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He Does Most In God's Great World Who Does His Best In His Own Little World.
-Thomas Jefferson
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He Does Most In

Thomas Jefferson
...
He Does Most In God's Great World Who Does His Best In His Own Little World.

Understanding the Quote: "he does most in god's great world who does his best in..."

This quote by Thomas Jefferson reflects deeply on the theme of doe. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Doe, World, Littles, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Jefferson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on doe and world. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Doe
World
Littles
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Hemp Is Of First Necessity To The Wealth & Protection Of The Country.
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It Is More Honorable To Repair A Wrong Than To Persist In It.
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Laws That Forbid The Carrying Of Arms Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes.
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It Is To Secure Our Rights That We Resort To Government At All.
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When Tempted To Do Any Thing In Secret, Ask Yourself If You Would Do It In Public.
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Governments Constantly Choose Between Telling Lies And Fighting Wars, With The End Result Always Being The Same. One Will Always Lead To The Other.
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The General Desire Of Men To Live By Their Heads Rather Than Their Hands, And The Strong Allurements Of Great Cities To Those Who Have Any Turn For Dissipation, Threaten To Make Them Here, As In Europe, The Sinks Of Voluntary Misery.
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Until We Stop Harming All Other Living Beings, We Are Still Savages.
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When Two Parties Make A Compact, There Results To Each A Power Of Compelling The Other To Execute It.
Party
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We Are Now Trusting To Those Who Are Against Us In Position And Principle, To Fashion To Their Own Form The Minds And Affections Of Our Youth... This Canker Is Eating On The Vitals Of Our Existence, And If Not Arrested At Once, Will Be Beyond Remedy.
Fashion
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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.
Writing
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When Great Evils Happen, I Am In The Habit Of Looking Out For What Good May Arise From Them As Consolations To Us, And Providence Has In Fact So Established The Order Of Things, As That Most Evils Are The Means Of Producing Some Good.
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It Will Take A Thousand Years For The Frontier To Reach The Pacific
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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.
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Single Acts Of Tyranny May Be Ascribed To The Accidental Opinion Of The Day; But A Series Of Oppressions, Begun At A Distinguished Period, And Pursued Unalterably Through Every Change Of Ministers (adminstrators) Too Plainly Proves A Deliberate, Systematic Plan Of Reducing Us To Slavery.
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God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion.
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The Parent Storms, The Child Looks On, Catches The Lineaments Of Wrath, Puts On The Same Airs In The Circle Of Smaller Slaves, Gives A Loose To The Worst Of Passions, And Thus Nursed, Educated And Daily Exercised In Tyranny, Cannot But Be Stamped By It With Odious Peculiarities.
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God Has Formed Us Moral Agents... That We May Promote The Happiness Of Those With Whom He Has Placed Us In Society, By Acting Honestly Towards All, Benevolently To Those Who Fall Within Our Way, Respecting Sacredly Their Rights, Bodily And Mental, And Cherishing Especially Their Freedom Of Conscience, As We Value Our Own.
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We Did Not Raise Armies For Glory Or For Conquest.
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So Much Of The Presidency Is A Matter Of Standing In The Path Of A Newsham Engine For Quenching Fires, Opening One's Mouth, And Attempting To Get A Drink.
Fire
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The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depositary Of Their Own Rights.
Rights
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Difference Of Opinion Leads To Inquiry, And Inquiry To The Truth.
Differences
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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.
Names
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When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground.
Often Is
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The Right To Use A Thing Comprehends A Right To The Means Necessary To Its Use, And Without Which It Would Be Useless.
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Nothing Is So Disgusting To Our Sex As Want Of Cleanliness And Delicacy In Yours.
Sex
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In Every Country And Every Age, The Priest Has Been Hostile To Liberty. He Is Always In Alliance With The Despot, Abetting His Abuses In Return For Protection To His Own. It Is Easier To Acquire Wealth And Power By This Combination Than By Deserving Them, And To Effect This, They Have Perverted The Purest Religion Ever Preached To Man Into Mystery And Jargon, Unintelligible To All Mankind, And Therefore The Safer For Their Purposes.
