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I Cannot Live Without Books: But Fewer Will Suffice Where Amusement, And Not Use, Is The Only Future Object.
-Thomas Jefferson
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I Cannot Live Without

Thomas Jefferson
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I Cannot Live Without Books: But Fewer Will Suffice Where Amusement, And Not Use, Is The Only Future Object.

Understanding the Quote: "i cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and..."

This quote by Thomas Jefferson reflects deeply on the theme of book. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Book, Use, Fewer, 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 book and use. 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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Book
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Fewer
More From Thomas Jefferson
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.
Education
Reading
Writing
I Wish It Were Possible To Obtain A Single Amendment To Our Constitution. I Would Be Willing To Depend On That Alone For The Reduction Of The Administration Of Our Government; I Mean An Additional Article Taking From The Federal Government The Power Of Borrowing.
Mean
Government
Political
I See No Comfort In Outliving One's Friends, And Remaining A Mere Monument Of The Times Which Are Past.
Past
Comfort
Monument
It Is Not The Policy Of The Government In America To Give Aid To Works Of Any Kind. They Let Things Take Their Natural Course Without Help Or Impediment, Which Is Generally The Best Policy.
Government
America
Giving
A Right To Property Is Founded In Our Natural Wants, In The Means With Which We Are Endowed To Satisfy These Wants, And The Right To What We Acquire By Those Means Without Violating The Similar Rights Of Other Sensible Beings.
Mean
Rights
Want
No Nation Is Drunken Where Wine Is Cheap.
Drinking
Wine
Alcohol
Laws Abridging The Natural Right Of The Citizen Should Be Restrained By Rigorous Constructions Within Their Narrowest Limits.
Law
Citizens
Limits
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
The Parties Of Whig And Tory Are Those Of Nature. They Exist In All Countries, Whether Called By These Names Or By Those Of Aristocrats And Democrats, Cote Droite And Cote Gauche, Ultras And Radicals, Serviles And Liberals. The Sickly, Weakly, Timid Man Fears The People, And Is A Tory By Nature. The Healthy, Strong And Bold Cherishes Them, And Is Formed A Whig By Nature.
Country
Strong
Party
I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude
Liberty
Quiet
Capitalism
We Are Here Lounging Our Time Away, Doing Nothing, And Having Nothing To Do. It Gives Me Great Regret To Be Passing My Time So Uselessly When It Could Have Been So Importantly Employed At Home.
Regret
Home
Giving
We Have Counted The Cost Of This Contest, And Find Nothing So Dreadful As Voluntary Slavery.-honor, Justice, And Humanity, Forbid Us Tamely To Surrender That Freedom Which We Received From Our Gallant Ancestors, And Which Our Innocent Posterity Have A Right To Receive From Us. We Cannot Endure The Infamy And Guilt Of Resigning Succeeding Generations To That Wretchedness Which Inevitably Awaits Them, If We Basely Entail Hereditary Bondage Upon Them.
Justice
Humanity
Honor
The Smell Rewards The Care.
Smell
Care
Rewards
Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, And Navigation, The Four Pillars Of Our Prosperity, Are The Most Thriving When Left Most Free To Individual Enterprise.
Agriculture
Liberty
Four
Music, Drawing, Books, Invention & Exercise Will Be So Many Resources To You Against Ennui.
Educational
Book
Exercise
[the Federal Convention] Is Really An Assembly Of Demigods.
Assembly
Demigods
Conventions
No Man Shall Be Compelled To Frequent Or Support Any Religious Worship, Place, Or Ministry Whatsoever.
Religious
Father
Men
You Have Lived Longer Than I Have And Perhaps May Have Formed A Different Judgment On Better Grounds; But My Observations Do Not Enable Me To Say I Think Integrity The Characteristic Of Wealth. In General I Believe The Decisions Of The People, In A Body, Will Be More Honest And More Disinterested Than Those Of Wealthy Men.
Integrity
Believe
Men
Wake Up, Dream, Have The Ambition To Do The Things You Have Always Dreamed Of, Go Farther Than Any Man Has Ever Been Before, Go As Far As It Is Possible For Any Man To Go, What Have You Got To Lose? Nothing Can Stop The Man With The Right Mental Attitude From Achieving His Goal; Nothing On Earth Can Help The Man With The Wrong Mental Attitude.
Dream
Attitude
Ambition
A Man's Moral Sense Must Be Unusually Strong If Slavery Does Not Make Him A Thief.
