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I Am Not Myself Apt To Be Alarmed At Innovations Recommended By Reason. That Dread Belongs To Those Whose Interests Or Prejudices Shrink From The Advance Of Truth And Science.

-Thomas Jefferson

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I Am Not Myself

Thomas Jefferson

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I Am Not Myself Apt To Be Alarmed At Innovations Recommended By Reason. That Dread Belongs To Those Whose Interests Or Prejudices Shrink From The Advance Of Truth And Science.

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May It Be To The World... To Assume The Blessings And Security Of Self-government.

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

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God Eternal, Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man.

I Find That He Is Happiest Of Whom The World Says Least, Good Or Bad.

Bad Relationship

We Figure Great Careers Aren't Made. They're Experienced.

And Even Should The Cloud Of Barbarism And Despotism Again Obscure The Science And Libraries Of Europe, This Country Remains To Preserve And Restore Light And Liberty To Them.

While The Principles Of Our Constitution Give Just Latitude To Inquiry, Every Citizen Faithful To It Will Deem Embodied Expressions Of Discontent And Open Outrages Of Law And Patriotism As Dishonorable As They Are Injurious

I Like The Dreams Of The Future Better Than The History Of The Past.

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

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

The Spirit Of The Times May Alter, Will Alter. Our Rulers Will Become Corrupt, Our People Careless... From The Conclusion Of This War We Shall Be Going Downhill. It Will Not Then Be Necessary To Resort Every Moment To The People For Support. They Will Be Forgotten, Therefore, And Their Rights Disregarded. They Will Forget Themselves, But In The Sole Faculty Of Making Money, And Will Never Think Of Uniting To Affect A Due Respect For Their Rights. The Shackles, Therefore, Will Be Made Heavier And Heavier, Till Our Rights Shall Revive Or Expire In A Convulsion.

I Hold It Certain That To Open The Doors Of Truth And To Fortify The Habit Of Testing Everything By Reason Are The Most Effectual Manacles We Can Rivet On The Hands Of Our Successors To Prevent Their Manacling The People With Their Own Consent.

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.

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.

For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead.

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.

Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace

National Defense

The Contest Is Not Between Us And Them, But Between Good And Evil, And If Those Who Would Fight Evil Adopt The Ways Of Evil, Evil Wins.

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

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

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.

No Man Will Labor For Himself Who Can Make Another Labor For Him.

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.

[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.

Whenever The People Are Well-informed, They Can Be Trusted With Their Own Government.

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

Until We Stop Harming All Other Living Beings, We Are Still Savages.

Vegetarian Diet

In Truth, Politeness Is Artificial Good Humor, It Covers The Natural Want Of It, And Ends By Rendering Habitual A Substitute Nearly Equivalent To The Real Virtue. It Is The Practice Of Sacrificing To Those Whom We Meet In Society, All The Little Inconveniences And Preferences Which Will Gratify Them, And Deprive Us Of Nothing Worth A Moment's Consideration; It Is The Giving A Pleasing And Flattering Turn To Our Expressions, Which Will Conciliate Others, And Make Them Pleased With Us As Well As Themselves. How Cheap A Price For The Good Will Of Another!

Being Myself A Warm Zealot For The Attainment & Enjoiment By All Mankind Of As Much Liberty As Each May Exercise Without Injury To The Equal Liberty Of His Fellow Citizens, I Have Lamented That In France The Endeavors To Obtain This Should Have Been Attended With The Effusion Of So Much Blood.

The Juries Are Our Judges Of All Fact, And Of Law When They Choose It.

I Think With The Romans, That The General Of Today Should Be A Soldier Tomorrow If Necessary.

Some Other Natural Rights... [have] Not Yet Entered Into Any Declaration Of Rights.

I Have Ever Deemed It More Honorable And More Profitable, Too, To Set A Good Example Than To Follow A Bad One.

If Once The People Become Inattentive To The Public Affairs, You And I, And Congress And Assemblies, Judges And Governors, Shall All Become Wolves. It Seems To Be The Law Of Our General Nature, In Spite Of Individual Exceptions.

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.

The Idea Is Quite Unfounded That On Entering Into Society We Give Up Any Natural Rights.

The Following [addition To The Bill Of Rights] Would Have Pleased Me: The People Shall Not Be Deprived Or Abridged Of Their Right To Speak, To Write, Or Otherwise To Publish Anything But False Facts Affecting Injuriously The Life, Liberty Or Reputation Of Others, Or Affecting The Peace Of The [united States] With Foreign Nations.

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

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 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.