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Taxes Should Be Continued By Annual Or Biennial Reeactments, Because A Constant Hold, By The Nation, Of The Strings Of The Public Purse Is A Salutary Restraint From Which An Honest Government Ought Not Wish, Nor A Corrupt One To Be Permitted, To Be Free.
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I Do Not Take A Single Newspaper, Nor Read One A Month, And I Feel Myself Infinitely The Happier For It.
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Merchants Have No Country. The Mere Spot They Stand On Does Not Constitute So Strong An Attachment As That From Which They Draw Their Gains.
Country
Strong
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I Have Examined All Of The Known Superstitions Of The World And I Do Not Find Our Superstitions Of Christianity One Redeeming Feature. They Are All Founded On Fables And Mythology. Christianity Has Made One-half Of The World Fools And The Other Half Hypocrites
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I Have Lived Temperately....i Double The Doctor's Recommendation Of A Glass And A Half Wine Each Day And Even Treble It With A Friend.
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History Teaches The Young The Virtues Of Freedom. By Apprising Them Of The Past It Will Enable Them To Judge The Future.
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We Are Not Immortal Ourselves, My Friend; How Can We Expect Our Enjoyments To Be So? We Have No Rose Without Its Thorn; No Pleasure Without Alloy. It Is The Law Of Our Existence; And We Must Acquiesce.
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No Knowledge Can Be More Satisfactory To A Man Than That Of His Own Frame, Its Parts, Their Functions And Actions.
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Experience Has Proved To Us That A Dollar Of Silver Disappears For Every Dollar Of Paper Emitted.
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In The Fevered State Of Our Country, No Good Can Ever Result From Any Attempt To Set One Of These Fiery Zealots To Rights, Either In Fact Or Principle. They Are Determined As To The Facts They Will Believe, And The Opinions On Which They Will Act. Get By Them, Therefore, As You Would By An Angry Bull; It Is Not For A Man Of Sense To Dispute The Road With Such An Animal.
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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.
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And Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences, Whether We Consider Its Subjects As Furnishing The Principal Subsistence Of Life To Man And Beast, Delicious Varieties For Our Tables, Refreshments From Our Orchards, The Adornments Of Our Flower-borders, Shade And Perfume Of Our Groves, Materials For Our Buildings, Or Medicaments For Our Bodies.
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It Has Been Thought That The People Are Not Competent Electors Of Judges Learned In The Law. But I Do Not Know This To Be True, And, If Doubtful, We Should Follow Principle.
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The Tax Which Will Be Paid For The Purpose Of Education Is Not More Than The Thousandth Part Of What Will Be Paid To Kings, Priests And Nobles Who Will Rise Up Among Us If We Leave The People In Ignorance
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Bank-paper Must Be Suppressed, And The Circulating Medium Must Be Restored To The Nation To Whom It Belongs.
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Ours Are The Only Farmers Who Can Read Homer
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I Believe That Every Human Mind Feels Pleasure In Doing Good To Another.
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A Man's Management Of His Own Purse Speaks Volumes About Character
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Enlighten The People Generally, And Tyranny And Oppressions Of Body And Mind Will Vanish Like Evil Spirits At The Dawn Of Day.
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We See The Wisdom Of Solon's Remark, That No More Good Must Be Attempted Than The Nation Can Bear.
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Experience Has Already Shown That The Impeachment The Constitution Has Provided Is Not Even A Scarecrow.
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We Might Have Been A Free And Great People Together.
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In A Republican Nation Whose Citizens Are To Be Led By Reason And Persuasion And Not By Force, The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance.... Reason And Persuasion Are The Only Practicable Instruments. To Make Way For These, Free Inquiry Must Be Indulged.... Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To The Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them.