Strong
Men
Thieves
The Monopoly Of A Single Bank Is Certainly An Evil. The Multiplication Of Them Was Intended To Cure It; But It Multiplied An Influence Of The Same Character With The First, And Completed The Supplanting The Precious Metals By A Paper Circulation. Between Such Parties The Less We Meddle The Better.
Party
Character
Evil
Resisting Tyranny Is Obeying God
Obeying God
Tyranny
Obeying
Certain Teachings In The Bible Are As Diamonds In A Dung-heap.
Religious
Teaching
Certain
Of All The Cankers Of Human Happiness None Corrodes With So Silent, Yet So Baneful An Influence, As Indolence.
Happiness
Influence
Silent
It Must Be Observed That Our Revenues Are Raised Almost Wholly On Imported Goods.
Taxation
Goods
Revenue
Cultivators Of The Earth Are The Most Virtuous And Independent Citizens.
Independent
Citizens
Earth
Too Old To Plant Trees For My Own Gratification, I Shall Do It For My Posterity.
Garden
Tree
Serving Others
Certainly One Of The Highest Duties Of The Citizen Is A Scrupulous Obedience To The Laws Of The Nation. But It Is Not The Highest Duty.
Inspirational
Motivational
Law
None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army. To Keep Ours Armed And Disciplined Is Therefore At All Times Important.
Army
Gun
Important
Hemp Is Of First Necessity To The Wealth & Protection Of The Country.
Weed
Country
Marijuana
The Worst Day In A Man's Life Is When He Sits Down And Begins Thinking About How He Can Get Something For Nothing.
Men
Thinking
Down And
If The Measures Which Have Been Pursued Are Approved By The Majority, It Is The Duty Of The Minority To Acquiesce And Conform.
Democracy
Majority
Minorities
Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To God Alone.
Accountability
Principles
Civil Rights
Men Possessing Minds Of The First Order And Who Have Had Opportunities Of Being Known And Of Acquiring The General Confidence Do Not Abound In Any Country Beyond The Wants Of The Country.
Country
Men
Opportunity
From Forty Years' Experience Of The Wretched Guess-work Of The Newspapers Of What Is Not Done In Open Daylight, And Of Their Falsehood Even As To That, I Rarely Think Them Worth Reading, And Almost Never Worth Notice.
Reading
Thinking
Years
Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far.
Fitness
Exercise
Walks
...in War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy All Of Them
War
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.
Truth
Thinking
Rights
[an] Act Of The Congress Of The United States... Which Assumes Powers... Not Delegated By The Constitution, Is Not Law, But Is Altogether Void And Of No Force.
Law
Void
United States
I Will Not Believe Our Labors Are Lost. I Shall Not Die Without A Hope That Light And Liberty Are On A Steady Advance.
Freedom
Believe
Light
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.
Mean
Law
Jurisprudence
Health Is The Requisite After Morality
Health
Morality
It Is Always Better To Have No Ideas Than False Ones; To Believe Nothing, Than To Believe What Is Wrong.
Believe
Ideas
Atheism
The Greatest Calamity Which Could Befall Us Would Be Submission To A Government Of Unlimited Powers.
Government
Would Be
Submission
I Do Not Agree That An Age Of Pleasure Is No Compensation For A Moment Of Pain.
Pain
Age
Moments
I Extremely Believe In Luck, And I Discovered More Hard Work, Your Luck As Much
Believe
Hard Work
Luck
...we Are All Federalists,and We Are All Republicans.
Republican
Federalist
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
Whenever The People Are Well Informed, They Can Be Trusted With Their Own Government; That Whenever Things Get So Far Wrong As To Attract Their Notice, They May Be Relied On To Set Them To Rights.
Trust
Rights
Government
Every Man Has A Commission To Admonish, Exhort, Convince Another Of Error.
Men
Errors
Politics
If I Could Not Go To Heaven With But A Party, I Would Not Go There At All. Therefore, I Am Not Of The Party Of Federalists. But I Am Much Further From That Of The Anti-federalists.
Party
Heaven
Federalist
In Our Richmond There Is Much Fanaticism, But Chiefly Among The Women. They Have Their Night Meetings And Prayer Parties, Where, Attended By Their Priests, And Sometimes By A Hen-pecked Husband, They Pour Forth The Effusions Of Their Love To Jesus, In Terms As Amatory And Carnal, As Their Modesty Would Permit Them To Use A Mere Earthly Lover.
