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From The Circumstances Of My Position, I Was Often Thrown Into The Society Of Horse-racers, Card-players, Fox-hunters, Scientific And Professional Men, And Of Dignified Men; And Many A Time Have I Asked Myself, In The Enthusiastic Moment Of The Death Of A Fox, The Victory Of A Favorite Horse, The Issue Of A Question Eloquently Argued At The Bar, Or In The Great Council Of The Nation, Well, Which Of These Kinds Of Reputation Should I Prefer? That Of A Horse-jockey, A Fox-hunter, An Orator, Or The Honest Advocate Of My Country's Rights?

-Thomas Jefferson

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From The Circumstances Of

Thomas Jefferson

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From The Circumstances Of My Position, I Was Often Thrown Into The Society Of Horse-racers, Card-players, Fox-hunters, Scientific And Professional Men, And Of Dignified Men; And Many A Time Have I Asked Myself, In The Enthusiastic Moment Of The Death Of A Fox, The Victory Of A Favorite Horse, The Issue Of A Question Eloquently Argued At The Bar, Or In The Great Council Of The Nation, Well, Which Of These Kinds Of Reputation Should I Prefer? That Of A Horse-jockey, A Fox-hunter, An Orator, Or The Honest Advocate Of My Country's Rights?

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It Is For The Benefit Of Mankind To Mitigate The Horrors Of War As Much As Possible.

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.

I Duly Acknowledge That I Have Gone Through A Long Life, With Fewer Circumstances Of Affliction Than Are The Lot Of Most Men. Uninterrupted Health, A Competence For Every Reasonable Want, Usefulness To My Fellow-citizens, A Good Portion Of Their Esteem, No Complaint Against The World Which Has Sufficiently Honored Me, And Above All, A Family Which Has Blessed Me By Their Affections, And Never By Their Conduct Given Me A Moment's Pain.

That The Enthusiasm Which Characterizes Youth Should Lift Its Parricide Hands Against Freedom And Science Would Be Such A Monstrous Phenomenon As I Cannot Place Among Possible Things In This Age And Country.

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

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.

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

Responsibility Is A Tremendous Engine In A Free Government.

Free Government

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.

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

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

With The Same Honest Views, The Most Honest Men Often Form Different Conclusions.

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.

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

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

The Declaration Of Independence . . . [is The] Declaratory Charter Of Our Rights, And The Rights Of Man.

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.

Force Cannot Give Right.

But Every Difference Of Opinion Is Not A Difference Of Principle. We Have Been Called By Different Names Brethren Of The Same Principle. We Are All Republicans, We Are All Federalists.

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

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.

The Lamp Of War Is Kindled Here, Not To Be Extinguished But By Torrents Of Blood.

The End Of Democracy And The Defeat Of The American Revolution Will Occur When Government Falls Into The Hands Of Lending Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations.

Experience Has Proved To Us That A Dollar Of Silver Disappears For Every Dollar Of Paper Emitted.

I Am Conscious That An Equal Division Of Property Is Impracticable, But The Consequences Of This Enormous Inequality Producing So Much Misery To The Bulk Of Mankind, Legislators Cannot Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property.

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

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

Would The Honest Patriot, In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment, Abandon A Government Which Has So Far Kept Us Free And Firm On The Theoretic And Visionary Fear That This Government, The World's Best Hope, May By Possibility Want Energy To Preserve Itself? I Trust Not.

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 Am Sure That In Estimating Every Man's Value Either In Private Or Public Life, A Pure Integrity Is The Quality We Take First Into Calculation, And That Learning And Talents Are Only The Second.

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.

No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.

Peace, That Glorious Moment In Time When Everyone Stops And Reloads.

Moments In Time

The Sun - My Almighty Physician.

I Believe That Justice Is Instinct And Innate, That The Moral Sense Is As Much A Part Of Our Constitution As That Of Feeling, Seeing, Or Hearing; As A Wise Creator Must Have Seen To Be Necessary In An Animal Destined To Live In Society.

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.

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

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.

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, Page, I Do Wish The Devil Had Old Cooke, For I Am Sure I Never Was So Tired Of An Old Dull Scoundrel In My Life ... But The Old-fellows Say We Must Read To Gain Knowledge; And Gain Knowledge To Make Us Happy And Be Admired. Mere Jargon! Is There Any Such Thing As Happiness In This World? No.

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

Knowing Nothing

Don't Spend Your Money Till You Have It.

