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I Place Economy Among The First And Most Important Virtues And Public Debt As The Greatest Dangers To Be Feared. To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. If We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And In Our Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

-Thomas Jefferson

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I Place Economy Among

Thomas Jefferson

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I Place Economy Among The First And Most Important Virtues And Public Debt As The Greatest Dangers To Be Feared. To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. If We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And In Our Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

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Taxes Should Be Proportioned To What May Be Annually Spared By The Individual.

Every Constitution..., And Every Law, Naturally Expires At The End Of 19 Years [a Generation]. If It Be Enforced Longer, It Is Anact Of Force, And Not Of Right.

The Power Of Making War Often Prevents It, And In Our Case Would Give Efficacy To Our Desire Of Peace.

The Ground Of Liberty Is To Be Gained By Inches, And We Must Be Contented To Secure What We Can Get From Time To Time And Eternally Press Forward For What Is Yet To Get. It Takes Time To Persuade Men To Do Even What Is For Their Own Good.

I Have Never Conceived That Having Been In Public Life Required Me To Belie My Sentiments, Or To Conceal Them. Opinion And The Just Maintenance Of It Shall Never Be A Crime In My View, Nor Bring Injury On The Individual. I Never Will By Any Word Or Act, Bow To The Shrine Of Intolerance. I Never Had An Opinion In Politics Or Religion Which I Was Afraid To Own; A Reserve On These Subjects Might Have Procured Me More Esteem From Some People, But Less From Myself.

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

No Government Can Be Maintained Without The Principle Of Fear As Well As Duty. Good Men Will Obey The Last, But Bad Ones The Former Only. If Our Government Ever Fails, It Will Be From This Weakness.

If The Wise Be The Happy Man... He Must Be Virtuous Too; For, Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be. This Then Is The True Scope Of All Academical Emulation.

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.

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

Against Us Are All Timid Men Who Prefer The Calm Of Despotism To The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty We Are Likely To Preserve The Liberty We Have Obtained Only By Unremitting Labors And Perils.

Independence Can Be Trusted Nowhere But With The People In Mass. They Are Inherently Independent Of All But Moral Law.

The Spirit Of This Country Is Totally Adverse To A Large Military Force.

I Have Not Observed Mens Honesty To Increase With Their Riches.

Political Interest [can] Never Be Separated In The Long Run From Moral Right.

One Single Object . . . [will Merit] The Endless Gratitude Of The Society: That Of Restraining The Judges From Usurping Legislation.

Never Spend Your Money Before You Have Earned It.

Experience Has Already Shown That The Impeachment The Constitution Has Provided Is Not Even A Scarecrow.

A Lottery Is A Salutary Instrument And A Tax... Laid On The Willing Only, That Is To Say, On Those Who Can Risk The Price Of A Ticket Without Sensible Injury, For The Possibility Of A Higher Prize.

It Is While We Are Young That The Habit Of Industry Is Formed. If Not Then, It Never Is Afterwards. The Fortune Of Our Lives Therefore Depends On Employing Well The Short Period Of Our Youth.

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.

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.

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

Of Distinction By Birth Or Badge, [americans] Had No More Idea Than They Had Of The Mode Of Existence In The Moon Or Planets. They Had Heard Only That There Were Such, And Knew That They Must Be Wrong.

Inalienable Rights

The Constitution Has Divided The Powers Of Government Into Three Branches, Legislative, Executive And Judiciary, Lodging Each With A Distinct Magistracy. The Legislative It Has Given Completely To The Senate And House Of Representatives. It Has Declared That The Executive Powers Shall Be Vested In The President, Submitting Special Articles Of It To A Negative By The Senate, And It Has Vested The Judiciary Power In The Courts Of Justice, With Certain Exceptions Also In Favor Of The Senate.

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

A True Patriot Will Defend His Country From Its Government.

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 Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.

No Nation Is Permitted To Live In Ignorance With Impunity

Nigeria Independence

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.

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.

We Will Be Soldiers, So Our Sons May Be Farmers, So Their Sons May Be Artists

The Issue Today Is The Same As It Has Been Throughout All History, Whether Man Shall Be Allowed To Govern Himself Or Be Ruled By A Small Elite.

When I Contemplate The Immense Advances In Science And Discoveries In The Arts Which Have Been Made Within The Period Of My Life, I Look Forward With Confidence To Equal Advances By The Present Generation, And Have No Doubt They Will Consequently Be As Much Wiser Than We Have Been As We Than Our Fathers Were, And They Than The Burners Of Witches.

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

Moments In Time

Free Government Is Founded In Jealousy, And Not In Confidence; It Is Jealousy, And Not Confidence, Which Prescribes Limited Constitutions, To Bind Down Those Whom We Are Obliged To Trust With Power.