Jesus
Prayer
Husband
Whether I Retire To Bed Early Or Late, I Rise With The Sun.
Morning
Entrepreneur
Sunrise
Blest Is That Nation Whose Silent Course Of Happiness Furnishes Nothing For History To Say.
Silent
Courses
Nations
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
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?
Friendship
Names
Volunteer
I May Err In My Measures, But Never Shall Deflect From The Intention To Fortify The Public Liberty By Every Possible Means, And To Put It Out Of The Power Of The Few To Riot On The Labors Of The Many.
Mean
Liberty
May
It Behooves Our Citizens To Be On Their Guard, To Be Firm In Their Principles, And Full Of Confidence In Themselves. We Are Able To Preserve Our Self-government If We Will But Think So.
Thinking
Government
Self
But The Chief Justice Says, 'there Must Be An Ultimate Arbiter Somewhere.' True, There Must; But Does That Prove It Is Either Party? The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union, Assembled By Their Deputies In Convention, At The Call Of Congress Or Of Two-thirds Of The States. Let Them Decide To Which They Mean To Give An Authority Claimed By Two Of Their Organs. And It Has Been The Peculiar Wisdom And Felicity Of Our Constitution, To Have Provided This Peaceable Appeal, Where That Of Other Nations Is At Once To Force.
Party
Mean
Two
The Diffusion Of Information And The Arraignment Of All Abuses At The Bar Of Public Reason, I Deem [one Of] The Essential Principles Of Our Government, And Consequently [one Of] Those Which Ought To Shape Its Administration.
Government
Abuse
Principles
While Wading Through The Whimsies, The Puerilities, And Unintelligible Jargon Of This Work [plato's Republic], I Laid It Down Often To Ask Myself How It Could Have Been That The World Should Have So Long Consented To Give Reputation To Such Nonsense As This?
Plato
Philosophy
Science
Our Rulers Can Have Authority Over Such Natural Rights Only As We Have Submitted To Them.
Rights
Natural
Authority
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
Mouths
Matter
No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.
Wine
Drunk
Politics
I Am Myself An Empiric In Natural Philosophy, Suffering My Faith To Go No Further Than My Facts. I Am Pleased, However, To See The Efforts Of Hypothetical Speculation, Because By The Collisions Of Different Hypotheses, Truth May Be Elicited And Science Advanced In The End.
Philosophy
Effort
Suffering
Good Humor Is One Of The Preservatives Of Our Peace And Tranquility.
Humor
Tranquility
Peace And Tranquility
The Clergy, By Getting Themselves Established By Law And In-grafted Into The Machine Of Government, Have Been A Very Formidable Engine Against The Civil And Religious Rights Of Man.
Religious
Men
Rights
I Can Never Join Calvin In Addressing His God. He Was Indeed An Atheist, Which I Can Never Be; Or Rather His Religion Was Daemonism. If Ever Man Worshipped A False God, He Did.
Atheist
Men
Religion
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.
Ambition
Law
Community
The Mass Of Our Citizens May Be Divided Into Two Classes -- The Laboring And The Learned. The Laboring Will Need The First Grade Of Education To Qualify Them For Their Pursuits And Duties; The Learned Will Need It As A Foundation For Further Acquirements.
Class
Two
Foundation
I Have Indeed Two Great Measures At Heart, Without Which No Republic Can Maintain Itself In Strength: 1. That Of General Education, To Enable Every Man To Judge For Himself What Will Secure Or Endanger His Freedom. 2. To Divide Every County Into Hundreds, Of Such Size That All The Children Of Each Will Be Within Reach Of A Central School In It.
Children
Heart
School
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.
Real
Party
Government
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
Paul Was The First Corrupter Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.
Jesus
Historical
Doctrine
Every Christian Sect Gives A Great Handle To Atheism By Their General Dogma That, Without A Revelation, There Would Not Be Sufficient Proof Of The Being Of God.
Christian
Giving
Atheism
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.
Men
Liberty
Pedestal
We Do Not Mean To Count Or Weigh Our Contributions By Any Standard Other Than That Of Our Abilities.
Money
Mean
Standards
If Ever This Vast Country Is Brought Under A Single Government, It Will Be One Of The Most Extensive Corruption, Indifferent And Incapable Of A Wholesome Care Over So Wide A Spread Of Surface. This Will Not Be Borne, And You Will Have To Choose Between Reform And Revolution. If I Know The Spirit Of This Country, The One Or The Other Is Inevitable.