Art
Citizens
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The Foundation On Which (our Government Is) Built Is The Natural Equality Of Man, The Denial Of Every Pre-eminence But That Annexed To Legal Office, And Particularly The Denial Of A Pre-eminence By Birth.
Men
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Nobody Can Acquire Honor By Doing What Is Wrong.
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The Mobs Of Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body.
Government
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The Sun Has Not Caught Me In Bed In Fifty Years.
Funny
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Good Morning
Whenever A Man Has Cast A Longing Eye On Offices, A Rottenness Begins In His Conduct.
Eye
Men
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Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than That Of Face And Stature.
Faces
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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.
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The Bloom Of Monticello Is Chilled By My Solitude.
Solitude
Chilled
No Man Complains Of His Neighbor For Ill Management Of His Affairs, For An Error In Sowing His Land, Or Marrying His Daughter, For Consuming His Substance In Taverns ... In All These He Has Liberty; But If He Does Not Frequent The Church, Or Then Conform In Ceremonies, There Is An Immediate Uproar.
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I Have But One System Of Ethics For Men And For Nations - To Be Grateful, To Be Faithful To All Engagements Under All Circumstances, To Be Open And Generous, Promoting In The Long Run Even The Interests Of Both
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Ministers Of The Gospel Are Excluded [from Serving As Visitors Of The County Elementary Schools] To Avoid Jealousy From The Other Sects, Were The Public Education Committed To The Ministers Of A Particular One; And With More Reason Than In The Case Of Their Exclusion From The Legislative And Executive Functions.
Religious
School
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Take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle.
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There Is A Fulness Of Time When Men Should Go, And Not Occupy Too Long The Ground To Which Others Have A Right To Advance.
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Long
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Our Citizens May Be Deceived For Awhile, And Have Been Deceived; But As Long As The Presses Can Be Protected, We May Trust To Them For Light.
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Can One Generation Bind Another, And All Others, In Succession Forever? I Think Not. The Creator Has Made The Earth For The Living, Not The Dead. Rights And Powers Can Only Belong To Persons, Not To Things, Not To Mere Matter Endowed With Will...nothing Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Unalienable Rights Of Man.
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We Shall All Consider Ourselves Unauthorized To Saddle Posterity With Our Debts, And Morally Bound To Pay Them Ourselves; And Consequently Within What May Be Deemed The Period Of A Generation, Or The Life Of The Majority.
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Friendship Is But Another Name For An Alliance With The Follies And The Misfortunes Of Others. Our Own Share Of Miseries Is Sufficient: Why Enter Then As Volunteers Into Those Of Another?
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If I Could Not Go To Heaven But With A Party, I Would Not Go There At All.
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[t]o Preserve The Republican Form And Principles Of Our Constitution And Cleave To The Salutary Distribution Of Powers Which That [the Constitution] Has Established . . . Are The Two Sheet Anchors Of Our Union. If Driven From Either, We Shall Be In Danger Of Foundering.
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Whenever You Do A Thing, Act As If All The World Were Watching.
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With Respect To Our State And Federal Governments, I Do Not Think Their Relations Correctly Understood By Foreigners. They Generally Suppose The Former Subordinate To The Latter. But This Is Not The Case. They Are Co-ordinate Departments Of One Simple And Integral Whole.
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It Is Comfortable To See The Standard Of Reason At Length Erected, After So Many Ages, During Which The Human Mind Has Been Held In Vassalage By Kings, Priests, And Nobles; And It Is Honorable For Us To Have Produced The First Legislature Who Had The Courage To Declare That The Reason Of Man May Be Trusted With The Formation Of His Own Opinions.
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You Have Not Been Mistaken In Supposing My Views And Feeling To Be In Favor Of The Abolition Of War. Of My Dispos[i]tion To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself, The World Has Had Proofs, And More, Perhaps, Than It Has Approved. I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Dispos[i]tion To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.
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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.
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The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time.
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I Never Saw An Instance Of One Or Two Disputants Convincing The Other By Argument.