The Purse Of The People Is The Real Seat Of Sensibility. Let It Be Drawn Upon Largely, And They Will Then Listen To Truths Which Could Not Excite Them Through Any Other Organ.

Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.

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

[f]alsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.

I Have Been Long Sensible That While I Was Endeavoring To Render Our Country The Greatest Of All Services, That Of Regenerating The Public Education, And Placing Our Rising Generation On The Level Of Our Sister States (which They Have Proudly Held Heretofore), I Was Discharging The Odious Function Of A Physician Pouring Medicine Down The Throat Of A Patient Insensible Of Needing It.

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

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.

An Enemy Generally Says And Believes What He Wishes.

The Hocus-pocus Phantasm Of A God, Like Another Cerberus, With One Body And Three Heads, Had Its Birth And Growth In The Blood Of Thousands And Thousands Of Martyrs.

The Late Rebellion In Massachusetts Has Given More Alarm Than I Think It Should Have Done. Calculate That One Rebellion In Thirteen States In The Course Of Eleven Years, Is But One For Each State In A Century And A Half. No Country Should Be So Long Without One. Nor Will Any Degree Of Power In The Hands Of Government Prevent Insurrections.

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.

Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Person Under Protection Of Habeas Corpus; And Trial By Juries Impartially Selected, These Principles Form The Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us, And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.

We Must Meet Our Duty And Convince The World That We Are Just Friends And Brave Enemies.

Sir, Your Letter Of The 15th Is Received, But Age Has Long Since Obliged Me To Withhold My Mind From Speculations Of The Difficulty Of Those Of Your Letter, That Their Are Means Of Artificial Buoyancy By Which Man May Be Supported In The Air, The Balloon Has Proved, And That Means Of Directing It May Be Discovered Is Against No Law Of Nature And Is Therefore Possible As In The Case Of Birds, But To Do This By Mechanical Means Alone In A Medium So Rare And Unassisting As Air Must Have The Aid Of Some Principal Not Yet Generally Known.

I Candidly Confess That I Have Ever Looked On Cuba As The Most Interesting Addition Which Could Ever Be Made To Our System Of States. The Control Which, With Florida, This Island Would Give Us Over The Gulf Of Mexico, And The Countries And Isthmus Bordering On It, As Well As All Those Whose Waters Flow Into It, Would Fill Up The Measure Of Our Political Well-being.

So Confident Am I In The Intentions, As Well As Wisdom, Of The Government, That I Shall Always Be Satisfied That What Is Not Done, Either Cannot, Or Ought Not To Be Done.

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

The People Are The Ultimate Guardians Of Their Own Liberties. In Every Government On Earth Is Some Trace Of Human Weakness, Some Germ Of Corruption And Degeneracy . . . Every Government Degenerates When Trusted To The Rulers Of The People Alone.

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

I Long To Be In The Midst Of The Children, And Have More Pleasure In Their Little Follies Than In The Wisdom Of The Wise.

But Under The Beaming, Constant And Almost Vertical Sun Of Virginia, Shade Is Our Elysium. In The Absence Of This No Beauty Of The Eye Can Be Enjoyed.

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.

The Art Of Life Is The Art Of Avoiding Pain.

The Opinions And Beliefs Of Men Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds.

When Tempted To Do Any Thing In Secret, Ask Yourself If You Would Do It In Public.

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

The Firmness With Which The (american) People Have Withstood The... Abuses Of The Press, The Discernment They Have Manifested Between Truth And Falsehood, Show That They May Safely Be Trusted To Hear Everything True And False And To Form A Correct Judgment Between Them.

I Sincerely Join You In Abjuring All Political Connection With Every Foreign Power; And Tho I Cordially Wish Well To The Progress Of Liberty In All Nations, And Would Forever Give It The Weight Of Our Countenance, Yet They Are Not To Be Touched Without Contamination From Their Other Bad Principles. Commerce With All Nations, Alliance With None, Should Be Our Motto.

Does The Government Fear Us? Or Do We Fear The Government? When The People Fear The Government, Tyranny Has Found Victory. The Federal Government Is Our Servant, Not Our Master!

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

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

Politics Is Such A Torment That I Advise Everyone I Love Not To Mix With It.

Books May Be Classed From The Faculties Of The Mind

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.

Every State Has A Natural Right In Cases Not Within The Compact (casus Non Faederis) To Nullify Of Their Own Authority All Assumptions Of Power By Others Within Their Limits. Without This Right, They Would Be Under The Dominion, Absolute And Unlimited, Of Whosoever Might Exercise This Right Of Judgment For Them.