Country
Government
Reform
I Enclose To You A Copy Of The Declaration Of Independence As Agreed To By The House, And Also, As Originally Framed. You Will Judge Whether It Is The Better Or Worse For The Critics.
Judging
House
Independence
In Every Government On Earth Is Some Trace Of Human Weakness, Some Germ Of Corruption And Degeneracy, Which Cunning Will Discover, And Wickedness Insensibly Open, Cultivate And Improve.
Government
Weakness
Wickedness
I Sincerely Wish You May Find It Convenient To Come Here. The Pleasure Of The Trip Will Be Less Than You Expect, But The Utility Greater. It Will Make You Adore Your Own Country, It's Soil, It's Climate, It's Equality, Liberty, Laws, People & Manners. My God! How Little Do My Countrymen Know.
Country
Law
People
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.
Government
Liberty
Slavery
I Think By Far The Most Important Bill In Our Whole Code Is That For The Diffusion Of Knowlege Among The People. No Other Sure Foundation Can Be Devised For The Preservation Of Freedom, And Happiness.
Educational
Knowledge
Thinking
Our Ancient Laws Expressly Declare That Those Who Are But Delegates Themselves Shall Not Delegate To Others Powers Which Require Judgment And Integrity In Their Exercise.
Integrity
Exercise
Law
Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle Grateful That They Are Not Worse Rather Than The Rough Handle, Bitter That They Are Not Better.
Gratitude
Grateful
Bitter
There Is No Act, However Virtuous, For Which Ingenuity May Not Find Some Bad Motive.
President
May
Motive
The People Cannot Be All, And Always, Well Informed. The Part Which Is Wrong Will Be Discontented, In Proportion To The Importance Of The Facts They Misconceive. If They Remain Quiet Under Such Misconceptions, It Is Lethargy, The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty. And What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties, If Its Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time, That This People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms.
Country
Freedom
People
Who Then Can So Softly Bind Up The Wound Of Another As He Who Has Felt The Same Wound Himself.
Volunteer
Felt
Wounds
If We Suffer Ourselves To Be Frightened From Our Post By Mere Lying, Surely The Enemy Will Use That Weapon; For What One So Cheap To Those Of Whose System Of Politics Morality Makes No Part?
Lying
Enemy
Suffering
A Single Zealot May Commence Prosecutor, And Better Men Be His Victims.
Men
May
Victim
Nature [has] Implanted In Our Breasts A Love Of Others, A Sense Of Duty To Them, A Moral Instinct, In Short, Which Prompts Us Irresistibly To Feel And To Succor Their Distresses.
Moral
Instinct
Duty
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.
Politics
Matter
Opinion
Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.
Coffee
World
Drink
With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties.
Politics
Morality
Individual
I Advance With Obedience To The Work, Ready To Retire From It Whenever You Become Sensible How Much Better Choice It Is In Your Power To Make.
Choices
Obedience
Sensible
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.
Mean
Order
Evil
How To Check These Unconstitutional Invasions Of Rights By The Federal Judiciary? Not By Impeachment In The First Instance, But By A Strong Protestation Of Both Houses Of Congress That Such And Such Doctrines Advanced By The Supreme Court Are Contrary To The Constitution; And If Afterwards They Relapse Into The Same Heresies, Impeach And Set The Whole Adrift. For What Was The Government Divided Into Three Branches, But That Each Should Watch Over The Others And Oppose Their Usurpations?
Strong
Rights
Government
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
The Liberty Of The Whole Earth Was Depending On The Issue Of The Contest, And Was Ever Such A Prize Won With So Little Innocent Blood?
Blood
Issues
Liberty
Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace
Peace
War
National Defense
The Love Of Justice And The Love Of Country Plead Equally The Cause Of These People, And It Is A Moral Reproach To Us That They Should Have Pleaded It So Long In Vain.
Country
Should Have
Justice
I Hope Our Wisdom Will Grow With Our Power, And Teach Us, That The Less We Use Our Power The Greater It Will Be.
Wisdom
Peace
War
The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us.
Corruption
Tyranny
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.
Real
People
Purses
Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.
Religious
Atheist
Secular Society
The Dominion Which The Banking Institutions Have Obtained Over The Minds Of Our Citizens...must Be Broken, Or It Will Break Us.
Broken
Historical
Mind
The Right To Use A Thing Comprehends A Right To The Means Necessary To Its Use, And Without Which It Would Be Useless.