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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.
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Peace, Commerce And Honest Friendship With All Nations; Entangling Alliances With None.
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Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far.
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Our People Shall Be Free
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Paper Is Poverty, It Is Only The Ghost Of Money, And Not Money Itself.
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[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.
Government
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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.
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Health Is Worth More Than Learning.
Inspirational
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I Join You Therefore In Branding As Cowardly The Idea That The Human Mind Is Incapable Of Further Advances.
Educational
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The Advertisement Is The Most Truthful Part Of A Newspaper.
Motivational
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May It Be To The World... To Assume The Blessings And Security Of Self-government.
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Ridicule Is The Only Weapon Which Can Be Used Against Unintelligible Propositions.
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We Must Use A Good Deal Of Economy In Our Wood, Never Cutting Down New, Where We Can Make The Old Do.
Cutting
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What Justice Would There Be To Take This Life? Justice, Gentlemen? Why, I Would Just As Soon Put A Hog In The Electric Chair As This.
Justice
Gentleman
Dying
I Am Sure The Man Who Powders Most, Perfumes Most, Embroiders Most, And Talks Most Nonsense, Is Most Admired. Though To Be Candid, There Are Some Who Have Too Much Good Sense To Esteem Such Monkey-like Animals As These, In Whose Formation, As The Saying Is, The Tailors And Barbers Go Halves With God Almighty.
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Men
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I Love To See Honest And Honorable Men At The Helm, Men Who Will Not Bend Their Politics To Their Purses, Nor Pursue Measures By Which They May Profit, And Then Profit By Their Measures.
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Taxation Is, In Fact, The Most Difficult Function Of Government And That Against Which Their Citizens Are Most Apt To Be Refractory.
Government
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Resolved ... That It Would Be A Dangerous Delusion Were A Confidence In The Men Of Our Choice To Silence Our Fears For The Safety Of Our Rights: That Confidence Is Everywhere The Parent Of Despotism - Free Government Is Founded In Jealousy, And Not In Confidence.
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Laws Provide Against Injury From Others; But Not From Ourselves.
Freedom
Democracies Have
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We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.
Life
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Never Was So Much False Arithmetic Employed On Any Subject, As That Which Has Been Employed To Persuade Nations That It Is In Their Interest To Go To War.
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Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law.
Law
Taste
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It Is Of Great Importance To Set A Resolution, Not To Be Shaken, Never To Tell An Untruth. There Is No Vice So Mean, So Pitiful, So Contemptible; And He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second And A Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual.
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Was The Government To Prescribe To Us Our Medicine And Diet, Our Bodies Would Be In Such Keeping As Our Souls Are Now.
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Medicine
But, You May Ask, If The Two Departments [i.e., Federal And State] Should Claim Each The Same Subject Of Power, Where Is The Common Umpire To Decide Ultimately Between Them? In Cases Of Little Importance Or Urgency, The Prudence Of Both Parties Will Keep Them Aloof From The Questionable Ground; But If It Can Neither Be Avoided Nor Compromised, A Convention Of The States Must Be Called To Ascribe The Doubtful Power To That Department Which They May Think Best.
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Thinking
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Private Enterprise Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal.
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Enterprise
What An Augmentation Of The Field For Jobbing, Speculating, Plundering, Office-building And Office-hunting Would Be Produced By An Assumption Of All The State Powers Into The Hands Of The General Government.
Hunting
Government
Hands
Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.
Men
Milk
Tranquility
I Am An Epicurean. I Consider The Genuine (not The Imputed) Doctrines Of Epicurus As Containing Everything Rational In Moral Philosophy Which Greece And Rome Have Left Us.
Philosophy
Greek
Religion
We Do, Then, Most Solemnly Before God And The World Declare That Regardless Of Every Consequence, At The Risk Of Every Distress, The Arms We Have Been Compelled To Assume We Will Use With Perseverance, Exerting To Their Utmost Energies All Those Powers Which Our Creator Hath Given Us To Preserve That Liberty Which He Committed To Us In Sacred Deposit And To Protect From Every Hostile Hand Our Lives And Our Properties.
