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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.

-Thomas Jefferson

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By Nature's Law, Every

Thomas Jefferson

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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.

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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.

The Tender Breasts Of Ladies Were Not Formed For Political Convulsion.

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

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.

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.

Perhaps It Will Be Found That To Obtain A Just Republic (and It Is To Secure Our Just Rights That We Resort To Government At All) It Must Be So Extensive As That Local Egoisms May Never Reach Its Greater Part; That On Every Particular Question, A Majority May Be Found In Its Councils Free From Particular Interests, And Giving, Therefore, An Uniform Prevalence To The Principles Of Justice.

If We Are To Guard Against Ignorance And Remain Free, It Is The Responsibility Of Every American To Be Informed.

Truth Is Certainly A Branch Of Morality And A Very Important One To Society.

The Religion Of Jesus Is Founded In The Unity Of God, And This Principle Chiefly Gave It Triumph Over The Rabble Of Heathen Gods Then Acknowledged. Thinking Men Of All Nations Rallied Readily To The Doctrine Of One Only God, And Embraced It With The Pure-morals Which Jesus Inculcated.

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.

A Rising Nation, Spread Over A Wide And Fruitful Land, Traversing All The Seas With The Rich Production Of Their Industry.

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

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 Flames Kindled On The Fourth Of July, 1776, Have Spread Over Too Much Of The Globe To Be Extinguished By The Feeble Engines Of Despotism; On The Contrary, They Will Consume These Engines And All Who Work Them.

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

Peace Is Our Passion.

The People Cannot Be All, And Always, Well Informed. The Part Which Is Wrong Will Be Discontented, In Proportion To The Importance Of The Facts They Misconceive. If They Remain Quiet Under Such Misconceptions, It Is Lethargy, The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty. And What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties, If Its Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time, That This People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms.

A Schism Has Taken Place Among The Chemists. A Particular Set Of Them In France Have Undertaken To Remodel All The Terms Of The Science, And To Give Every Substance A New Name, The Composition, And Especially The Termination Of Which, Shall Define The Relation In Which It Stands To Other Substances Of The Same Family.

Drawing ... Is An Innocent & Engaging Amusement, Often Useful, And A Qualification Not To Be Neglected In One Who Is To Become A Mother & An Instructor.

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

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

No Government Can Be Maintained Without The Principle Of Fear As Well As Duty. Good Men Will Obey The Last, But Bad Ones The Former Only. If Our Government Ever Fails, It Will Be From This Weakness.

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.

1.never Put Off Till To-morrow What You Can Do To-day. 2.never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself. 3.never Spend Your Money Before You Have It. 4.never Buy What You Do Not Want, Because It Is Cheap; It Will Be Dear To You. 5.pride Costs Us More Than Hunger, Thirst, And Cold. 6.we Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little. 7.nothing Is Troublesome That We Do Willingly. 8.how Much Pain Have Cost Us The Evils Which Have Never Happened. 9.take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle. 10.when Angry, Count Ten, Before You Speak; If Very Angry, A Hundred.

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

Never Did A Prisoner, Released From His Chains, Feel Such Relief As I Shall On Shaking Off The Shackles Of Power.

I Steer My Bark With Hope In The Head, Leaving Fear Astern. My Hopes Indeed Sometimes Fail, But Not Oftener Than The Forebodings Of The Gloomy.

The Power Of Declaring War Being With The Legislature, The Executive Should Do Nothing Necessarily Committing Them To Decide For War In Preference Of Non-intercourse, Which Will Be Preferred By A Great Many.

We Did Not Raise Armies For Glory Or For Conquest.

Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State'... Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

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

Trial By Jury Is Part Of The Bright Constellation Which Leads To Peace, Liberty And Safety.

Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom. Let It Be Our Endeavor To Merit The Character Of A Just Nation.

Let Those Flatter, Who Fear: It Is Not An American Art. To Give Praise Where It Is Not Due, Might Be Well From The Venal, But Would Ill Beseem Those Who Are Asserting The Rights Of Human Nature.