Mean
Would Be
Use
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
Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight.
Boisterous
Delight
Pursuit
I Have Ever Deemed It More Honorable And More Profitable, Too, To Set A Good Example Than To Follow A Bad One.
Example
Honorable
Profitable
It May Be Regarded As Certain That Not A Foot Of Land Will Ever Be Taken From The Indians Without Their Own Consent.
Taken
Native American
Land
I Believe We May Lessen The Danger Of Buying And Selling Votes, By Making The Number Of Voters Too Great For Any Means Of Purchase. I May Further Say That I Have Not Observed Men's Honesty To Increase With Their Riches.
Honesty
Believe
Mean
I Am Satisfied, And Sufficiently Occupied With The Things Which Are, Without Tormenting Or Troubling Myself About Those Which May Indeed Be, But Of Which I Have No Evidence.
Religion
May
Evidence
Men Of Energy Of Character Must Have Enemies; Because There Are Two Sides To Every Question, And Taking One With Decision, And Acting On It With Effect, Those Who Take The Other Will Of Course Be Hostile In Proportion As They Feel That Effect.
Character
Men
Two Sides
Let The Farmer Forevermore Be Honored In His Calling; For They Who Labor In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God.
Agriculture
People
Calling
My Great Wish Is To Go On In A Strict But Silent Performance Of My Duty; To Avoid Attracting Notice, And To Keep My Name Out Of The Newspapers.
Names
Wish
Goes On
Nothing Gives One Person So Much Advantage Over Another As To Remain Always Cool And Unruffled Under All Circumstances.
Motivational
Running
Spiritual
All Things Here Appear To Me To Trudge On In One And The Same Round: We Rise In The Morning That We May Eat Breakfast, Dinner Andsupper And To Bed Again That We May Get Up The Next Morning And Do The Same: So That You Never Saw Two Peas More Alike Than Our Yesterday And To-day.
Morning
Two
Yesterday
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
Expression
Ideas
The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.
4th Of July
Sea
Liberty
Fear Can Only Prevail When Victims Are Ignorant Of The Facts.
Ignorant
Facts
Terrorism
Men As Well As Rivers Grow Crooked By Following The Path Of Least Resistance.
Men
Rivers
Path
Convinced That The Republican Is The Only Form Of Government Which Is Not Eternally At Open Or Secret War With The Rights Of Mankind, My Prayers & Efforts Shall Be Cordially Distributed To The Support Of That We Have So Happily Established. It Is Indeed An Animating Thought That, While We Are Securing The Rights Of Ourselves & Our Posterity, We Are Pointing Out The Way To Struggling Nations Who Wish, Like Us, To Emerge From Their Tyrannies Also. Heaven Help Their Struggles, And Lead Them, As It Has Done Us, Triumphantly Thro' Them.
Prayer
War
Struggle
One Precedent In Favor Of Power Is Stronger Than A Hundred Against It.
Power
Stronger
Favors
Though You Cannot See, When You Take One Step, What Will Be The Next, Yet Follow Truth, Justice, And Plain Dealing, And Never Fear Their Leading You Out Of [any Difficult Situation] In The Easiest Manner Possible.
Truth
Lying
Difficult Situations
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.
Christian
Plato
Order
Man Once Surrendering His Reason, Has No Remaining Guard Against Absurdities The Most Monstrous, And Like A Ship Without Rudder, Is The Sport Of Every Wind. With Such Persons, Gullibility, Which They Call Faith, Takes The Helm From The Hand Of Reason, And The Mind Becomes A Wreck.
Sports
Men
Hands
A Schism Has Taken Place Among The Chemists. A Particular Set Of Them In France Have Undertaken To Remodel All The Terms Of The Science, And To Give Every Substance A New Name, The Composition, And Especially The Termination Of Which, Shall Define The Relation In Which It Stands To Other Substances Of The Same Family.
Taken
Science
Names
I Am Mortified To Be Told That, In The United States Of America, The Sale Of A Book Can Become A Subject Of Inquiry, And Of Criminal Inquiry Too.
Book
Thinking
America
No Race Of Kings Has Ever Presented Above One Man Of Common Sense In Twenty Generations.
Kings
Men
Race
The Power Of Making War Often Prevents It.
War
Antiwar
The Giver Of Life Gave It For Happiness And Not For Wretchedness.
Giver
Wretchedness
I Was Dupedby The Secretary Of The Treasury [alexander Hamilton], And Made A Fool For Forwarding His Schemes, Not Then Sufficiently Understood By Me; And Of All The Errors Of My Political Life, This Has Occasioned The Deepest Regret.
