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Every Man Cannot Have His Way In All Things. If His Opinion Prevails At Some Times, He Should Acquiesce On Seeing That Of Others Preponderate At Other Times. Without This Mutual Disposition We Are Disjointed Individuals, But Not A Society.

-Thomas Jefferson

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Every Man Cannot Have

Thomas Jefferson

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Every Man Cannot Have His Way In All Things. If His Opinion Prevails At Some Times, He Should Acquiesce On Seeing That Of Others Preponderate At Other Times. Without This Mutual Disposition We Are Disjointed Individuals, But Not A Society.

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

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.

I Am Persuaded Myself That The Good Sense Of The People Will Always Be Found To Be The Best Army. They May Be Led Astray For A Moment, But Will Soon Correct Themselves. The People Are The Only Censors Of Their Governors; And Even Their Errors Will Tend To Keep These To The True Principles Of Their Institution.

Fear Can Only Prevail When Victims Are Ignorant Of The Facts.

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

Cultivators Of The Earth Are The Most Virtuous And Independent Citizens.

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

When Wrongs Are Pressed Because It Is Believed They Will Be Borne, Resistance Becomes Morality.

Above All I Hope That The Education Of The Common People Will Be Attended To So They Won't Forget The Basic Principles Of Freedom.

To Penetrate And Dissipate These Clouds Of Darkness, The General Mind Must Be Strengthened By Education.

You Have Heard Of The New Chemical Nomenclature Endeavored To Be Introduced By Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other Chemists Of This Country, Of Equal Note, Reject It, And Prove In My Opinion That It Is Premature, Insufficient And False. These Latter Are Joined By The British Chemists; And Upon The Whole, I Think The New Nomenclature Will Be Rejected, After Doing More Harm Than Good. There Are Some Good Publications In It, Which Must Be Translated Into The Ordinary Chemical Language Before They Will Be Useful.

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

The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us.

Freedom [is] The First-born Daughter Of Science

The Constitutional Freedom Of Religion Is The Most Inalienable And Sacred Of All Human Rights

Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory. It Is An Insult To An Assembly Of Reasonable Men, Disgusting And Revolting Instead Ofpersuading. Speeches Measured By The Hour, Die By The Hour.

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.

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

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

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

I View Great Cities As Pestilential To The Morals, The Health, And The Liberties Of Man.

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

It Is Not The Policy Of The Government In America To Give Aid To Works Of Any Kind. They Let Things Take Their Natural Course Without Help Or Impediment, Which Is Generally The Best Policy.

To Preserve The Freedom Of The Human Mind Then And Freedom Of The Press, Every Spirit Should Be Ready To Devote Itself To Martyrdom; For As Long As We May Think As We Will, And Speak As We Think, The Condition Of Man Will Proceed In Improvement

A Walk About Paris Will Provide Lessons In History, Beauty, And In The Point Of Life.

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.

The Wise Know Too Well Their Weakness To Assume Infallibility; And He Who Knows Most Knows Best How Little He Knows.

Of All The Systems Of Morality, Ancient Or Modern Which Have Come Under My Observation, None Appears To Me So Pure As That Of Jesus....i Am A Real Christian, That Is To Say, A Disciple Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.

...we Are All Federalists,and We Are All Republicans.

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.

Rogueries, Absurdities And Untruths Were Perpetrated Upon The Teachings Of Jesus By A Large Band Of Dupes And Importers Led By Paul, The First Great Corrupter Of The Teaching Of Jesus.

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

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.

I Fancy It Must Be The Quantity Of Animal Food Eaten By The English Which Renders Their Character Insusceptible To Civilization. I Suspect It Is In Their Kitchens And Not In Their Churches That The Reformation Must Be Worked.

The Genius Of Architecture Seems To Have Shed Its Maledictions Over This Land.

Everyone Has A Natural Right To Choose That Vocation In Life Which He Thinks Most Likely Gives Him Comfortable Subsistence.

I Think Our Governments Will Remain Virtuous For Many Centuries; As Long As They Are Chiefly Agricultural.

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.

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

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

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

Action Will Delineate And Define You.