Success In Life

I Have Ever Judged Of The Religion Of Others By Their Lives. For It Is In Our Lives, And Not From Our Works, That Our Religion Must Be Read.

Nothing But Good Can Result From An Exchange Of Information And Opinions Between Those Whose Circumstances And Morals Admit No Doubt Of The Integrity Of Their Views.

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.

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

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

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

The Country Is Headed Toward A Single And Splendid Government Of An Aristocracy Founded On Banking Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations And If This Tendency Continues It Will Be The End Of Freedom And Democracy, The Few Will Be Ruling...i Hope We Shall...crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Moneyed Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To Trial And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country. I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies.

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

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.

Experience Demands That Man Is The Only Animal Which Devours His Own Kind, For I Can Apply No Milder Term To The General Prey Of The Rich On The Poor.

Economic Inequality

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

Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To God Alone.

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

Be Polite To All, But Intimate With Few.

My Most Earnest Wish Is To See The Republican Element Of Popular Control Pushed To The Maximum Of Its Practicable Exercise. I Shall Then Believe That Our Government May Be Pure And Perpetual.

Delay Is Preferable To Error.

It Would Reduce The Whole Instrument To A Single Phrase, That Of Instituting A Congress With Power To Do Whatever Would Be For The Good Of The United States; And As They Would Be The Sole Judges Of The Good Or Evil, It Would Be Also A Power To Do Whatever Evil They Please . . . . Certainly No Such Universal Power Was Meant To Be Given Them. It [the Constitution] Was Intended To Lace Them Up Straightly Within The Enumerated Powers And Those Without Which, As Means, These Powers Could Not Be Carried Into Effect.

The Happiest Moments My Heart Knows Are Those In Which It Is Pouring Forth Its Affections To A Few Esteemed Characters.

A Free People [claim] Their Rights As Derived From The Laws Of Nature, And Not As The Gift Of Their Chief Magistrate.

I Consider The Doctrines Of Jesus As Delivered By Himself To Contain The Outlines Of The Sublimest System Of Morality That Has Ever Been Taught But I Hold In The Most Profound Detestation And Execration The Corruptions Of It Which Have Been Invented.

Commerce With All Nations, Alliance With None, Should Be Our Motto.

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

Informed Citizens

Informed Citizenry

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

A Little Rebellion Now And Then Is A Good Thing. Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God. In Order To Flourish, The Tree Of Liberty Needs The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.

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

Every Man Wishes To Pursue His Occupation And To Enjoy The Fruits Of His Labours And The Produce Of His Property In Peace And Safety, And With The Least Possible Expense. When These Things Are Accomplished, All The Objects For Which Government Ought To Be Established Are Answered.

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

I Have Come To A Resolution Myself As I Hope Every Good Citizen Will, Never Again To Purchase Any Article Of Foreign Manufacture Which Can Be Had Of American Make, Be The Difference Of Price What It May.

An Association Of Men Who Will Not Quarrel With One Another Is A Thing Which Has Never Yet Existed, From The Greatest Confederacy Of Nations Down To A Town Meeting Or A Vestry.

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

The Cement Of This Union Is In The Heart Blood Of Every American. I Do Not Believe There Is On Earth A Government Established On So Immovable A Basis.

What But Education Has Advanced Us Beyond The Condition Of Our Indigenous Neighbors? And What Chains Them To Their Present State Of Barbarism And Wretchedness But A Bigoted Veneration For The Supposed Superlative Wisdom Of Their Fathers And The Preposterous Idea That They Are To Look Backward For Better Things And Not Forward, Longing, As It Should Seem, To Return To The Days Of Eating Acorns And Roots Rather Than Indulge In The Degeneracies Of Civilization?

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

The Trifling Economy Of Paper, As A Cheaper Medium, Or Its Convenience For Transmission, Weighs Nothing In Opposition To The Advantages Of The Precious Metals It Is Liable To Be Abused, Has Been, Is, And Forever Will Be Abused, In Every Country In Which It Is Permitted.

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.

Those Who Live By Mystery & Charlatanerie, Fearing You Would Render Them Useless By Simplifying The Christian Philosophy - The Most Sublime And Benevolent, But Most Perverted System That Ever Shone On Man - Endeavored To Crush Your Well-earned & Well-deserved Fame.

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.

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

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.

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

Those Who Bear Equally The Burthens Of Government Should Equally Participate Of Its Benefits.