Regret
Errors
Political
Your Sect [the Jews] By Its Sufferings Has Furnished A Remarkable Proof Of The Universal Point Of Religious Insolence, Inherent In Every Sect, Disclaimed By All While Feeble And Practised By All When In Power. Our Laws Have Applied The Only Antidote To This Vice, Protecting Our Religions, As They Do Our Civil Rights, By Putting All On Equal Footing. But More Remains To Be Done.
Religious
Rights
Law
The Hole And The Patch Should Be Commensurate.
Inspirational
Design
Holes
In A Free Society With A Government Based On Reason, It Is Inevitable That There Will Be No Uniform Opinion About Important Issues. Those Accustomed To Suppression And Control By Governmental Authority See This As Leading Only To Chaos. But A Government Of The People Requires Difference Of Opinion In Order To Discover Truth And To Take Advantage Of The Opportunity That Only Understanding Brings.
Opportunity
Order
Differences
Never Yet Could I Find That A Black Had Uttered A Thought Above The Level Of Plain Narration; Never Saw Even An Elemental Trait Of Painting Or Sculpture.
Black
Sculpture
Levels
Bigotry Is The Disease Of Ignorance, Of Morbid Minds; Enthusiasm Of The Free And Buoyant. Education And Free Discussion Are The Antidotes Of Both.
Education
Ignorance
Racism
We Must Meet Our Duty And Convince The World That We Are Just Friends And Brave Enemies.
Military
Brave
Just Friends
All, Too, Will Bear In Mind This Sacred Principle, That Though The Will Of The Majority Is In All Cases To Prevail, That Will To Be Rightful Must Be Reasonable; That The Minority Possess Their Equal Rights, Which Equal Law Must Protect, And To Violate Would Be Oppression.
Freedom
Patriotic
Equality
A Democratic Society Depends Upon An Informed And Educated Citizenry.
Library
Librarian
Democratic
One Generation Cannot Bind Another.
Generations
The Selfish Spirit Of Commerce, Which Knows No Country, And Feels No Passion Or Principle But That Of Gain.
Country
Business
Selfish
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.
Lying
Believe
Heart
I Endeavor To Keep Their Attention Fixed On The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom & Happiness Of Man.
Educational
Men
Attention
I Suppose, Indeed, That In Public Life, A Man Whose Political Principles Have Any Decided Character And Who Has Energy Enough To Give Them Effect Must Always Expect To Encounter Political Hostility From Those Of Adverse Principles.
Character
Men
Giving
The Failure Of One Thing Is Repaired By The Success Of Another.
Success
One Thing
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.
Religion
World
Honest
On The Subject Of The History Of The American Revolution, You Ask Who Shall Write It? Who Can Write It? And Who Will Ever Be Able To Write It? Nobody, Except Merely Its External Facts... All Its Councils, Designs And Discussions Having Been Conducted By Congress [behind] Closed Doors - And No Members, As Far As I Know, Having Even Made Notes Of Them. These, Which Are The Life And Soul Of History, Must Forever Be Unknown.
Writing
Doors
Forever
I Shall Often Go Wrong Through Defect Of Judgment. When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground. I Ask Your Indulgence For My Own Errors, Which Will Never Be Intentional, And Your Support Against The Errors Of Others, Who May Condemn What They Would Not If Seen In All Its Parts.
Often Is
Views
Errors
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.
Mean
Agriculture
Enemy
The Relations Which Exist Between Man And His Maker, And The Duties Resulting From Those Relations, Are The Most Interesting And Important To Every Human Being And The Most Incumbent On His Study And Investigation.
Men
Interesting
Voting
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
Inquiry
Fix Reason Firmly In Her Seat, And Call On Her Tribunal For Every Fact, Every Opinion. Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God
Religious
Atheist
Faith Religion
A Generation May Bind Itself As Long As Its Majority Continues In Life; When That Has Disappeared, Another Majority Is In Place, Holds All The Rights And Powers Their Predecessors Once Held, And May Change Their Laws And Institutions To Suit Themselves. Nothing Then Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Inalienable Rights Of Man.
Men
Rights
Law
Old Heads As Well As Young May Sometimes Be Charged With Ignorance And Presumption. The Natural Course Of The Human Mind Is Certainly From Credulity To Skepticism.
