects Of Inextinguishable Hatred For One Another.

The Sovereign Invigorator Of The Body Is Exercise, And Of All The Exercises Walking Is The Best.

The Proscribing Any Citizen As Unworthy The Public Confidence By Laying Upon Him An Incapacity Of Being Called To Offices Of Trust And Emolument Unless He Profess Or Renounce This Or That Religious Opinion Is Depriving Him Injuriously Of Those Privileges And Advantages To Which, In Common With His Fellow Citizens, He Has A Natural Right.

The Eyes Of Our Citizens Are Not Sufficiently Open To The True Cause Of Our Distress. They Ascribe Them To Everything But Their True Cause, The Banking System

Congress Errs In Too Much Talking, How Can It Be Otherwise, In A Body To Which The People Send One Hundred And Fifty Lawyers, Whose Trade It Is To Question Everything, Yield Nothing, And Talk By The Hour?

The Spirit Of This Country Is Totally Adverse To A Large Military Force.

The Banks Themselves Were Doing Business On Capitals Three-fourths Of Which Were Fictitious. This Fictitious Capital... Is Now To Be Lost, And To Fall On Somebody; It Must Take On Those Who Have Property To Meet It, And Probably On The Less Cautious Part, Who, Not Aware Of The Impending Catastrophe, Have Suffered Themselves To Contract, Or To Be In Debt, And Must Now Sacrifice Their Property Of A Value Many Times The Amount Of The Debt. We Have Been Truly Sowing The Wind, And Are Now Reaping The Whirlwind.

No People Can Be Both Ignorant And Free.

Our Part Is To Pursue With Steadiness What Is Right, Turning Neither To Right Nor Left For The Intrigues Or Popular Delusions Of The Day, Assured That The Public Approbation Will In The End Be With Us.

I Considered The British As Our Natural Enemies, And As The Only Nation On Earth Who Wished Us Ill From The Bottom Of Their Souls. And I Am Satisfied That Were Our Continent To Be Swallowed Up By The Ocean, Great Britain Would Be In A Bonfire From One End To The Other.

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.

This Formidable Censor Of The Public Functionaries [the Press], By Arraigning Them At The Tribunal Of Public Opinion, Produces Reform Peaceably, Which Must Otherwise Be Done By Revolution. It Is Also The Best Instrument For Enlightening The Mind Of Man And Improving Him As A Rational, Moral, And Social Being.

No Society Can Make A Perpetual Constitution... The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generation.

I Think By Far The Most Important Bill In Our Whole Code Is That For The Diffusion Of Knowlege Among The People. No Other Sure Foundation Can Be Devised For The Preservation Of Freedom, And Happiness.

When Habit Has Strengthened Our Sense Of Duties, They Leave Us No Time For Other Things; But When Young We Neglect Them And This Gives Us Time For Anything.

The People, Especially When Moderately Instructed, Are The Only Safe, Because The Only Honest, Depositaries Of The Public Rights, And Should Therefore Be Introduced Into The Administration Of Them In Every Function To Which They Are Sufficient; They Will Err Sometimes And Accidentally, But Never Designedly, And With A Systematic And Persevering Purpose Of Overthrowing The Free Principles Of The Government.

The Art Of Governing Consists Simply Of Being Honest, Exercising Common Sense, Following Principle, And Doing What Is Right And Just.

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.

The Protection Of Our Citizens, The Spirit And Honor Of Our Country, Require That Force Should Be Interposed To A Certain Degree.

The Basis Of Our Governments Being The Opinion Of The People, The Very First Object Should Be To Keep That Right; And Were It Left To Me To Decide Whether We Should Have A Government Without Newspapers Or Newspapers Without A Government, I Should Not Hesitate A Moment To Prefer The Latter. But I Should Mean That Every Man Should Receive Those Papers And Be Capable Of Reading Them.

Honesty, Disinterestedness And Good Nature Are Indispensable To Procure The Esteem And Confidence Of Those With Whom We Live, And On Whose Esteem Our Happiness Depends.

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.