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

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

The Opinions Of Men Should Not Be The Object Of Any Government. Our Civil Rights Are No More Dependent On Our Religious Beliefs Than They Are Dependent Upon Our Thoughts About Geometry Or Physics!

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.

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.

If Your Letters Are As Long As The Bible, They Will Appear Short To Me. Only Let Them Be Brim Full Of Affection.

Music Furnishes A Delightful Recreation For The Hours Of Respite From The Cares Of The Day, And Lasts Us Through Life.

If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't More People Happy?

An Honest Heart Being The First Blessing, A Knowing Head Is The Second.

Would It Not Be Better To Simplify The System Of Taxation Rather Than To Spread It Over Such A Variety Of Subjects And Pass Through So Many New Hands.

The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That... It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed.

If The Freedom Of Religion, Guaranteed To Us By Law In Theory, Can Ever Rise In Practice Under The Overbearing Inquisition Of Public Opinion, [then And Only Then Will Truth]prevail Over Fanaticism.

To Talk Of Immaterial Existences Is To Talk Of Nothings. To Say That The Human Soul, Angels, God, Are Immaterial, Is To Say They Are Nothings, Or That There Is No God, No Angels, No Soul. I Cannot Reason Otherwise: But I Believe I Am Supported In My Creed Of Materialism By Locke, Tracy, And Stewart. At What Age Of The Christian Church This Heresy Of Immaterialism, This Masked Atheism, Crept In, I Do Not Know. But Heresy It Certainly Is.

In The Legislature, The House Of Representatives Is Chosen By Less Than Half The People, And Not At All In Proportion To Those Who Do Choose. The Senate Are Still More Disproportionate, And For Long Terms Of Irresponsibility. In The Executive, The Governor Is Entirely Independent Of The Choice Of The People, And Of Their Control; His Council Equally So, And At Best But A Fifth Wheel To A Wagon. In The Judiciary, The Judges Of The Highest Courts Are Dependent On None But Themselves.

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

The Question Whether The Judges Are Invested With Exclusive Authority To Decide On The Constitutionality Of A Law Has Been Heretofore A Subject Of Consideration With Me In The Exercise Of Official Duties. Certainly There Is Not A Word In The Constitution Which Has Given That Power To Them More Than To The Executive Or Legislative Branches.

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

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

It Is A Cruel Thought, That, When We Feel Ourselves Standing On The Firmest Ground In Every Respect, The Cursed Arts Of Our Secret Enemies, Combining With Other Causes, Should Effect, By Depreciating Our Money, What The Open Arms Of A Powerful Enemy Could Not.

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

I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude

Ignorance Of The Law Is No Excuse In Any Country. If It Were, The Laws Would Lose Their Effect, Because It Can Always Be Pretended.

I See Now Our Fireside Formed Into A Groupe, No One Member Of Which Has A Fibre In Their Composition Which Can Ever Produce Any Jarring Or Jealousies Among Us. No Irregular Passions, No Dangerous Bias, Which May Render Problematical The Future Fortunes And Happiness Of Our Descendants.

It Is Not To The Moderation And Justice Of Others We Are To Trust For Fair And Equal Access To Market With Out Productions, Or For Our Due Share In The Transportation Of Them; But To Our Own Means Of Independence, And The Firm Will To Use Them.

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

One Had Rather Have No Opinion Than A False One.

If The Measures Which Have Been Pursued Are Approved By The Majority, It Is The Duty Of The Minority To Acquiesce And Conform.

The Inhabitants Of The Ceded Territory Shall Be Incorporated In The Union Of The United States, And Admitted As Soon As Possible, According To The Principles Of The Federal Constitution, To The Enjoyment Of All The Rights, Advantages, And Immunities, Of Citizens Of The United States; And, In The Mean Time, They Shall Be Maintained And Protected In The Free Enjoyment Of Their Liberty, Property, And The Religion Which They Profess.

My Affections Were First For My Own Country, Then, Generally, For All Mankind

The Judiciary Of The United States Is The Subtle Corps Of Sappers And Miners Constantly Working Under Ground To Undermine The Foundations Of Our Confederated Fabric. They Are Construing Our Constitution From A Co-ordination Of A General And Special Government To A General And Supreme One Alone.

The Whole History Of These Books (i.e. The Gospels) Is So Defective And Doubtful That It Seems Vain To Attempt Minute Enquiry Into It: And Such Tricks Have Been Played With Their Text, And With The Texts Of Other Books Relating To Them, That We Have A Right, From That Cause, To Entertain Much Doubt What Parts Of Them Are Genuine. In The New Testament There Is Internal Evidence That Parts Of It Have Proceeded From An Extraordinary Man; And That Other Parts Are Of The Fabric Of Very Inferior Minds. It Is As Easy To Separate Those Parts, As To Pick Out Diamonds From Dunghills.