Never Fear The Want Of Business. A Man Who Qualifies Himself Well For His Calling, Never Fails Of Employment.

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

I Extremely Believe In Luck, And I Discovered More Hard Work, Your Luck As Much

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

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.

Self-interest, Or Rather Self-love, Or Egoism, Has Been More Plausibly Substituted As The Basis Of Morality.

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

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

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.

Nothing Is So Engaging As The Little Domestic Cares Into Which You Appear To Be Entering, And As To Reading It Is Useful For Onlyfilling Up The Chinks Of More Useful And Healthy Occupations.

The Multiplication Of Public Offices, Increase Of Expense Beyond Income, Growth And Entailment Of A Public Debt Are Indications Soliciting The Employment Of The Pruning Knife.

Government Debt

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.

You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts.

We Abhor The Follies Of War, And Are Not Untried In Its Distresses And Calamities. Unmeddling With The Affairs Of Other Nations, We Had Hoped That Our Distance And Our Dispositions Would Have Left Us Free, In The Example And Indulgence Of Peace With All The World.

When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty.

Say Nothing Of My Religion. It Is Known To God And Myself Alone. Its Evidence Before The World Is To Be Sought In My Life: If It Has Been Honest And Dutiful To Society The Religion Which Has Regulated It Cannot Be A Bad One.

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

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.

All Power Is Inherent In The People.

Motherhood Is The Keystone Of The Arch Of Matrimonial Happiness.

Were I To Commence My Administration Again, The First Question I Would Ask Respecting A Candidate Would Be, Does He Use Ardent Spirits?

The Good Opinion Of Mankind, Like The Lever Of Archimedes, With The Given Fulcrum, Moves The World.

No Religious Reading, Instruction Or Exercise, Shall Be Prescribed Or Practiced [in The Elementary Schools] Inconsistent With The Tenets Of Any Religious Sect Or Denomination.

Reading, Reflection And Time Have Convinced Me That The Interests Of Society Require The Observation Of Those Moral Precepts Only In Which All Religions Agree.

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

For Themselves They Fought, For Themselves They Conquered, And For Themselves Alone They Have They Have Right To Hold.

We Are Overdone With Banking Institutions, Which Have Banished The Precious Metals, And Substituted A More Fluctuating And Unsafe Medium... These Have Withdrawn Capital From Useful Improvements And Employments To Nourish Idleness... These Are Evils More Easily To Be Deplored Than Remedied.

He Who Made Us Would Have Been A Pitiful Bungler, If He Had Made The Rules Of Our Moral Conduct A Matter Of Science. For One Man Of Science, There Are Thousands Who Are Not. What Would Have Become Of Them? Man Was Destined For Society. His Morality, Therefore, Was To Be Formed To This Object. He Was Endowed With A Sense Of Right And Wrong, Merely Relative To This.

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error.

Revenue On The Consumption Of Foreign Articles Is Paid Cheerfully By Those Who Can Afford To Add Foreign Luxuries To Domestic Comforts.

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.

Let Your Gun Therefore Be Your Constant Companion Of Your Walks.

Second Amendment

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.

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

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

I Consider The Government Of The U.s. As Interdicted By The Constitution From Intermeddling With Religious Institutions, Their Doctrines, Discipline, Or Exercises.

I Steer My Bark With Hope In The Head, Leaving Fear Astern.

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

All The World Would Be Christian If They Were Taught The Pure Gospel Of Christ!.

Gaming Corrupts Our Disposition And Teaches Us A Habit Of Hostility Against All Mankind.

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.

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

Government Debt

No Government Can Continue Good But Under The Control Of The People; And . . . . Their Minds Are To Be Informed By Education What Is Right And What Wrong; To Be Encouraged In Habits Of Virtue And To Be Deterred From Those Of Vice . . . . These Are The Inculcations Necessary To Render The People A Sure Basis For The Structure And Order Of Government.

[my] Pillar Of Support Through Life.... I Can Say Conscientiously That I Do Not Know In The World A Man Of Purer Integrity, More Dispassionate, Disinterested, And Devoted To Genuine Republicanism; Nor Could I In The Whole Scope Of America And Europe Point Out An Abler Head.

Students Of Reading, Writing And Common Arithmetick . . . Graecian [greek], Roman, English And American History . . . Should Be Rendered . . . Worthy To Receive, And Able To Guard The Sacred Deposit Of The Rights And Liberties Of Their Fellow Citizens.