Perseverance
Hands
Risk
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.
Discovery
Pace
Opinion
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.
Men
Compassion
Rose
[we Should Be] Determined... To Sever Ourselves From The Union We So Much Value Rather Than Give Up The Rights Of Self-government... In Which Alone We See Liberty, Safety And Happiness.
Giving Up
Rights
Government
Man Is Not Made For The State But The State For Man And It Derives Its Just Powers Only From The Consent Of The Governed.
Men
States
Made
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. This Sense Is As Much A Part Of His Nature As The Sense Of Hearing, Seeing, Feeling; It Is The True Foundation Of Morality... The Moral Sense, Or Conscience, Is As Much A Part Of Man As His Leg Or Arm. It Is Given To All Human Beings In A Stronger Or Weaker Degree, As Force Of Members Is Given Them In A Greater Or Less Degree. It May Be Strengthened By Exercise, As May Any Particular Limb Of The Body.
Exercise
Men
Psychology
As You Are Entered With The Class Of Nat. Philosophy, Give To It The Hours Of Lecture, But Devote All Your Other Time To Mathematics, Avoiding Company As The Bane Of All Progress.
Philosophy
Class
Giving
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.
Garden
Should Have
Years
The Suppression Of Unnecessary Offices, Of Useless Establishments And Expenses Enabled Us To Discontinue Our Internal Taxes. These Covering Our Land With Officers, And Opening Our Doors To Their Intrusions, Had Already Begun That Process Of Domiciliary Vexation Which, Once Entered, Is Scarcely To Be Restrained From Reaching Successively Every Article Of Produce And Property.
Doors
Land
Office
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.
Country
Attachment
America
Societies Exist Under Three Forms Sufficiently Distinguishable. 1. Without Government, As Among Our Indians. 2. Under Governments Wherein The Will Of Every One Has A Just Influence, As Is The Case In England In A Slight Degree, And In Our States, In A Great One. 3. Under Governments Of Force: As Is The Case In All Other Monarchies And In Most Of The Other Republics. To Have An Idea Of The Curse Of Existence Under These Last, They Must Be Seen. It Is A Government Of Wolves Over Sheep.
Sheep
Government
Ideas
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.
Jesus
Father
Believe
Many Are The Exercises Of Power Reserved To The States Wherein A Uniformity Of Proceeding Would Be Advantageous To All. Such Are Quarantines, Health Laws, Regulations Of The Press, Banking Institutions, Training Militia, Etc., Etc.
Exercise
Law
Training
Money, Not Morality, Constitutes The Principle Of Commercial Nations.
Principles
Morality
Nations
In Matters Of Religion, I Have Considered That Its Free Exercise Is Placed By The Constitution Independent Of The Powers Of The General Government. I Have Therefore Undertaken On No Occasion To Prescribe The Religious Exercises Suited To It; But Have Left Them As The Constitution Found Them, Under The Direction And Discipline Of State Or Church Authorities Acknowledged By The Several Religious Societies.
Religious
Independent
Exercise
Our Bills Shall Not Be Killed.
Bills
Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace
Peace
War
National Defense
I Learn With Great Concern That [one] Portion Of Our Frontier So Interesting, So Important, And So Exposed, Should Be So Entirely Unprovided With Common Fire-arms. I Did Not Suppose Any Part Of The United States So Destitute Of What Is Considered As Among The First Necessaries Of A Farm-house.
Gun
Fire
Interesting
I Am Not An Advocate For Frequent Changes In Laws And Constitutions, But Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind.
Law
Hands
Mind
God Grant That Men Of Principle Shall Be Our Principal Men.
Moving
Character
Men
Independence Can Be Trusted Nowhere But With The People In Mass. They Are Inherently Independent Of All But Moral Law.