Among The Most Inestimable Of Our Blessings Is That ... Of Liberty To Worship Our Creator In The Way We Think Most Agreeable To His Will; A Liberty Deemed In Other Countries Incompatible With Good Government And Yet Proved By Our Experience To Be Its Best Support.

I Considered 4 Of These Bills [of The Revised Code Of Virginia] As Forming A System By Which Every Fibre Would Be Eradicated Of Antient Or Future Aristocracy; And A Foundation Laid For A Government Truly Republican.

My Principle Is To Do Whatever Is Right, And Leave Consequences To Him Who Has The Disposal Of Them.

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

Governments Constantly Choose Between Telling Lies And Fighting Wars, With The End Result Always Being The Same. One Will Always Lead To The Other.

I Like A Little Rebellion Now And Then. It Is Like A Storm In The Atmosphere.

Every Man Has A Commission To Admonish, Exhort, Convince Another Of Error.

Laws That Forbid The Carrying Of Arms Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes.

Government As Well As Religion Has Furnished Its Schisms, Its Persecutions And Its Devices For Fattening Idleness On The Earnings Of The People.

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.

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 Nations. Let The General Government Be Reduced To Foreign Concerns Only.

No Other Depositories Of Power [but The People Themselves] Have Ever Yet Been Found, Which Did Not End In Converting To Their Own Profit The Earnings Of Those Committed To Their Charge.

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

The Course Of History Shows That As A Government Grows, Liberty Decreases.

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

Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoted To Exercise, And The Weather Shall Be Little Regarded. If The Body Is Feeble, The Mind Will Not Be Strong.

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

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

Such Is The Moral Construction Of The World That No National Crime Passes Unpunished In The Long Run... Were Present Oppressors To Reflect On The Same Truth, They Would Spare To Their Own Countries The Penalties On Their Present Wrongs Which Will Be Inflicted On Them In Future Times. The Seeds Of Hatred And Revenge Which They Sow With A Large Hand Will Not Fail To Produce Their Fruits In Time. Like Their Brother Robbers On The Highway, They Suppose The Escape Of The Moment A Final Escape And Deem Infamy And Future Risk Countervailed By Present Gain.

I Rejoice When I Hear Of Young Men Of Virtue And Talents, Worthy To Receive And Likely To Preserve The Splendid Inheritance Of Self- Government, Which We Have Acquired And Shaped For Them.

I Have Done For My Country And For All Mankind, All That I Could Do, And I Now Resign My Soul, Without Fear, To My God - My Daughter To My Country.

Political Interest [can] Never Be Separated In The Long Run From Moral Right.

Nothing Can Stop The Man With The Right Mental Attitude From Achieving His Goal; Nothing On Earth Can Help The Man With The Wrong Mental Attitude.

Where Strictness Of Grammar Does Not Weaken Expression, It Should Be Attended To. . . . But Where, By Small Grammatical Negligences, The Energy Of An Idea Is Condensed, Or A Word Stands For A Sentence, I Hold Grammatical Rigor In Contempt.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

If I Had To Choose Between Government And A Free Press, I Would Choose A Free Press.

When We Come To The Moral Principles On Which The Government Is To Be Administered, We Come To What Is Proper For All Conditions Of Society. Liberty, Truth, Probity, Honor, Are Declared To Be The Four Cardinal Principles Of Society. I Believe That Morality, Compassion, Generosity, Are Innate Elements Of The Human Constitution; That There Exists A Right Independent Of Force.

For The Power Given To Congress By The Constitution Does Not Extend To The Internal Regulation Of The Commerce Of A State (that Is To Say, Of The Commerce Between Citizen And Citizen,) Which Remain Exclusively With Its Own Legislature; But To Its External Commerce Only, That Is To Say, Its Commerce With Another State, Or With Foreign Nations, Or With The Indian Tribes.

But When A Long Train Of Abuses And Usurpations, Pursuing Invariably The Same Object Evinces A Design To Reduce Them Under Absolute Despotism, It Is Their Right, It Is Their Duty, To Throw Off Such Government, And To Provide New Guards For Their Future Security.