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

The True Fountains Of Evidence [are] The Head And Heart Of Every Rational And Honest Man. It Is There Nature Has Written Her Moral Laws, And Where Every Man May Read Them For Himself.

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.

When Two Parties Make A Compact, There Results To Each A Power Of Compelling The Other To Execute It.

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

All... Natural Rights May Be Abridged Or Modified In [their] Exercise By Law.

When Virtue Is Banished, Ambition Invades The Minds Of Those Who Are Disposed To Receive It, And Avarice Possesses The Whole Community. The Objects Of Their Desires Are Changed; What They Were Fond Of Before Has Become Indifferent; They Were Free While Under The Restraint Of Laws, But They Would Fain Now Be Free To Act Against Law.

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.

By Oft Repeating An Untruth, Men Come To Believe It Themselves.

The Influence Over Government Must Be Shared Among All The People. If Every Individual Which Composes Their Mass Participates Of The Ultimate Authority, The Government Will Be Safe, Because The Corrupting Of The Whole Mass Will Exceed Any Private Resources Of Wealth, And Public Ones Cannot Be Provided But By Levies On The People. In This Case Every Man Would Have To Pay His Own Price.

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.

I Believe The States Can Best Govern Our Home Concerns, And The General Government Our Foreign Ones.

The Christian Religion Is The Best Religion That Has Ever Been Given To Man

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

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.

It Is A Principle That The Right To A Thing Gives A Right To The Means Without Which It Could Not Be Used, That Is To Say, That The Means Follow Their End.

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 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.

[all Religious Sects] Dread The Advance Of Science As Witches Do The Approach Of Daylight; And Scowl On The Fatal Harbinger Announcing The Subversion Of The Duperies In Which They Live.

The Christian Priesthood, Finding The Doctrines Of Christ Leveled To Every Understanding, And Too Plain To Need Explanation, Saw, In The Mysticism Of Plato, Materials With Which They Might Build Up An Artificial System Which Might, From It's Indistinctness, Admit Everlasting Controversy, Give Employment For Their Order, And Introduce It To Profit, Power And Pre-eminence.

To Instruct The Mass Of Our Citizens In These, Their Rights, Interests And Duties, As Men And Citizens...this Brings Us To The Point At Which Are To Commence The Higher Branches Of Education . . . . To Develop The Reasoning Faculties Of Our Youth, Enlarge Their Minds, Cultivate Their Morals, And Instill Into Them The Precepts Of Virtue And Order.

The Fact Is That One New Idea Leads To Another, That To A Third And So On Through A Course Of Time, Until Someone, With Whom No One Of These Ideas Was Original, Combines All Together, And Produces What Is Justly Called A New Invention.

The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.

Dependence Leads To Subservience.

I Have A Right To Nothing Which Another Has A Right To Take Away.

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

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.

Among The Sayings And Discourses Imputed To Him (i.e. Jesus) By His Biographers, I Find Many Passages Of Fine Imagination, Correct Morality, And Of The Most Lovely Benevolence; And Others Again Of So Much Ignorance, So Much Absurdity, So Much Untruth, Charlatanism, And Imposture, As To Pronounce It Impossible That Such Contradictions Should Have Proceeded From The Same Being.

In Europe The Object Is To Make The Most Of Their Land, Labour Being Abundant: Here It Is To Make The Most Of Our Labour, Land Being Abundant.

The Most Effectual Means Of Preventing The Perversion Of Power Into Tyranny Are To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts Which History Exhibits, That Possessed Thereby Of The Experience Of Other Ages And Countries, They May Be Enabled To Know Ambition Under All Its Shapes, And Prompt To Exert Their Natural Powers To Defeat Its Purposes.

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

The Price Of Barbecue Is Eternal Vigilance.

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.

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 Had Always Hoped That The Younger Generation Receiving Their Early Impressions After The Flame Of Liberty Had Been Kindled In Every Breast . . . Would Have Sympathized With Oppression Wherever Found, And Proved Their Love Of Liberty Beyond Their Own Share Of It.

If Ever We Are Constrained To Lift The Hatchet Against Any Tribe, We Will Never Lay It Down Till That Tribe Is Exterminated, Or Driven Beyond The Mississippi... In War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy Them All.

American Indian

The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union.

Books May Be Classed From The Faculties Of The Mind

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

If The Body Be Feeble, The Mind Will Not Be Strong.