Independent
Law
People
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
Eye
Citizens
Banking
A Community Of Small Farmers... Land Property Owners, Will Be The Only Assurance That The Freedom Our Republic Offers Will Be Guaranteed To Each And Every Citizen.
Wisdom
Land
Community
All Men Are Created Equal.
Men
Classic
Equal
Neither Pagan Nor Mahamedan Nor Jew Ought To Be Excluded From The Civil Rights Of The Commonwealth Because Of His Religion. -quoting John Locke's Argument.
Rights
Argument
Pagan
No Society Can Make A Perpetual Constitution... The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generation.
Animal
Generations
Earth
Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight.
Boisterous
Delight
Pursuit
The Price Of Barbecue Is Eternal Vigilance.
Barbecue
Vigilance
Eternal
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.
Mother
Educational
Drawing
Dependence Leads To Subservience.
Liberty
Libertarian
Dependence
I Have Ever Judged Of The Religion Of Others By Their Lives... But This Does Not Satisfy The Priesthood. They Must Have A Positive, A Declared Assent To All Of Their Interested Absurdities. My Opinion Is That There Would Never Have Been An Infidel, If There Had Never Been A Priest.
Religion
Atheism
Doe
Some Men Look At Constitutions With Sanctimonious Reverence, And Deem Them, Like The Ark Of The Covenant, Too Sacred To Be Touched. They Ascribe To The Men Of The Preceding Age A Wisdom More Than Human, And Suppose What They Did To Be Beyond Amendment. I Knew That Age Well; I Belonged To And Labored With It. It Deserved Well Of Its Country. It Was Very Like The Present, But Without The Experience Of The Present; And Forty Years Of Experience In Government Is Worth A Century Of Book-reading; And This They Would Say Themselves, Were They To Rise From The Dead.
Country
Book
Reading
Where Everyman Is Participator In The Government Of Affairs, Not Merely At An Election One Day In The Year But Everyday, He Will Let The Heart Be Torn Out Of His Body Sooner Than His Power Be Wrested From Him By A Caesar Or A Bonaparte.
Heart
Government
Years
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.
Eye
People
Voting
I Do Believe That General Washington Had Not A Firm Confidence In The Durability Of Our Government. He Was Naturally Distrustful Of Men, And Inclined To Gloomy Apprehensions; And I Was Ever Persuaded That A Belief That We Must At Length End In Something Like A British Constitution, Had Some Weight In His Adoption Of The Ceremonies Of Levees, Birthdays, Pompous Meetings With Congress, And Other Forms Of The Same Character, Calculated To Prepare Us Gradually For A Change Which He Believed Possible, And To Let It Come On With As Little Shock As Might Be To The Public Mind.
Believe
Character
Men
The Sentiments Of Men Are Known Not Only By What They Receive, But What They Reject Also.
Ambition
Men
Human Nature
To Consider Judges As The Ultimate Arbiters Of All Constitutional Questions Is A Very Dangerous Doctrine Indeed, And One Which Would Place Us Under The Despotism Of An Oligarchy.
Freedom
Judging
Political
I Love Peace, And Am Anxious That We Should Give The World Still Another Useful Lesson, By Showing To Them Other Modes Of Punishing Injuries Than By War, Which Is As Much A Punishment To The Punisher As To The Sufferer.
Peace
War
Punishment
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.
Happiness
Government
People
For A People Who Are Free, And Who Mean To Remain So, A Well-organized And Armed Militia Is Their Best Security.
Military
Mean
Gun
I Consider The Government Of The U.s. As Interdicted By The Constitution From Intermeddling With Religious Institutions, Their Doctrines, Discipline, Or Exercises.
Religious
Exercise
Government
A Rising Nation, Spread Over A Wide And Fruitful Land, Traversing All The Seas With The Rich Production Of Their Industry.
Sea
Land
Rising
The Human Character, We Believe, Requires In General Constant And Immediate Control To Prevent Its Being Biased From Right By The Seductions Of Self-love.