I Do Not Believe War The Most Certain Means Of Enforcing Principles. Those Peaceable Coercions Which Are In The Power Of Every Nation, If Undertaken In Concert And In Time Of Peace, Are More Likely To Produce The Desired Effect.

It Is A Wise Rule And Should Be Fundamental In A Government Disposed To Cherish Its Credit, And At The Same Time To Restrain The Use Of It Within The Limits Of Its Faculties, "never To Borrow A Dollar Without Laying A Tax In The Same Instant For Paying The Interest Annually, And The Principal Within A Given Term; And To Consider That Tax As Pledged To The Creditors On The Public Faith."

We Need A Revolution Every 20 Years Just To Keep Government Honest.

Every Man Is Under The Natural Duty Of Contributing To The Necessities Of The Society; And This Is All The Laws Should Enforce On Him.

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.

The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple And Tend All To The Happiness Of Man, That There Is Only One God And God Is Perfect. That God And Man Are One. That To Love God With All Your Heart, And Your Neighbor As Yourself, Is The Sum Of Religion. These Are The Great Points On Which I Endeavor To Reform And Live My Life.

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

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

Those Who Wish To Be Ignorant And Free, Believe In Something That Never Was And Never Shall Be.

The Rights [to Religious Freedom] Are Of The Natural Rights Of Mankind, And ... If Any Act Shall Be ... Passed To Repeal [an Act Granting Those Rights] Or To Narrow Its Operation, Such Act Will Be An Infringement Of Natural Right.

No Freeman Shall Be Debarred The Use Of Arms.

Second Amendment

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

The Children Of Israel In The Wilderness, Led By A Cloud By Day, And A Pillar Of Fire By Night.

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

Action Will Delineate And Define You.

Knowing Who You Are

Inspirational Team

Every Experience Deeply Felt In Life Needs To Be Passed Along. Wheather It Be Through Words And Music, Chiseled In Stone, Painted With A Brush, Or Sewn With A Needle, It Is A Way Of Reaching For Immortality.

The Functionaries Of Every Government Have Propensities To Command At Will The Liberty And Property Of Their Constituents.

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.

Our Constitution... Has Not Left The Religion Of Its Citizens Under The Power Of Its Public Functionaries, Were It Possible That Any Of These Should Consider A Conquest Over The Conscience Of Men Either Attainable Or Applicable To Any Desirable Purpose.

The Impious Presumption Of Legislators And Rulers, Civil As Well As Ecclesiastical, Who, Being Themselves But Fallible And Uninspired Men, Have Assumed Dominion Over The Faith Of Others, Setting Up Their Own Opinions And Modes Of Thinking As The Only True And Infallible, And As Such Endeavoring To Impose Them On Others, Hath Established And Maintained False Religions Over The Greatest Part Of The World And Through All Time.

The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others. But It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods, Or No God. It Neither Picks My Pocket Nor Breaks My Leg.

Sensibility Of Mind Is Indeed The Parent Of Every Virtue, But It Is The Parent Of Much Misery, Too.

Be Polite To All, But Intimate With Few.

The Introduction Of So Powerful An Agent As Steam [to A Carriage On Wheels] Will Make A Great Change In The Situation Of Man.

Louisiana, As Ceded By France To The United States, Is Made A Part Of The United States; Its White Inhabitants Shall Be Citizens, And Stand, As To Their Rights And Obligations, On The Same Footing With Other Citizens Of The United States, In Analogous Situations.

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.

A Government Is Republican In Proportion As Every Member Composing It Has His Equal Voice In The Direction Of Its Concerns, Not Indeed In Person, Which Would Be Impracticable Beyond The Limits Of A City Or Small Township, But By Representatives Chosen By Himself And Responsible To Him At Short Periods.

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

It Is More Honorable To Repair A Wrong Than To Persist In It.

I Was Bold In The Pursuit Of Knowledge, Never Fearing To Follow Truth And Reason To Whatever Results They Led, And Bearding Every Authority Which Stood In Their Way.

What Is It Men Cannot Be Made To Believe!

Sir,-your Letter Of February The 18th Came To Hand On The 1st Instant; And The Request Of The History Of My Physical Habits Would Have Puzzled Me Not A Little, Had It Not Been For The Model With Which You Accompanied It, Of Doctor Rush's Answer To A Similar Inquiry. I Live So Much Like Other People, That I Might Refer To Ordinary Life As A History Of My Own. Like My Friend The Doctor, I Have Lived Temperately, Eating Very Little Animal Food, And That Not As An Aliment, So Much As A Condiment For The Vegetables, Which Constitute My Principle Diet.