The Instability Of Our Laws Is Really An Immense Evil. I Think It Would Be Well To Provide In Our Constitutions That There Shall Always Be A Twelve-month Between The Ingross-ing A Bill & Passing It: That It Should Then Be Offered To Its Passage Without Changing A Word: And That If Circum-stances Should Be Thought To Require A Speedier Passage, It Should Take Two Thirds Of Both Houses Instead Of A Bare Majority.

Not To Find Out New Principles, Or New Arguments, Never Before Thought Of . . . But To Place Before Mankind The Common Sense Of The Subject, In Terms So Plain And Firm As To Command Their Assent, And To Justify Ourselves In The Independent Stand We Are Compelled To Take.

The Whole Commerce Between Master And Slave Is A Perpetual Exercise Of The Most Boisterous Passions, The Most Unremitting Despotism On The One Part, And Degrading Submissions On The Other. Our Children See This, And Learn To Imitate It.

That Peace, Safety, And Concord May Be The Portion Of Our Native Land, And Be Long Enjoyed By Our Fellow-citizens, Is The Most Ardent Wish Of My Heart, And If I Can Be Instrumental In Procuring Or Preserving Them, I Shall Think I Have Not Lived In Vain.

Whenever Any Form Of Government Becomes Destructive Of These Ends [life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness] It Is The Right Of The People To Alter Or Abolish It, And To Institute New Government.

Pursuit Of Happiness

When A Man Assumes A Public Trust He Should Consider Himself A Public Property.

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.

One Precedent In Favor Of Power Is Stronger Than A Hundred Against It.

An Occasional Insurrection Will Not Weigh Against The Inconveniences Of A Government Of Force, Such As Are Monarchies And Aristocracies.

That Liberty [is Pure] Which Is To Go To All, And Not To The Few Or The Rich Alone.

Inalienable Rights

I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude

The Tumults In America I Expected Would Have Produced In Europe An Unfavorable Opinion Of Our Political State. But It Has Not. On The Contrary, The Small Effect Of These Tumults Seems To Have Given More Confidence In The Firmness Of Our Governments. The Interposition Of The People Themselves On The Side Of Government Has Had A Great Effect On The Opinion Here In Europe.

The Liberty Of The Whole Earth Was Depending On The Issue Of The Contest, And Was Ever Such A Prize Won With So Little Innocent Blood?

Where A New Invention Promises To Be Useful, It Ought To Be Tried.

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

Had Not A Conviction Of The Danger To Which An Unlimited Occupation Of The Executive Chair Would Expose The Republican Constitution Of Our Government, Made It Conscientiously A Duty To Retire When I Did, The Fear Of Becoming A Dotard And Of Being Insensible Of It, Would Of Itself Have Resisted All Solicitations To Remain.

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

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.

It Is Not By The Consolidation Or Concentration Of Powers But By Their Distribution That Good Government Is Effected.

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

Do Not Bite At The Bait Of Pleasure, Till You Know There Is No Hook Beneath It.

The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple, And Tend To All The Happiness Of Man.

It Is An Essential Attribute Of The Jurisdiction Of Every Country To Preserve Peace, To Punish Acts In Breach Of It, And To Restore Property Taken By Force Within Its Limits.

Leave No Authority Existing Not Responsible To The People.

I Find That The Harder I Work, The More Luck I Seem To Have.

To Constrain The Brute Force Of The People, The European Governments Deem It Necessary To Keep Them Down By Hard Labor, Poverty And Ignorance, And To Take From Them, As From Bees, So Much Of Their Earnings, As That Unremitting Labor Shall Be Necessary To Obtain A Sufficient Surplus To Sustain A Scanty And Miserable Life.

Agreeable Society Is The First Essential In Constituting The Happiness And Of Course The Value Of Our Existence.

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.

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

Whenever A Man Has Cast A Longing Eye On Offices, A Rottenness Begins In His Conduct.

This Ball Of Liberty, I Believe Most Piously, Is Now So Well In Motion That It Will Roll Round The Globe. At Least The Enlightened Part Of It, For Light & Liberty Go Together.

What Has Been The Effect Of [religious] Coercion? To Make One Half The World Fools, And The Other Half Hypocrites. To Support Roguery And Error All Over The Earth.

The Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only And Not Opinions.

Anarchy [is] Necessarily Consequent To Inefficiency.

The Smell Rewards The Care.

Do Not Write Me Studied Letters But Ramble As You Please.

...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.

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.

We Lay It Down As A Fundamental, That Laws, To Be Just, Must Give A Reciprocation Of Right; That, Without This, They Are Mere Arbitrary Rules Of Conduct, Founded In Force, And Not In Conscience.

Rejecting All Organs Of Informationbut My Senses, I Rid Myself Of The Pyrrhonisms With Which An Indulgence In Speculations Hyperphysical And Antiphysical So Uselessly Occupy And Disquiet The Mind.

From Candlelight To Early Bedtime, I Read.

I Believe That Every Human Mind Feels Pleasure In Doing Good To Another.

All Authority Belongs To The People... In Questions Of Power Let No More Be Heard Of Confidence In Man, But Bind Him Down From Mischief With Chains Of The Constitution.

The Office Of Reformer Of The Superstitions Of A Nation Is Ever Dangerous.

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

Certain Teachings In The Bible Are As Diamonds In A Dung-heap.

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.

I Have Given Up Newspapers In Exchange For Tacitus And Thucydides, For Newton And Euclid; And I Find Myself Much The Happier.

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.

Errors Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

Friendship Is But Another Name For An Alliance With The Follies And The Misfortunes Of Others. Our Own Share Of Miseries Is Sufficient: Why Enter Then As Volunteers Into Those Of Another?

He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second And Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual; He Tells Lies Without Attending To It, And Truths Without The World's Believing Him. This Falsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.

I Am Savage Enough To Prefer The Woods, The Wilds, And The Independence Of Monticello, To All The Brilliant Pleasures Of This Gaycapital [paris].

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

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.

Letters Are Not The First, But The Last Step In The Progression From Barbarism To Civilisation.

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.

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

It Is Mortifying To Suppose It Possible That A People Able And Zealous To Contend With The Enemy Should Be Reduced To Fold Their Arms For Want Of The Means Of Defence; Yet No Resources That We Know Of, Ensure Us Against This Event.

The Present Generation Has The Same Right Of Self-government Which The Past One Has Exercised For Itself.

The Wisdom Of Our Ages And The Blood Of Our Heroes Has Been Devoted To The Attainment Of Trial By Jury. It Should Be The Creed Of Our Political Faith.

Motherhood Is The Keystone Of The Arch Of Matrimonial Happiness.

It Is My Principle That The Will Of The Majority Should Always Prevail.

The Policy Of The American Government Is To Leave Their Citizens Free, Neither Restraining Nor Aiding Them In Their Pursuits.

I Abhor War And View It As The Greatest Scourge Of Mankind.

A Nation, As A Society, Forms A Moral Person, And Every Member Of It Is Personally Responsible For His Society.

A Strict Observance Of The Written Laws Is Doubtless One Of The Highest Virtues Of A Good Citizen, But It Is Not The Highest. The Laws Of Necessity, Of Self-preservation, Of Saving Our Country When In Danger, Are Of Higher Obligation. To Lose Our Country By A Scrupulous Adherence To Written Law Would Be To Lose The Law Itself, With Life, Liberty, Property And All Those Who Are Enjoying Them With Us; Thus Absurdly Sacrificing The End To The Means.

In Our Richmond There Is Much Fanaticism, But Chiefly Among The Women. They Have Their Night Meetings And Prayer Parties, Where, Attended By Their Priests, And Sometimes By A Hen-pecked Husband, They Pour Forth The Effusions Of Their Love To Jesus, In Terms As Amatory And Carnal, As Their Modesty Would Permit Them To Use A Mere Earthly Lover.

The Happiest Hours Of My Life Have Been Spent In The Flow Of Affection Among Friends.

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.

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.

I Think We Have More Machinery Of Government Than Is Necessary, Too Many Parasites Living On The Labor Of The Industrious.

The Right To Use A Thing Comprehends A Right To The Means Necessary To Its Use, And Without Which It Would Be Useless.