To Every Obstacle Oppose Patience, Perseverance And Soothing Language.

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

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

Pursuit Of Happiness

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.

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

A Little Rebellion Is A Good Thing.

The Field Of Knolege Is The Common Property Of All Mankind

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.

Is It Less Dishonest To Do What Is Wrong Because It Is Not Expressly Prohibited By Written Law? Let Us Hope Our Moral Principles Are Not Yet In That Stage Of Degeneracy.

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

Not For Ourselves Alone, But For All Humanity... Let Us Hasten To Find The Path That Leads To Liberty, Safety, And Peace For Everyone.

If We Can But Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labours Of The People, Under The Pretence Of Taking Care Of Them, They Must Become Happy.

While The Farmer Holds The Title To The Land, Actually, It Belongs To All The People Because Civilization Itself Rests Upon The Soil.

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

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.

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

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.

The Best Defense Of Democracy Is An Informed Electorate.

Trade Liberty For Safety Or Money And You'll End Up With Neither. Liberty, Like A Grain Of Salt, Easily Dissolves. The Power Of Questioning - Not Simply Believing - Has No Friends. Yet Liberty Depends On It.

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

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.

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

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

A Wise And Frugal Government, Which Shall Restrain Men From Injuring One Another, Which Shall Leave Them Otherwise Free To Regulate Their Own Pursuits Of Industry And Improvement, And Shall Not Take From The Mouth Of Labor The Bread It Has Earned. This Is The Sum Of Good Government, And This Is Necessary To Close The Circle Of Our Felicities.

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.

[t]he Dignity Of Parliament It Seems Can Brook No Opposition To It's Power. Strange That A Set Of Men Who Have Made Sale Of Theirvirtue To The Minister Should Yet Talk Of Retaining Dignity!

I Have No Ambition To Govern Men; It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

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.

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

I Have So Much Confidence In The Good Sense Of Man, And His Qualifications For Self-government, That I Am Never Afraid Of The Issue Where Reason Is Left Free To Exert Her Force.

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

Every Male Citizen Of The Commonwealth, Liable To Taxes Or To Militia Duty In Any County, Shall Have A Right To Vote For Representatives For That County To The Legislature.

The Rational And Peaceable Instrument Of Reform, The Suffrage Of The People.

Female Education ... Has Occupied My Attention So Far Only As The Education Of My Own Daughters ... I Thought It Essential To Give Them A Solid Education Which Might Enable Them, When Become Mothers, To Educate Their Own Daughters, And Even To Direct The Course For Sons, Should Their Fathers Be.

Subject Opinion To Coercion: Whom Will You Make Your Inquisitors? Fallible Men; Men Governed By Bad Passions, By Private As Well As Public Reasons. And Why Subject It To Coercion? To Produce Uniformity. But Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than Of Face And Stature.

The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union.

The Greeks By Their Laws, And The Romans By The Spirit Of Their People, Took Care To Put Into The Hands Of Their Rulers No Such Engine Of Oppression As A Standing Army. Their System Was To Make Every Man A Soldier, And Oblige Him To Repair To The Standard Of His Country Whenever That Was Reared. This Made Them Invincible; And The Same Remedy Will Make Us So.

With All The Defects In Our Constitution, Whether General Or Particular, The Comparison Of Our Government With Those Of Europe, Is Like A Comparison Of Heaven With Hell. England, Like The Earth, May Be Allowed To Take The Intermediate Station.

The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom And Happiness Of Man. . . . [are] The Sole Objects Of All Legitimate Government. A Plaque With This Quotation, With The First Phrase Omitted, Is In The Stairwell Of The Pedestal Of The Statue Of Liberty.

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

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

Slavery Is An Abomination And Must Be Loudly Proclaimed As Such, But I Own That I Nor Any Other Man Has Any Immediate Solution To The Problem.

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

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.

No Man Has Greater Confidence Than I Have In The Spirit Of The People, To A Rational Extent. Whatever They Can, They Will.

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

There Is No King, Who, With Sufficient Force, Is Not Always Ready To Make Himself Absolute.

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

Question Boldly Even The Existence Of God.

Existence Of God

Every Citizen Should Be A Soldier. This Was The Case With The Greeks And Romans, And Must Be That Of Every Free State.

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

The Mass Of Mankind Has Not Been Born With Saddles On Their Backs, Nor A Favored Few Booted And Spurred, Ready To Ride Them Legitimately, By The Grace Of God.