Believe
Character
Self
Our Civil Rights Have No Dependence Upon Our Religious Opinions More Than Our Opinions In Physics Or Geometry.
Religious
Rights
Opinion
I Have Overlived The Generation With Which Mutual Labors & Perils Begat Mutual Confidence And Influence.
Generations
Influence
Peril
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.
Country
Majority
Generations
If Ever There Was A Holy War, It Was That Which Saved Our Liberties And Gave Us Independence.
War
Independence
Liberty
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.
Party
Men
Opposites
When You Are Doubting Whether A Thing Is Worth The Trouble Of Going To See, Recollect That You Will Never Again Be So Near It. You May Repent Not Having Seen It, But You Can Never Repent Having Seen It.
Doubt
May
Trouble
The Qualifications For Self-government In Society Are Not Innate. They Are The Result Of Habit And Long Training.
Educational
Government
Self
Man Is Fed With Fables Through Life, And Leaves It In The Belief He Knows Something Of What Has Been Passing, When In Truth He Knows Nothing But What Has Passed Under His Own Eyes.
Knowledge
Eye
Men
Preachers Dread The Advance Of Science As Witches Do The Approach Of Daylight.
Faith Religion
Daylight
Witch
Truth Is Certainly A Branch Of Morality And A Very Important One To Society.
Hero
Important
Society
The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.
Strength
Wisdom
Veterans Day
I Set Out On This Ground Which I Suppose To Be Self-evident, That The Earth Belongs In Usufruct To The Living. . . . We Seem Not To Perceive That, By The Law Of Nature, One Generation Is To Another As One Independent Nation Is To Another. . . . The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generations.
4th Of July
Independent
Self
I Consider Ethics, As Well As Religion, As Supplements To Law In The Government Of Man.
Men
Law
Ethics
In Every Country Where Man Is Free To Think And To Speak, Difference Of Opinion Will Arise From Difference Of Perception, And The Imperfection Of Reason; But These Differences, When Permitted, As In This Happy Country, To Purify Themselves By Free Discussion, Are But As Passing Clouds Overspreading Our Land Transiently, And Leaving Our Horizon More Bright And Serene.
Happiness
Country
Freedom
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.
Book
Taken
Men
The People, Especially When Moderately Instructed, Are The Only Safe, Because The Only Honest, Depositaries Of The Public Rights, And Should Therefore Be Introduced Into The Administration Of Them In Every Function To Which They Are Sufficient; They Will Err Sometimes And Accidentally, But Never Designedly, And With A Systematic And Persevering Purpose Of Overthrowing The Free Principles Of The Government.
Rights
Government
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.
Government
Sight
People
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.
Gratitude
Effort
Age
The Bulk Of Mankind Are Schoolboys Through Life.
Teaching
Mankind
We Love And We Value Peace; We Know Its Blessings From Experience. We Abhor The Follies Of War, And Are Not Untried In Its Distresses And Calamities.
Peace
War
Blessing
Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error.
Errors
Enquiry
Inquiry
I Was Much An Enemy To Monarchies Before I Came To Europe. I Am Ten Thousand Times More So, Since I Have Seen What They Are. There Is Scarcely An Evil Known In These Countries, Which May Not Be Traced To Their King, As Its Source, Nor A Good, Which Is Not Derived From The Small Fibres Of Republicanism Existing Among Them.
Country
Kings
Europe
Those Who Have Once Got An Ascendancy, And Possessed Themselves Of All The Resources Of The Nation, Their Revenues And Offices, Have Immense Means For Retaining Their Advantage.
Mean
Office
Advantage
Mankind Are More Disposed To Suffer, While Evils Are Sufferable, Than To Right Themselves By Abolishing The Forms To Which They Are Accustomed.
Evil
Suffering
Unalienable Rights
Perseverance In Object, Though Not By The Most Direct Way, Is Often More Laudable Than Perpetual Changes, As Often As The Object Shifts Light.