Knowing Who You Are

Inspirational Team

The Issuing Power [of Money] Should Be Taken From The Banks And Restored To The People, To Whom It Properly Belongs.

Democracies Have

Man ... Feels That He Is A Participator In The Government Of Affairs Not Merely At An Election, One Day In The Year, But Every Day.

A Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another Candle.

Founding Fathers Democracy

Never Yet Could I Find That A Black Had Uttered A Thought Above The Level Of Plain Narration; Never Saw Even An Elemental Trait Of Painting Or Sculpture.

Should [reformers] Attempt More Than The Established Habits Of The People Are Ripe For, They May Lose All And Retard Indefinitely The Ultimate Object Of Their Aim.

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.

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

Where The Principle Of Difference [between Political Parties] Is As Substantial And As Strongly Pronounced As Between The Republicans And The Monocrats Of Our Country, I Hold It As Honorable To Take A Firm And Decided Part And As Immoral To Pursue A Middle Line, As Between The Parties Of Honest Men And Rogues, Into Which Every Country Is Divided.

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

The Whole Art Of Government Consists In The Art Of Being Honest.

It Is In The Love Of One's Family Only That Heartfelt Happiness Is Known.

A Free Government Is Of All Others The Most Energetic.

Free Government

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.

The Bible Makes The Best People In The World.

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

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.

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

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

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

The Most Successful War Seldom Pays For Its Losses.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Only True Corrective Of Constitutional Abuses Is Education.

Cultivators Of The Earth Are The Most Valuable Citizens. They Are The Most Vigorous, The Most Independent, The Most Virtuous And They Are Tied To Their Country And Wedded To Its Liberty And Interests By The Most Lasting Bands.

The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood.

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God.

The Bible Is The Cornerstone Of Liberty.

History Teaches The Young The Virtues Of Freedom. By Apprising Them Of The Past It Will Enable Them To Judge The Future.

If, Then, The Control Of The People Over The Organs Of Their Government Be The Measure Of Its Republicanism, And I Confess I Know No Other Measure, It Must Be Agreed That Our Governments Have Much Less Of Republicanism Than Ought To Have Been Expected; In Other Words, That The People Have Less Regular Control Over Their Agents, Than Their Rights And Their Interests Require.

It Is A [disputed] Question, Whether The Circulation Of Paper, Rather Than Of Specie [gold And Silver Coin], Is A Good Or An Evil I Believe It To Be One Of Those Cases Where Mercantile Clamor Will Bear Down Reason, Until It Is Corrected By Ruin.

...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.

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.

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

I, Place Economy Among The First & Most Important Republican Virtues, & Public Debt As The Greatest Of The Dangers To Be Feared

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

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

I... [am] Convinced [man] Has No Natural Right In Opposition To His Social Duties.

Separation Of Church And State

I Find As I Grow Older That I Love Those Most Whom I Loved First.

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

The Sun Has Not Caught Me In Bed In Fifty Years.

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

If Any State In The Union Will Declare That It Prefers Separation... To A Continuance In Union... I Have No Hesitation In Saying, 'let Us Separate.

Every Generation Needs A New Revolution.

Famous Inspirational

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

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.

Equal And Exact Justice To All Men, Of Whatever State Or Persuasion.

The Best Hemp And The Best Tobacco Grow On The Same Kind Of Soil. The Former Article Is Of The First Necessity To The Wealth And Protection Of The Country. The Latter, Never Useful.

The Objects Of This Primary Education . . . Would Be . . . To Form The Statesmen, Legislators And Judges, On Whom Public Prosperity And Individual Happiness Are So Much To Depend.

Individual Happiness

The Governor Would Serve A Five-year Term And Be Ineligible For Reelection.

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.

Neither Believe Nor Reject Any Thing Because Any Other Person, Or Description Of Persons Have Rejected Or Believed It. Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven.

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

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.

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

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

I Can Scarcely Contemplate A More Incalculable Evil Than The Breaking Of The Union Into Two Or More Parts.

No Experiment Can Be More Interesting Than That We Are Now Trying, And Which We Trust Will End In Establishing The Fact, That Man May Be Governed By Reason And Truth.