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

I Have Often Thought That Nothing Would Do More Extensive Good At Small Expense Than The Establishment Of A Small Circulating Library In Every County, To Consist Of A Few Well-chosen Books, To Be Lent To The People Of The Country Under Regulations As Would Secure Their Safe Return In Due Time.

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

The Christian God Can Easily Be Pictured As Virtually The Same God As The Many Ancient Gods Of Past Civilizations. The Christian God Is A Three Headed Monster Cruel Vengeful And Capricious. If One Wishes To Know More Of This Raging Three Headed Beast Like God One Only Needs To Look At The Caliber Of People Who Say They Serve Him. They Are Always Of Two Classes Fools And Hypocrites.

Well Aware That The Opinions And Belief Of Men Depend Not On Their Own Will, But Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds; That Almighty God Hath Created The Mind Free, And Manifested His Supreme Will That Free It Shall Remain By Making It Altogether Insusceptible Of Restraint; That All Attempts To Influence It By Temporal Punishments, Or Burthens, Or By Civil Incapacitations, Tend Only To Beget Habits Of Hypocrisy And Meanness, And Are A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion.

Truth Can Stand By Itself...if There Be But One Right [religion], And [christianity] That One, We Should Wish To See The Nine Hundred And Ninety-nine Wandering Sects Gathered Into The Fold Of Truth.

If We Believe That He [jesus Christ]really Countenanced The Follies, The Falsehoods, And The Charlatanisms, Which His Biographers [writers Of The New Testament]father Upon Him, And Admit The Misconstructions, Interpolations, And Theorizations Of The Fathers Of The Early And The Fanatics Of The Latter Ages, The Conclusion Would Be Irresistible By Every Sound Mind That He Was An Impostor.

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.

Very Many And Very Meritorious Were The Worthy Patriots Who Assisted In Bringing Back Our Government To Its Republican Tack. To Preserve It In That, Will Require Unremitting Vigilance.

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.

...in War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy All Of Them

No Occupation Is So Delightful To Me As The Culture Of The Earth, And No Culture Comparable To That Of The Garden.

I Have Indeed Two Great Measures At Heart, Without Which No Republic Can Maintain Itself In Strength: 1. That Of General Education, To Enable Every Man To Judge For Himself What Will Secure Or Endanger His Freedom. 2. To Divide Every County Into Hundreds, Of Such Size That All The Children Of Each Will Be Within Reach Of A Central School In It.

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People.

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

I Apprehend... That The Total Abandonment Of The Principle Of Rotation In The Offices Of President And Senator Will End In Abuse.

Of Publishing A Book On Religion, My Dear Sir, I Never Had An Idea. I Should As Soon Think Of Writing For The Reformation Of Bedlam, As Of The World Of Religious Sects. Of These There Must Be, At Least, Ten Thousand, Every Individual Of Every One Of Which Believes All Wrong But His Own.

What An Augmentation Of The Field For Jobbing, Speculating, Plundering, Office-building And Office-hunting Would Be Produced By An Assumption Of All The State Powers Into The Hands Of The General Government.

The Bulk Of Mankind Are Schoolboys Through Life.

The Gothic Idea That We Were To Look Backwards Instead Of Forwards For The Improvement Of The Human Mind, And To Recur To The Annals Of Our Ancestors For What Is Most Perfect In Government, In Religion And In Learning, Is Worthy Of Those Bigots In Religion And Government By Whom It Has Been Recommended, And Whose Purposes It Would Answer. But It Is Not An Idea Which This Country Will Endure.

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 The Practice Of Sacrificing To Those Whom We Meet In Society, All The Little Inconveniences And Preferences Which Will Gratify Them, And Deprive Us Of Nothing Worth A Moment's Consideration; It Is The Giving A Pleasing And Flattering Turn To Our Expressions, Which Will Conciliate Others, And Make Them Pleased With Us As Well As Themselves. How Cheap A Price For The Good Will Of Another!

Money, Not Morality, Constitutes The Principle Of Commercial Nations.

Preach, My Dear Sir, A Crusade Against Ignorance; Establish & Improve The Law For Educating The Common People.