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

The Remaining Revenue On The Consumption Of Foreign Luxuries To Domestic Comforts, Being Collected On Our Seaboard And Frontiers Only, And Incorporated With The Transactions Of Our Mercantile Citizens, It May Be The Pleasure And The Pride Of An American To Ask, What Farmer, What Merchant, What Laborer Ever Sees A Tax Gatherer Of The United States?

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.

If The Happiness Of The Mass Of Mankind Can Be Secured At The Expense Of A Little Tempest Now And Then, Or Even Of A Little Blood, It Will Be A Precious Purchase.

Men By Their Constitutions Are Naturally Divided Into Two Parties: 1. Those Who Fear And Distrust The People, And Wish To Draw All Powers From Them Into The Hands Of The Higher Classes. 2. Those Who Identify Themselves With The People, Have Confidence In Them, Cherish And Consider Them As The Most Honest And Safe, Although Not The Most Wise Depositary Of The Public Interests. In Every Country These Two Parties Exist, And In Every One Where They Are Free To Think, Speak, And Write, They Will Declare Themselves.

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.

Health, Learning And Virtue Will Ensure Your Happiness; They Will Give You A Quiet Conscience, Private Esteem And Public Honour.

We Have Solved, By Fair Experiment, The Great And Interesting Question Whether Freedom Of Religion Is Compatible With Order In Government And Obedience To The Laws. And We Have Experienced The Quiet As Well As The Comfort Which Results From Leaving Every One To Profess Freely And Openly Those Principles Of Religion Which Are The Inductions Of His Own Reason And The Serious Convictions Of His Own Inquiries.

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.

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

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

The Spirit Of 1776 Is Not Dead. It Has Only Been Slumbering. The Body Of The American People Is Substantially Republican. But Their Virtuous Feelings Have Been Played On By Some Fact With More Fiction; They Have Been The Dupes Of Artful Maneuvers, And Made For A Moment To Be Willing Instruments In Forging Chains For Themselves. But Times And Truth Dissipated The Delusion, And Opened Their Eyes.

That These Are Our Grievances Which We Have Thus Laid Before His Majesty, With That Freedom Of Language And Sentiment Which Becomes A Free People Claiming Their Rights As Derived From The Laws Of Nature, And Not As The Gift Of Their Chief Magistrate.

When Sins Are Dear To Us We Are Too Prone To Slide Into Them Again. The Act Of Repentance Itself Is Often Sweetened With The Thought That It Clears Our Account For A Repetition Of The Same Sin.

My Heart Trembles When I Reflect That God Is Just

Government Governed Least Is Government Governed Best.

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

The Constitution Is A Mere Thing Of Wax In The Hands Of The Judiciary, Which They May Twist And Shape Into Any Form They Please.

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

Without Health There Is No Happiness. An Attention To Health, Then, Should Take The Place Of Every Other Object.

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.

The Spirit Of 1776 Is Not Dead. It Had Only Been Slumbering. The Body Of The American People Is Substantially Republican.

The Value Of Science To A Republican People, The Security It Gives To Liberty By Enlightening The Minds Of Its Citizens, The Protection It Affords Against Foreign Power, The Virtue It Inculcates, The Just Emulation Of The Distinction It Confers On Nations Foremost In It; In Short, Its Identification With Power, Morals, Order And Happiness (which Merits To It Premiums Of Encouragement Rather Than Repressive Taxes), Are Considerations [that Should] Always [be] Present And [bear] With Their Just Weight.

No Generation Has A Right To Contract Debts Greater Than Can Be Paid Off During The Course Of Its Own Existence.

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.

We Should Talk Over The Lessons Of The Day, Or Lose Them In Music, Chess, Or The Merriments Of Our Family Companions.

I Am Opposed To Any Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man.

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 Interests Of A Nation, When Well Understood, Will Be Found To Coincide With Their Moral Duties.

Our Country Is Too Large To Have All Its Affairs Directed By A Single Government. Public Servants At Such A Distance, And From Under The Eye Of Their Constituents, Must, From The Circumstance Of Distance, Be Unable To Administer And Overlook All The Details Necessary For The Good Government Of The Citizens; And The Same Circumstance, By Rendering Detection Impossible To Their Constituents, Will Invite Public Agents To Corruption, Plunder And Waste.

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.

I Am Increasingly Persuaded That The Earth Belongs Exclusively To The Living And That One Generation Has No More Right To Bind Another To It's Laws And Judgments Than One Independent Nation Has The Right To Command Another.

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