Ignorance
Mind
May
"it Astonishes Me To Find... [that So Many] Of Our Countrymen... Should Be Contented To Live Under A System Which Leaves To Their Governors The Power Of Taking From Them The Trial By Jury In Civil Cases, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce, The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Of Yoking Them With A Standing Army. This Is A Degeneracy In The Principles Of Liberty... Which I [would Not Have Expected For At Least] Four Centuries."
Army
Law
Liberty
I See,... And With The Deepest Affliction, The Rapid Strides With Which The Federal Branch Of Our Government Is Advancing Towards The Usurpation Of All The Rights Reserved To The States, And The Consolidation In Itself Of All Powers, Foreign And Domestic; And That, Too, By Constructions Which, If Legitimate, Leave No Limits To Their Power... It Is But Too Evident That The Three Ruling Branches Of [the Federal Government] Are In Combination To Strip Their Colleagues, The State Authorities, Of The Powers Reserved By Them, And To Exercise Themselves All Functions Foreign And Domestic.
Exercise
Rights
Government
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. Our First Object Should Therefore Be, To Leave Open To Him All The Avenues To Truth. The Most Effectual Hitherto Found, Is The Freedom Of The Press. It Is, Therefore, The First Shut Up By Those Who Fear The Investigation Of Their Actions.
Men
Interesting
Freedom Of Speech
Truth Is Great And Will Prevail If Left To Herself.
Truth Is
Church And State
Left
We Discover In The Gospels A Groundwork Of Vulgar Ignorance, Of Things Impossible, Of Superstition, Fanaticism And Fabrication .
Religious
Father
Ignorance
From Breakfast, Or Noon At The Latest, To Dinner, I Am Mostly On Horseback, Attending To My Farm Or Other Concerns, Which I Find Healthful To My Body, Mind, And Affairs.
Agriculture
Mind
Noon
The Cost Of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance
Cost
Vigilance
Eternal
It Is Left... To The Juries, If They Think The Permanent Judges Are Under Any Bias Whatever In Any Cause, To Take On Themselves To Judge The Law As Well As The Fact. They Never Exercise This Power But When They Suspect Partiality In The Judges; And By The Exercise Of This Power They Have Been The Firmest Bulwarks Of English Liberty.
Exercise
Thinking
Law
History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government.
Religious
Believe
Government
An Acre Of The Best Ground For Hemp, Is To Be Selected And Sewn In Hemp And Be Kept For A Permanent Hemp Patch.
Acres
Hemp
Patches
Resort Is Had To Ridicule Only When Reason Is Against Us.
Political
Politics
Reason
A Single Good Government Is A Blessing To The Whole Earth.
Blessing
Government
Liberty
The Mobs Of The Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body. It Is The Manners And Spirit Of A People Which Preserve A Republic In Vigor. A Degeneracy In These Is A Canker Which Soon Eats To The Heart Of Its Laws And Constitution.
Heart
Government
Law
We See The Wisdom Of Solon's Remark, That No More Good Must Be Attempted Than The Nation Can Bear.
Bears
Remarks
Nations
My Passion Strengthens Daily To Quit Political Turmoil, And Retire Into The Bosom Of My Family, The Only Scene Of Sincere And Purehappiness.
Happiness
Passion
Political
The Advocate Of Religious Freedom Is To Expect Neither Peace Nor Forgiveness From [the Clergy].
Religious
Christianity
Clergy
Every Man Cannot Have His Way In All Things. If His Opinion Prevails At Some Times, He Should Acquiesce On Seeing That Of Others Preponderate At Other Times. Without This Mutual Disposition We Are Disjointed Individuals, But Not A Society.
Men
Democracy
Way
Most Codes Extend Their Definitions Of Treason To Acts Not Really Against One's Country. They Do Not Distinguish Between Acts Against The Government, And Acts Against The Oppressions Of The Government. The Latter Are Virtues, Yet Have Furnished More Victims To The Executioner Than The Former. Real Treasons Are Rare; Oppressions Frequent. The Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.
Country
Real
Government
A Government Held Together By The Bands Of Reason Only, Requires Much Compromise Of Opinion.
Government
Together
Band
A Good Neighbor Is A Very Desireable Thing.
Neighbor
Good Neighbor
All We Can Do Is To Make The Best Of Our Friends, Love And Cherish What Is Good In Them, And Keep Out Of The Way What Is Bad.