Perseverance
Light
Way
There Are Two Subjects, Indeed, Which I Shall Claim A Right To Further As Long As I Breathe: The Public Education, And The Sub-division Of Counties Into Wards. I Consider The Continuance Of Republican Government As Absolutely Hanging On These Two Hooks.
Education
Government
Two
Scenes Are Now To Take Place As Will Open The Eyes Of Credulity And Of Insanity Itself, To The Dangers Of A Paper Medium Abandoned To The Discretion Of Avarice And Of Swindlers.
Eye
Insanity
Paper
[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.
Religious
Faith Religion
Daylight
All The World Would Be Christian If They Were Taught The Pure Gospel Of Christ!.
Christian
Would Be
World
We Generally Learn Languages For The Benefit Of Reading The Books Written In Them
Book
Reading
Benefits
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.
Florida
Rights
Expression
The Patriot, Like The Christian, Must Learn To Bear Revilings And Persecutions As A Part Of His Duty; And In Proportion As The Trial Is Severe, Firmness Under It Becomes More Requisite And Praiseworthy. It Requires, Indeed, Self-command. But That Will Be Fortified In Proportion As The Calls For Its Exercise Are Repeated.
Christian
Exercise
Self
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.
Years
Age
Growing
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?
Pride
Luxury
Comfort
The Second Office In The Government Is Honorable And Easy; The First Is But A Splendid Misery.
Government
Office
Political
Too Old To Plant Trees For My Own Gratification, I Shall Do It For My Posterity.
Garden
Tree
Serving Others
The Glow Of One Warm Thought Is To Me Worth More Than Money.
Money
War
Famous Inspirational
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.
Roots
People
Growth
Rejecting All Organs Of Informationbut My Senses, I Rid Myself Of The Pyrrhonisms With Which An Indulgence In Speculations Hyperphysical And Antiphysical So Uselessly Occupy And Disquiet The Mind.
Mind
Speculation
Indulgence
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 (for All Forbid Us To Steal, Murder, Plunder, Or Bear False Witness), And That We Should Not Intermeddle With The Particular Dogmas In Which All Religions Differ, And Which Are Totally Unconnected With Morality.
Reading
Reflection
Bears
A Coward Is Much More Exposed To Quarrels Than A Man Of Spirit.
War
Men
Spirit
Turning, Then, From This Loathsome Combination Of Church And State, And Weeping Over The Follies Of Our Fellow Men, Who Yield Themselves The Willing Dupes And Drudges Of These Mountebanks, I Consider Reformation And Redress As Desperate, And Abandon Them To The Quixotism Of More Enthusiastic Minds.
Men
Yield
Mind
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?
Men
Race
Self
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.
Men
Years
Office
No Person Shall Be Restrained Of His Liberty But By Regular Process From A Court Of Justice, Authorized By A General Law. . . . On Complaint Of An Unlawful Imprisonment To Any Judge Whatsoever, He Shall Have The Prisoner Immediately Brought Before Him And Shall Discharge Him If His Imprisonment Be Unlawful. The Officer In Whose Custody The Prisoner Is Shall Obey The Order Of The Judge, And Both Judge And Officer Shall Be Responsible Civilly And Criminally For A Failure Of Duty Herein.
Law
Order
Justice
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.
Men
Religion
Matter
We Owe Gratitude To France, Justice To England, Good Will To All, And Subservience To None ... It Was By The Sober Sense Of Our Citizens That We Were Safely And Steadily Conducted From Monarchy To Republicanism, And It Is By The Same Agency Alone We Can Be Kept From Falling Back.
Gratitude
Fall
Agency
Never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself
Work
Responsibility
Trouble
What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties If Its Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time That Their People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms.
Country
Freedom
Gun
I Do Not Know Whether You Are Fond Of Chemical Reading. There Are Some Things In This Science Worth Reading.
Reading
Science
Chemistry
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