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

The Parties Of Whig And Tory Are Those Of Nature. They Exist In All Countries, Whether Called By These Names Or By Those Of Aristocrats And Democrats, Cote Droite And Cote Gauche, Ultras And Radicals, Serviles And Liberals. The Sickly, Weakly, Timid Man Fears The People, And Is A Tory By Nature. The Healthy, Strong And Bold Cherishes Them, And Is Formed A Whig By Nature.

There Are Other Places At Which ... The Laws Have Said There Shall Be Towns; But Nature Has Said There Shall Not, And They Remain Unworthy Of Enumeration.

[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.

He Who Knows Nothing Is Closer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehoods And Errors.

The Soil Is The Gift Of God To The Living.

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

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

The Selfish Spirit Of Commerce, Which Knows No Country, And Feels No Passion Or Principle But That Of Gain.

Every Man Has Two Countries: His Own And France.

Countries Of The World

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

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

The Most Effective Means Of Preventing Tyranny Is To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts.

The Issue Today Is The Same As It Has Been Throughout All History, Whether Man Shall Be Allowed To Govern Himself Or Be Ruled By A Small Elite.

Of Distinction By Birth Or Badge, [americans] Had No More Idea Than They Had Of The Mode Of Existence In The Moon Or Planets. They Had Heard Only That There Were Such, And Knew That They Must Be Wrong.

Inalienable Rights

The Contradictory Experiments Of Chemists Leave Us At Liberty To Conclude What We Please. My Conclusion Is, That Art Has Not Yet Invented Sufficient Aids To Enable Such Subtle Bodies [air, Light, &c.] To Make A Well-defined Impression On Organs As Blunt As Ours; That It Is Laudable To Encourage Investigation But To Hold Back Conclusion.

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

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.

Malice Will Always Find Bad Motives For Good Actions. - Shall We Therefore Never Do Good?

I Have Always Said That A Studious Perusal Of The Sacred Volume Will Make Better Citizens, Better Fathers, And Better Husbands.

The Office Of Reformer Of The Superstitions Of A Nation, Is Ever More Dangerous. Jesus Had To Work On The Perilous Confines Of Reason And Religion; And A Step To The Right Or Left Might Place Him Within The Grasp Of The Priests Of The Superstition, A Bloodthirsty Race, As Cruel And Remorseless As The Being Whom They Represented As The Family God Of Abraham, Of Isaac And Of Jacob, And The Local God Of Israel. That Jesus Did Not Mean To Impose Himself On Mankind As The Son Of God, Physically Speaking, I Have Been Convinced By The Writings Of Men More Learned Than Myself In That Lore.

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.

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

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

I Hope The Terms Of Excellency, Honor, Worship, Esquire, Forever Disappear From Among Us... I Wish That Of Mr. Would Follow Them.

I Hope That We Have Not Labored In Vain, And That Our Experiment Will Still Prove That Men Can Be Governed By Reason.

The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance. In This Line Antiquity Has Left Us The Finest Models For Imitation; I Should Consider The Speeches Of Livy, Sallust, And Tacitus, As Pre-eminent Specimens Of Logic, Taste, And That Sententious Brevity Which, Using Not A Word To Spare, Leaves Not A Moment For Inattention To The Hearer. Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory.

The Relations Which Exist Between Man And His Maker, And The Duties Resulting From Those Relations, Are The Most Interesting And Important To Every Human Being And The Most Incumbent On His Study And Investigation.

Hindsight Is An Exact Science. Hold Fast To Your Dreams, For It Dreams Die, Life Is A Broken-winged Bird That Cannot Fly. How Much Pain They Have Cost Us, The Evils Which Have Never Happened.

Taxation Is, In Fact, The Most Difficult Function Of Government And That Against Which Their Citizens Are Most Apt To Be Refractory.

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

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.

The Authors Of The Gospels Were Unlettered And Ignorant Men And The Teachings Of Jesus Have Come To Us Mutilated, Misstated And Unintelligible.

Government Governed Least Is Government Governed Best.

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.

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

Unalienable Rights

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

The Price Of Barbecue Is Eternal Vigilance.