I Do Most Anxiously Wish To See The Highest Degrees Of Education Given To The Higher Degrees Of Genius And To All Degrees Of It, So Much As May Enable Them To Read And Understand What Is Going On In The World And To Keep Their Part Of It Going On Right; For Nothing Can Keep It Right But Their Own Vigilant And Distrustful Superintendence.

I Leave The World And Its Affairs To The Young And Energetic, And Resign Myself To Their Care, Of Whom I Have Endeavored To Take Care When Young.

Merchants Have No Country.

I Tolerate With The Utmost Latitude The Right Of Others To Differ From Me In Opinion Without Imputing To Them Criminality.

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

Whose Foot Is To Be The Measure To Which Ours Are All To Be Cut Or Stretched?

One Imputation In Particular Has Been Repeated Till It Seems As If Some At Least Believed It: That I Am An Enemy To Commerce. They Admit Me A Friend Of Agriculture, And Suppose Me An Enemy To The Only Means Of Disposing Of Its Produce.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle. The Real Extent Of This State Of Misinformation Is Known Only To Those Who Are In Situations To Confront Facts Within Their Knowledge With The Lies Of The Day.

Where Thought Is Free In Its Range, We Need Never Fear To Hazard What Is Good In Itself.

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

A Republic Will Avoid War Unless The Avoidance Might Create Conditions That Are Worse Than Warfare Itself. Sometimes, The Dispositions Of Those Who Choose To Make Themselves Our Enemies Leaves Us No Choice.

The Only True Corrective Of Constitutional Abuses Is Education.

A Coward Is Much More Exposed To Quarrels Than A Man Of Spirit.

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

The Evidence Of [the] Natural Right [of Expatriation], Like That Of Our Right To Life, Liberty, The Use Of Our Faculties, The Pursuit Of Happiness, Is Not Left To The Feeble And Sophistical Investigations Of Reason, But Is Impressed On The Sense Of Every Man. We Do Not Claim These Under The Charters Of Kings Or Legislators, But Under The King Of Kings.

Pursuit Of Happiness

Idleness Begets Ennui, Ennui The Hypochondriac, And That A Diseased Body. No Laborious Person Was Ever Yet Hysterical.

The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us. It Is Better To Keep The Wolf Out Of The Fold, Than To Trust To Drawing His Teeth And Talons After He Shall Have Entered.

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

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

No Person Shall Be Capable Of Being A Delegate For More Than Three Years In Any Term Of Six.

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.

There Is No Habit You Will Value So Much As That Of Walking Far Without Fatigue.

I Have Ever Deemed It Fundamental For The United States Never To Take Active Part In The Quarrels Of Europe. Their Political Interests Are Entirely Distinct From Ours. Their Mutual Jealousies, Their Balance Of Power, Their Complicated Alliances, Their Forms And Principles Of Government, Are All Foreign To Us. They Are Nations Of Eternal War.

[the People] Are In Truth The Only Legitimate Proprietors Of The Soil And Government.

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

The Only Security Of All Is In A Free Press.

Freedom Of The Press

The Same Facts Impress Us Differently.

The Best Commentary On The Principles Of Government Which Has Ever Been Written.

In Every Country And In Every Age, The Priest Has Been Hostile To Liberty.

I Agree With You That It Is The Duty Of Every Good Citizen To Use All The Opportunities, Which Occur To Him, For Preserving Documents Relating To The History Of Our Country.

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

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

A Well Informed Citizenry Is The Best Defense Against Tyranny.

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.

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

By A Declaration Of Rights, I Mean One Which Shall Stipulate Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce Against Monopolies, Trial By Juries In All Cases, No Suspensions Of The Habeas Corpus, No Standing Armies. These Are Fetters Against Doing Evil Which No Honest Government Should Decline.

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.

Principle Will, In... Most... Cases Open The Way For Us To Correct Conclusion.

Morals Were Too Essential To The Happiness Of Man, To Be Risked On The Uncertain Combinations Of The Head. Nature Laid Their Foundation, Therefore, In Sentiment, Not In Science.

When Once A Republic Is Corrupted, There Is No Possibility Of Remedying Any Of The Growing Evils But By Removing The Corruption And Restoring Its Lost Principles; Every Other Correction Is Either Useless Or A New Evil.

Though Written Constitutions May Be Violated In Moments Of Passion Or Delusion, Yet They Furnish A Text To Which Those Who Are Watchful May Again Rally And Recall The People; They Fix Too For The People The Principles Of Their Political Creed.

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Joseph A. Schumpeter

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