[t]he People Seem To Have Deposited The Monarchical And Taken Up The Republican Government With As Much Ease As Would Have Attended Their Throwing Off An Old And Putting On A New Suit Of Clothes.

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.

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

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

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

...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.

Travelling. ... When Men Of Sober Age Travel, They Gather Knowlege Which They May Apply Usefully For Their Country

An Injured Friend Is The Bitterest Of Foes.

[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.

Wine From Long Habit Has Become An Indispensable For My Health

Unless The Mass Retains Sufficient Control Over Those Entrusted With The Powers Of Their Government, These Will Be Perverted To Their Own Oppression, And To The Perpetuation Of Wealth And Power In The Individuals And Their Families Selected For The Trust.

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

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

Christianity Neither Is, Nor Ever Was A Part Of The Common Law.

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

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

Above All Things I Hope The Education Of The Common People Will Be Attended To; Convinced That On Their Good Sense We May Rely With Most Security For The Preservation Of A Due Degree Of Liberty.

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

The Variety Of Opinions Leads To Questions. Questions Lead To Truth.

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

Equal Treatment

When The Subject Is Strong, Simplicity Is The Only Way To Treat It.

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

Our Minds Were Circumscribed Within Narrow Limits By An Habitual Belief That It Was Our Duty To Be Subordinate To The Mother Country.

Happiness Is Not Being Pained In Body Or Troubled In Mind.

Any Woodsman Can Tell You That In A Broken And Sundered Nest, One Can Hardly Find More Than A Precious Few Whole Eggs. So It Is With The Family.

Let The Farmer Forevermore Be Honored In His Calling; For They Who Labor In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God.

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

Our Rulers Can Have Authority Over Such Natural Rights Only As We Have Submitted To Them.

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

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

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

The Natural Aristocracy I Consider As The Most Precious Gift Of Nature For The Instruction, The Trusts, And Government Of Society. And Indeed It Would Have Been Inconsistent In Creation To Have Formed Man For The Social State, And Not To Have Provided Virtue And Wisdom Enough To Manage The Concerns Of The Society. May We Not Even Say That That Form Of Government Is The Best Which Provides The Most - For A Pure Selection Of These Natural Aristoi Into The Offices Of Government?

I Am Satisfied, And Sufficiently Occupied With The Things Which Are, Without Tormenting Or Troubling Myself About Those Which May Indeed Be, But Of Which I Have No Evidence.

No Society Is So Precious As That Of One’s Own Family.

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

One Travels More Usefully When Alone, Because He Reflects More.

While Learning The Language In France A Young Man's Morals, Health And Fortune Are More Irresistibly Endangered Than In Any Country Of The Universe.

The Olive Tree Is Surely The Richest Gift Of Heaven. I Can Scarcely Expect Bread.

One Generation Cannot Bind Another.

The Precepts Of Philosophy And Of The Hebrew Code, Laid Hold Of Actions Only. (jesus) Pushed His Scrutinies Into The Heart Of Man, Erected His Tribunal In The Regions Of His Thoughts, And Purified The Waters At The Fountain Head.

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.

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.

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.

Nothing Betrays Imbecility So Much As The Being Insensible Of It.

That The Several States Who Formed That Instrument, Being Sovereign And Independent, Have The Unquestionable Right To Judge Of Its Infraction; And That A Nullification, By Those Sovereignties, Of All Unauthorized Acts Done Under Colour Of That Instrument, Is The Rightful Remedy.

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.

History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government. This Marks The Lowest Grade Of Ignorance Of Which Their Civil As Well As Religious Leaders Will Always Avail Themselves For Their Own Purposes.

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

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

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

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

Although Our Prospect Is Peace, Our Policy And Purpose Are To Provide For Defense By All Those Means To Which Our Resources Are Competent.

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.

Speaking One Day To Monsieur De Buffon, On The Present Ardor Of Chemical Inquiry, He Affected To Consider Chemistry But As Cookery, And To Place The Toils Of The Laboratory On The Footing With Those Of The Kitchen. I Think It, On The Contrary, Among The Most Useful Of Sciences, And Big With Future Discoveries For The Utility And Safety Of The Human Race.