It Is Wonderful To Me That Old Men Should Not Be Sensible That Their Minds Keep Pace With Their Bodies In The Progress Of Decay.

The Second Office In The Government Is Honorable And Easy; The First Is But A Splendid Misery.

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

Bank-paper Must Be Suppressed, And The Circulating Medium Must Be Restored To The Nation To Whom It Belongs.

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

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

The Excellence Of Every Government Is Its Adaptation To The State Of Those To Be Governed By It.

Against Us Are All Timid Men Who Prefer The Calm Of Despotism To The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty We Are Likely To Preserve The Liberty We Have Obtained Only By Unremitting Labors And Perils.

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.

Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, And Navigation, The Four Pillars Of Our Prosperity, Are The Most Thriving When Left Most Free To Individual Enterprise.

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.

Aristocrats Fear The People, And Wish To Transfer All Power To The Higher Classes Of Society.

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

[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.

The Error Seems Not Sufficiently Eradicated, That The Operations Of The Mind, As Well As The Acts Of The Body, Are Subject To The Coercion Of The Laws. But Our Rulers Can Have Authority Over Such Natural Rights Only As We Have Submitted To Them. The Rights Of Conscience We Never Submitted, We Could Not Submit. We Are Answerable For Them To Our God. The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others.

It Is Every Americans' Right And Obligation To Read And Interpret The Constitution For Himself.

We Think, In America, That It Is Necessary To Introduce The People Into Every Department Of Government, As Far As They Are Capable Of Exercising It, And That This Is The Only Way To Ensure A Long Continued And Honest Administration Of Its Powers.

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.

A Share In The Sovereignty Of The State, Which Is Exercised By The Citizens At Large, In Voting At Elections Is One Of The Most Important Rights Of The Subject, And In A Republic Ought To Stand Foremost In The Estimation Of The Law.

Every One Must Act According To The Dictates Of His Own Reason, And Mine Tells Me That Civil Powers Alone Have Been Given To The President Of The United States, And No Authority To Direct The Religious Exercises Of His Constituents.

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

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.

No One Has A Right To Obstruct Another Exercising His Faculties Innocently For The Relief Of Sensibilities Made A Part Of His Nature.

It Be Urged That The Wild And Uncultivated Tree, Hitherto Yielding Sour And Bitter Fruit Only, Can Never Be Made To Yield Better; Yet We Know That The Grafting Art Implants A New Tree On The Savage Stock, Producing What Is Most Estimable In Kind And Degree. Education, In Like Manner, Engrafts A New Man On The Native Stock, And Improves What In His Nature Was Vicious And Perverse Into Qualities Of Virtue And Social Worth.

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.

No Man Will Ever Bring Out Of That Office The Reputation Which Carries Him Into It. The Honeymoon Would Be As Short In That Case As In Any Other, And Its Moments Of Ecstasy Would Be Ransomed By Years Of Torment And Hatred.

The Steady Character Of Our Countrymen Is A Rock To Which We May Safely Moor; And Notwithstanding The Efforts Of The Papers To Disseminate Early Discontents, I Expect That A Just, Dispassionate And Steady Conduct, Will At Length Rally To A Proper System The Great Body Of Our Country. Unequivocal In Principle, Reasonable In Manner, We Shall Be Able I Hope To Do A Great Deal Of Good To The Cause Of Freedom & Harmony.

Agriculture Is Our Wisest Pursuit, Because It Will In The End Contribute Most To Real Wealth, Good Morals, And Happiness.

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.

God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion... We Have Had Thirteen States Independent For Eleven Years. There Has Been One Rebellion. That Comes To One Rebellion In A Century And A Half, For Each State. What Country Before Ever Existed A Century And A Half Without A Rebellion.

Evil Triumphs When Good Men Do Nothing.

[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.

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

Every Human Being Must Be Viewed According To What It Is Good For. For Not One Of Us, No, Not One, Is Perfect. And Were We To Love None Who Had Imperfection, This World Would Be A Desert For Our Love.

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.