Love
Way
Cherish
I Am Not Afraid Of The Priests. They Have Tried Upon Me All Their Various Batteries, Of Pious Whining, Hypocritical Canting, Lying And Slandering, Without Being Able To Give Me One Moment Of Pain.
Pain
Lying
Giving
Dependence Begets Subservience And Venality, Suffocates The Germ Of Virtue, And Prepares Fit Tools For The Designs Of Ambition.
Ambition
Government
Design
We Generally Learn Languages For The Benefit Of Reading The Books Written In Them
Book
Reading
Benefits
And Say, Finally, Whether Peace Is Best Preserved By Giving Energy To The Government Or Information To The People. This Last Is The Most Legitimate Engine Of Government. Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of People. Enable Them To See That It Is Their Interest To Preserve Peace And Order, And They Will Preserve Them. And It Requires No Very High Degree Of Education To Convince Them Of This. They Are The Only Sure Reliance For The Preservation Of Our Liberty.
Government
Order
People
Experience Has Already Shown That The Impeachment The Constitution Has Provided Is Not Even A Scarecrow.
Political
President
Politics
Experience Hath Shewn, That Even Under The Best Forms Of Government Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time, And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.
Trust
Time
Democracies Have
Laws That Forbid The Carrying Of Arms . . . Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes . . . Such Laws Make Things Worse For The Assaulted And Better For The Assailants; They Serve Rather To Encourage Than To Prevent Homicides, For An Unarmed Man May Be Attacked With Greater Confidence Than An Armed Man.
Men
Gun
Law
The Order Of Nature [is] That Individual Happiness Shall Be Inseparable From The Practice Of Virtue.
Individual Happiness
Order
Practice
From The Nature Of Things, Every Society Must At All Times Possess Within Itself The Sovereign Powers Of Legislation.
Sovereign
Legislation
All Time
The Christian Religion, When Divested Of The Rags In Which They [the Clergy] Have Enveloped It, And Brought To The Original Purity And Simplicity Of It's Benevolent Institutor, Is A Religion Of All Others Most Friendly To Liberty, Science, And The Freest Expansion Of The Human Mind.
Christian
Simplicity
Mind
The Idea Of Creating A National Bank I Do Not Concur In, Because It Seems Now Decided That Congress Has Not That Power (although I Sincerely Wish They Had It Exclusively), And Because I Think There Is Already A Vast Redundancy Rather Than A Scarcity Of Paper Medium.
Thinking
Ideas
Creating
I Consider The Foundation Of The Constitution As Laid On This Ground That 'all Powers Not Delegated To The United States, By The Constitution, Nor Prohibited By It To The States, Are Reserved To The States Or To The People.' To Take A Single Step Beyond The Boundaries Thus Specially Drawn Around The Powers Of Congress, Is To Take Possession Of A Boundless Field Of Power Not Longer Susceptible Of Any Definition.
Government
People
Fields
It [appears] That However Certain Forms Of Government Are Better Calculated Than Others To Protect Individuals In The Free Exercise Of Their Natural Rights, And Are At The Same Time Themselves Better Guarded Against Degeneracy, Yet Experience [has] Shown That, Even Under The Best Forms, Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.
Exercise
Rights
Government
I Am Not Among Those Who Fear The People. They, And Not The Rich, Are Our Dependence For Continued Freedom.
Government Debt
People
Revolution
Nothing Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Unalienable Rights Of Man.
Men
Rights
Morality
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
Books May Be Classed From The Faculties Of The Mind
Educational
Book
Mind
Newspapers . . . Serve As Chimnies To Carry Off Noxious Vapors And Smoke.
Vapor
Newspapers
Presses
Peace And Abstinence From European Interferences Are Our Objects, And So Will Continue While The Present Order Of Things In America Remain Uninterrupted.
Peace
War
Order
It Is An Axiom In My Mind That Our Liberty Can Never Be Safe But In The Hands Of The People Themselves, And That Too Of The People With A Certain Degree Of Instruction. This It Is The Business Of The State To Effect, And On A General Plan.
Wisdom
Hands
People
Long Accustomed To The Use Of European Manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] Are As Incapable Of Returning To Their Habits Of Skinsand Furs As We Are, And Find Their Wants The Less Tolerable As They Are Occasioned By A War [the American Revolution] The Event Of Which Is Scarcely Interesting To Them.
War
Long
Interesting
The Opinions Of Men Are Not The Object Of Civil Government, Nor Under Its Jurisdiction.
Truth
Men
Political
It Is My Disposition To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself.
War
Political
Made
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