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

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.

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

The Day Will Come When The Mystical Generation Of Jesus, By The Supreme Being As His Father, In The Womb Of A Virgin, Will Be Classed With The Fable Of The Generation Of Minerva In The Brain Of Jupiter.

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

We Wish The Happiness And Prosperity Of Every Nation.

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

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.

I Do Love This People [the French] With All My Heart, And Think That With A Better Religion And A Better Form Of Government And Their Present Governors Their Condition And Country Would Be Most Enviable.

The Diffusion Of Information And The Arraignment Of All Abuses At The Bar Of Public Reason, I Deem [one Of] The Essential Principles Of Our Government, And Consequently [one Of] Those Which Ought To Shape Its Administration.

Nothing Is More Certainly Written In The Book Of Fate Than That These People Are To Be Free. Nor Is It Less Certain That The Two Races, Equally Free, Cannot Live In The Same Government. Nature, Habit, Opinion Has Drawn Indelible Lines Of Distinction Between Them.

A Truth Now And Then Projecting Into The Ocean Of Newspaper Lies Serves Like Headlands To Correct Our Course. Indeed, My Scepticism As To Everything I See In A Newspaper Makes Me Indifferent Whether I Ever See One.

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

The Future Inhabitants Of [both] The Atlantic And Mississippi States Will Be Our Sons. We Think We See Their Happiness In Their Union, And We Wish It. Events May Prove Otherwise; And If They See Their Interest In Separating Why Should We Take Sides? God Bless Them Both, And Keep Them In Union If It Be For Their Good, But Separate Them If It Be Better.

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.

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

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

A Bill Of Rights Is What The People Are Entitled To Against Every Government, And What No Just Government Should Refuse, Or Rest On Inference.

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

No Race Of Kings Has Ever Presented Above One Man Of Common Sense In Twenty Generations.

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

Sometimes It Is Said That Man Cannot Be Trusted With The Government Of Himself. Can He, Then Be Trusted With The Government Of Others? Or Have We Found Angels In The Form Of Kings To Govern Him? Let History Answer This Question.

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

A First Attempt To Recover The Right Of Self Government May Fail, So May A Second, A Third, Etc. But As A Younger And More Instructed Race Comes On, The Sentiment Becomes More And More Intuitive, And A Fourth, A Fifth, Or Some Subsequent One Of The Ever Renewed Attempts Will Ultimately Succeed... To Attain All This, However, Rivers Of Blood Must Yet Flow, And Years Of Desolation Pass Over; Yet The Object Is Worth Rivers Of Blood And Years Of Desolation. For What Inheritance So Valuable Can Man Leave To His Posterity?

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.

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

The Oppressed Should Rebel, And They Will Continue To Rebel And Raise Disturbance Until Their Civil Rights Are Fully Restored To Them And All Partial Distinctions, Exlusions, And Incapacitations Are Removed.

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

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 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.

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

Pursuit Of Happiness

If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free, It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be ... The People Cannot Be Safe Without Information. When The Press Is Free, And Every Man Is Able To Read, All Is Safe.

Our Peculiar Security Is In The Possession Of A Written Constitution. Let Us Not Make It A Blank Paper By Construction.

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

The Clergy Believe That Any Power Confided In Me Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes, And They Believe Rightly.

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

I Don't Want Them To Kill No Hog . . . . I Want A Man To Go To That Chair, On His Own Two Feet.

We Defer Therefore Till This Time Twelve Month To Avail Ourselves Of The Instruction Of That Place, And Particularly Of Your Kindness In The Two Branches Of Botany And Natural History To Which We Wish Him Particularly To Apply.

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.

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

Instead Of That Liberty Which Takes Root And Growth In The Progress Of Reason, If Recovered By Mere Force Or Accident, It Becomes With An Unprepared People A Tyranny Still Of The Many, The Few, Or The One.

Our Civil Rights Have No Dependence Upon Our Religious Opinions More Than Our Opinions In Physics Or Geometry.

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Abraham Joshua Heschel

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