Planting Is One Of My Great Amusements, And Even Of Those Things Which Can Only Be For Posterity, For A Septuagenary Has No Right To Count On Any Thing But Annuals.

The Most Uninformed Mind With A Healthy Body Is Happier Than The Wisest Valetudinarian.

Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery And Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.

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

"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."

But Friendship Is Precious, Not Only In The Shade, But In The Sunshine Of Life, And Thanks To A Benevolent Arrangement The Greater Part Of Life Is Sunshine.

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.

In A Virtuous Government, And More Especially In Times Like These, Public Offices Are What They Should Be - Burdens To Those Appointed To Them Which It Would Be Wrong To Decline, Though Foreseen To Bring Them Intense Labor And Great Private Loss.

Times Like These

For A People Who Are Free, And Who Mean To Remain So, A Well-organized And Armed Militia Is Their Best Security.

Experience Has Already Shown That The Impeachment The Constitution Has Provided Is Not Even A Scarecrow.

If You Are Obliged To Neglect Any Thing, Let It Be Your Chemistry. It Is The Least Useful And The Least Amusing To A Country Gentleman Of All The Ordinary Branches Of Science.

When We Get Piled Upon One Another In Large Cities, As In Europe, We Shall Become As Corrupt As Europe.

A Rigid Economy Of The Public Contributions And Absolute Interdiction Of All Useless Expenses Will Go Far Towards Keeping The Government Honest And Unoppressive.

It Will Take A Thousand Years For The Frontier To Reach The Pacific

...it Is Impossible, I Say, For The Human Mind Not To Believe That There Is In All This Design, Cause, And Effect Up To An Ultimate Cause-a Fabricator Of All Things, From Matter And Motion-their Preserver And Regulator While Permitted To Exist In Their Present Forms-and Their Regenerator Into New And Other Forms.

The Children Of Israel In The Wilderness, Led By A Cloud By Day, And A Pillar Of Fire By Night.

The Constitution Of The United States Is The Result Of The Collected Wisdom Of Our Country.

All Eyes Are Opened, Or Opening, To The Rights Of Man. The General Spread Of The Light Of Science Has Already Laid Open To Every View. The Palpable Truth, That The Mass Of Mankind Has Not Been Born With Saddles On Their Backs, Nor A Favored Few Booted And Spurred, Ready To Ride Them Legitimately, By The Grace Of God. These Are Grounds Of Hope For Others. For Ourselves, Let The Annual Return Of This Day Forever Refresh Our Recollections Of These Rights, And An Undiminished Devotion To Them.

Take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle.

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.

The Clergy ... Believe That Any Portion Of Power Confided To Me [as President] Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes. And They Believe Rightly: For I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man. But This Is All They Have To Fear From Me: And Enough, Too, In Their Opinion.

Nothing But A Necessity Invincible By Any Other Means Can Justify ... A Prostitution Of Laws, Which Constitute The Pillars Of Our Whole System Of Jurisprudence.

In America, No Other Distinction Between Man And Man Had Ever Been Known But That Of Persons In Office Exercising Powers By Authority Of The Laws, And Private Individuals. Among These Last, The Poorest Laborer Stood On Equal Ground With The Wealthiest Millionaire, And Generally On A More Favored One Whenever Their Rights Seem To Jar.

[if] The Nature Of ... Government [were] A Subordination Of The Civil To The Ecclesiastical Power, I [would] Consider It As Desperate For Long Years To Come. Their Steady Habits [will] Exclude The Advances Of Information, And They [will] Seem Exactly Where They [have Always Been]. And There [the] Clergy Will Always Keep Them If They Can. [they] Will Follow The Bark Of Liberty Only By The Help Of A Tow-rope.

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

Believing That The Happiness Of Mankind Is Best Promoted By The Useful Pursuits Of Peace, That On These Alone A Stable Prosperity Can Be Founded, That The Evils Of War Are Great In Their Endurance, And Have A Long Reckoning For Ages To Come, I Have Used My Best Endeavors To Keep Our Country Uncommitted In The Troubles Which Afflict Europe, And Which Assail Us On Every Side.

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.