Never [enter] Into Dispute Or Argument With Another. I Never Yet Saw An Instance Of One Of Two Disputants Convincing The Other By Argument. I Have Seen Many On Their Getting Warm, Becoming Rude And Shooting One Another.

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

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

Government Welfare

Government Debt

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

No Man Has A Natural Right To Commit Aggression On The Equal Rights Of Another; And This Is All From Which The Laws Ought To Restrain Him.

An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens . . . There Has Never Been A Moment Of My Life In Which I Should Have Relinquished For It The Enjoyments Of My Family, My Farm, My Friends And Books.

When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground.

The History Of His Present Majesty, Is A History Of Unremitting Injuries And Usurpationsall Of Which Have In Direct Object The Establishment Of An Absolute Tyranny Over These States. To Prove This, Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World, For The Truth Of Which We Pledge A Faith Yet Unsullied By Falsehood.

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

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.

We Are The Friends Of Liberty Everywhere, But The Guarrantors Of Only Our Own.

I Hold It That A Little Rebellion, Now And Then, Is A Good Thing, And As Necessary In The Political World As Storms Are In The Physical. Unsuccessful Rebellions, Indeed, Generally Establish The Encroachments On The Rights Of The People, Which Have Produced Them. An Observation Of This Truth Should Render Honest Republican Governors So Mild In Their Punishment Of Rebellions, As Not To Discourage Them Too Much. It Is Medicine Necessary For The Sound Health Of Government.

Whenever There Are In Any Country Uncultivated Lands And Unemployed Poor, It Is Clear That The Laws Of Property Have Been So Far Extended As To Violate Natural Right. The Earth Is Given As A Common Stock For Man To Labor And Live On. The Small Landowners Are The Most Precious Part Of A State

It Is Left... To The Juries, If They Think The Permanent Judges Are Under Any Bias Whatever In Any Cause, To Take On Themselves To Judge The Law As Well As The Fact. They Never Exercise This Power But When They Suspect Partiality In The Judges; And By The Exercise Of This Power They Have Been The Firmest Bulwarks Of English Liberty.

From The Nature Of Things, Every Society Must At All Times Possess Within Itself The Sovereign Powers Of Legislation.

I Find The Pain Of A Little Censure, Even When It Is Unfounded, Is More Acute Than The Pleasure Of Much Praise.

I Own That I Am Not A Friend To A Very Energetic Government. It Is Always Oppressive.

Public Employment Contributes Neither To Advantage Nor Happiness. It Is But Honorable Exile From One's Family And Affairs.

Man Is An Imitative Animal. This Quality Is The Germ Of All Education In Him. From His Cradle To His Grave He Is Learning To Do What He Sees Others Do.

If Our Legislature Does Not Heartily Push Our University [of Virginia] We Must Send Our Children For Education To Kentucky [transylvania College] Or Cambridge [harvard College]. The Latter Will Return Them To Us As Fanatics And Tories, The Former Will Keep Them To Add To Their Population.

As, For The Safety Of Society, We Commit Honest Maniacs To Bedlam, So Judges Should Be Withdrawn From Their Bench, Whose Erroneous Biases Are Leading Us To Dissolution. It May Indeed Injure Them In Fame Or In Fortune; But It Saves The Republic, Which Is The First And Supreme Law.

Music, Drawing, Books, Invention & Exercise Will Be So Many Resources To You Against Ennui.

I Have Lived Temperately....i Double The Doctor's Recommendation Of A Glass And A Half Wine Each Day And Even Treble It With A Friend.

When Great Evils Happen, I Am In The Habit Of Looking Out For What Good May Arise From Them As Consolations To Us, And Providence Has In Fact So Established The Order Of Things, As That Most Evils Are The Means Of Producing Some Good.

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

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

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

Having Seen The People Of All Other Nations Bowed Down To The Earth Under The Wars And Prodigalities Of Their Rulers, I Have Cherished Their Opposites, Peace, Economy, And Riddance Of Public Debt, Believing That These Were The High Road To Public As Well As Private Prosperity And Happiness.

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

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