A Superintending Power To Maintain The Universe In Its Course And Order.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident, That All Men Are Created Equal, That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Inalienable Rights, Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, That To Secure These Rights Governments Are Instituted Among Men. We...solemnly Publish And Declare, That These Colonies Are And Of A Right Ought To Be Free And Independent States...and For The Support Of This Declaration, With A Firm Reliance On The Protection Of Divine Providence, We Mutually Pledge Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

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.

Never Put Off Your Massage Until Tomorrow If You Can Get It Today.

Travelling Is Good For Your Health And Necessary For Your Amusement.

God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion.

Second Amendment

We Are Here Lounging Our Time Away, Doing Nothing, And Having Nothing To Do. It Gives Me Great Regret To Be Passing My Time So Uselessly When It Could Have Been So Importantly Employed At Home.

Both Of Our Political Parties, At Least The Honest Portion Of Them, Agree Conscientiously In The Same Object: The Public Good; But They Differ Essentially In What They Deem The Means Of Promoting That Good. One Side Believes It Best Done By One Composition Of The Governing Powers, The Other By A Different One. One Fears Most The Ignorance Of The People; The Other The Selfishness Of Rulers Independent Of Them. Which Is Right, Time And Experience Will Prove.

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

The Metaphysical Insanities Of Athanasius, Of Loyola, And Of Calvin, Are, To My Understanding, Mere Lapses Into Polytheism, Differing From Paganism Only By Being More Unintelligible.

[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.

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

It Is A Problem, Not Clear In My Mind, That [a Society Without Government, As Among Our Indians] Is Not The Best. But I Believe It To Be Inconsistent With Any Great Degree Of Population.

When The Course Of Events Shall Have Removed You To Distant Scenes Of Action Where Laurels Not Nurtured With The Blood Of My Country May Be Gathered, I Shall Urge Sincere Prayers For Your Obtaining Every Honor And Preferment Which May Gladden The Heart Of A Soldier.

No Duty The Executive Had To Perform Was So Trying As To Put The Right Man In The Right Place.

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

Don't Spend Your Money Till You Have It.

Success In Life

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.

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

The Reflections That The Boys Of This Age Are To Be The Men Of The Next; That They Should Be Prepared To Receive The Holy Charge Which We Are Cherishing To Deliver Over To Them; That In Establishing An Institution Of Wisdom For Them, We Secure It To All Our Future Generations; That In Fulfilling This Duty, We Bring Home To Our Own Bosoms The Sweet Consolation Of Seeing Our Sons Rising Under A Luminous Tuition, To Destinies Of High Promise; These Are Considerations Which Will Occur To All.

Merchants Have No Country.

I Have Often Thought That If Heaven Had Given Me Choice Of My Position And Calling, It Should Have Been On A Rich Spot Of Earth, Well Watered, And Near A Good Market For The Productions Of The Garden. No Occupation Is So Delightful To Me As The Culture Of The Earth, And No Culture Comparable To That Of The Garden. Such A Variety Of Subjects, Some One Always Coming To Perfection, The Failure Of One Thing Repaired By The Success Of Another, And Instead Of One Harvest A Continued One Through The Year.

It Has Been A Source Of Great Pain To Me To Have Met With So Many Among [my] Opponents Who Had Not The Liberality To Distinguish Between Political And Social Opposition; Who Transferred At Once To The Person, The Hatred They Bore To His Political Opinions.

Political Opinions

The Purpose Of Establishing Different Houses Of Legislation Is To Introduce The Influence Of Different Interests Or Different Principles.

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

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.

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

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.

No Body Wishes More Than I Do To See Such Proofs As You Exhibit, That Nature Has Given To Our Black Brethren, Talents Equal To Those Of The Other Colors Of Men, And That The Appearance Of A Want Of Them Is Owing Merely To The Degraded Condition Of Their Existence, Both In Africa & America.

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

If A Sect Arises Whose Tenets Would Subvert Morals, Good Sense Has Fair Play And Reasons And Laughs It Out Of Doors Without Suffering The State To Be Troubled With It.

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Wendell Phillips

Patrick J. Kennedy

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