The Colleges Of Edinburgh And Geneva As Seminaries Of Science, Are Considered As The Two Eyes Of Europe. While Great Britain And America Give The Preference To The Former, All Other Countries Give It To The Latter.

If The Obstacles Of Bigotry And Priestcraft Can Be Surmounted, We May Hope That Common Sense Will Suffice To Do Everything Else.

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

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

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

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.

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. 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...if The Game Runs Sometime Against Us At Home, We Must Have Patience Till Luck Turns, And Then We Shall Have An Opportunity Of Winning Back The Principles We Have Lost, For This Is A Game Where Principles Are At Stake.

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.

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.

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

A Lively And Lasting Sense Of Filial Duty Is More Effectually Impressed On The Mind Of A Son Or Daughter By Reading King Lear, Than By All The Dry Volumes Of Ethics, And Divinity That Ever Were Written.

The Benefit Of Even Limited Monopolies Is Too Doubtful, To Be Opposed To That Of Their General Suppression.

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.

The Public School System: "usually A Twelve Year Sentence Of Mind Control. Crushing Creativity, Smashing Individualism, Encouraging Collectivism And Compromise, Destroying The Exercise Of Intellectual Inquiry, Twisting It Instead Into Meek Subservience To Authority." - Walter Karp, Editor Harper's Magazine The Ground Of Liberty Is To Be Gained By Inches, And We Must Be Contented To Secure What We Can Get From Time To Time And Eternally Press Forward For What Is Yet To Get. It Takes Time To Persuade Men To Do Even What Is For Their Own Good.

It Is Well Known, That On The Ohio, And In Many Parts Of America Further North, Tusks, Grinders, And Skeletons Of Unparalleled Magnitude Are Found In Great Numbers, Some Lying On The Surface Of The Earth, And Some A Little Below It ... But To Whatever Animal We Ascribe These Remains, It Is Certain That Such A One Has Existed In America, And That It Has Been The Largest Of All Terrestrial Beings.

I Am For Freedom Of Religion, And Against All Maneuvers To Bring About A Legal Ascendency Of One Sect Over Another.

I Believe That Banking Institutions Are More Dangerous To Our Liberties Than Standing Armies.

He Who Knows Nothing Is Closer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehoods And Errors.

I Served With General Washington In Die Legislature Of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin In Congress. I Never Heard Neither Of Them Speak Ten Minutes At A Time, Nor To Any But The Main Point.

Confidence Is Everywhere The Parent Of Despotism. Free Government Is Founded In Jealousy, And Not In Confidence.

We Are Destined To Be A Barrier Against The Return Of Ignorance And Barbarism. Old Europe Will Have To Lean On Our Shoulders, And To Hobble Along By Our Side, Under The Monkish Trammels Of Priests And Kings, As She Can. What A Colossus Shall We Be When The Southern Continent Comes Up To Our Mark! What A Stand Will It Seem As A Ralliance For The Reason And Freedom Of The Globe!

For The Present We May Groupe The Sciences Into Professorships As Follows, Subject However To Be Changed According To The Qualifications Of The Persons We May Be Able To Engage.

In The Middle Ages Of Christianity Opposition To The State Opinions Was Hushed. The Consequence Was, Christianity Became Loaded With All The Romish Follies. Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery & Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.

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

A Share In The Sovereignty Of The State, Which Is Exercised By The Citizens At Large, In Voting At Elections Is One Of The Most Important Rights Of The Subject, And In A Republic Ought To Stand Foremost In The Estimation Of The Law.

I Have Recently Been Examining All The Known Superstitions Of The World And Do Not Find In Our Particular Superstition [christianity] One Redeeming Feature.

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.

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.

We Must Endeavor To Forget Our Former Love For Them [the British] And To Hold Them, As We Hold The Rest Of Mankind, Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

I Have Seen Enough Of One War Never To Wish To See Another.

The Office Of Reformer Of The Superstitions Of A Nation, Is Ever More Dangerous. Jesus Had To Work On The Perilous Confines Of Reason And Religion; And A Step To The Right Or Left Might Place Him Within The Grasp Of The Priests Of The Superstition, A Bloodthirsty Race, As Cruel And Remorseless As The Being Whom They Represented As The Family God Of Abraham, Of Isaac And Of Jacob, And The Local God Of Israel. That Jesus Did Not Mean To Impose Himself On Mankind As The Son Of God, Physically Speaking, I Have Been Convinced By The Writings Of Men More Learned Than Myself In That Lore.

Government As Well As Religion Has Furnished Its Schisms, Its Persecutions And Its Devices For Fattening Idleness On The Earnings Of The People.

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.

Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

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

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

When, In The Course Of Human Events, It Becomes Necessary For One People To Dissolve The Political Bands Which Have Connected Them With Another, And To Assume Among The Powers Of The Earth The Separate And Equal Station To Which The Laws Of Nature And Of Nature's God Entitle Them, A Decent Respect To The Opinions Of Mankind Requires That They Should Declare The Causes Which Impel Them To The Separation.

The Genuine And Simple Religion Of Jesus Will One Day Be Restored: Such As It Was Preached And Practiced By Himself.

The Greatest Good We Can Do Our Country Is To Heal Its Party Divisions And Make Them One People.

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

To Unequal Privileges Among Members Of The Same Society The Spirit Of Our Nation Is, With One Accord, Adverse.

Inalienable Rights

Religious Institutions That Use Government Power In Support Of Themselves And Force Their Views On Persons Of Other Faiths, Or Of No Faith, Undermine All Our Civil Rights. Moreover, State Support Of An Established Religion Tends To Make The Clergy Unresponsive To Their Own People, And Leads To Corruption Within Religion Itself. Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State,' Therefore, Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

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

Gouverneur Morris Had Often Told Me That General Washington Believed No More Of That System (christianity) Than Did He Himself.

The Movements Of Nature Are In A Never Ending Circle. The Animal Species Which Has Once Been Put Into A Train Of Motion, Is Still Probably Moving In That Train. For If One Link In Nature's Chain Might Be Lost, Another And Another Might Be Lost, Till This Whole System Of Things Should Evanish By Piece-meal; A Conclusion Not Warranted By The Local Disappearance Of One Or Two Species Of Animals, And Opposed By The Thousands And Thousands Of Instances Of The Renovating Power Constantly Exercised By Nature For The Reproduction Of All Her Subjects, Animal, Vegetable, And Mineral.

Wine From Long Habit Has Become An Indispensable For My Health

Without Books, I Would Certainly Die.

Of All Exercises, Walking Is The Best.

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.

If We Are Made In Some Degree For Others, Yet In A Greater Are We Made For Ourselves.

When A Uniform Exercise Of Kindness To Prisoners On Our Part Has Been Returned By As Uniform Severity On The Part Of Our Enemies,you Must Excuse Me For Saying It Is High Time, By Other Lessons, To Teach Respect To The Dictates Of Humanity; In Such A Case, Retaliation Becomes An Act Of Benevolence.

The Provisions We Have Made [for Our Government] Are Such As Please Ourselves; They Answer The Substantial Purposes Of Government And Of Justice, And Other Purposes Than These Should Not Be Answered.

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.

The Proscribing Any Citizen As Unworthy The Public Confidence By Laying Upon Him An Incapacity Of Being Called To Offices Of Trust And Emolument Unless He Profess Or Renounce This Or That Religious Opinion Is Depriving Him Injuriously Of Those Privileges And Advantages To Which, In Common With His Fellow Citizens, He Has A Natural Right.

We Act Not For Ourselves But For The Whole Human Race. The Event Of Our Experiment Is To Show Whether Man Can Be Trusted With Self - Government.

Never Trust A Man Who Won't Accept That There Is More Than One Way To Spell A Word Paraphrased

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.

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

The Darker The Berry, The Sweeter The Juice.

The Earth Belongs To The Living. No Man Can, By Natural Right, Oblige The Lands He Occupied Or The Persons Who Succeed Him In That Occupation, To The Payment Of Debts Contracted By Him. For If He Could, He Might, During His Own Life, Eat Up The Use Of The Lands For Several Generations To Come, And Then The Lands Would Belong To The Dead, And Not To The Living. No Generation Can Contract Debts Greater Than May Be Paid During The Course Of Its Own Existence.

Legislators Cannot Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property... Another Means Of Silently Lessening The Inequality Of Property Is To Exempt All From Taxation Below A Certain Point, And To Tax The Higher Portions Of Property In Geometrical Progression As They Rise. Whenever There Is In Any Country, Uncultivated Lands And Unemployed Poor, It Is Clear That The Laws Of Property Have Been So Far Extended As To Violate Natural Right.

If The Game Runs Sometimes Against Us At Home We Must Have Patience Till Luck Turns, And Then We Shall Have An Opportunity Of Winning Back The Principles We Have Lost, For This Is A Game Where Principles Are At Stake.

A Single Good Government Is A Blessing To The Whole Earth.

Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State'... Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

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.

It Is A Misnomer To Call A Government Republican In Which A Branch Of The Supreme Power Is Independent Of The Nation.

And Where Else Will [hume,] This Degenerate Son Of Science, This Traitor To His Fellow Men, Find The Origin Of Just Powers, If Not In The Majority Of The Society? Will It Be In The Minority? Or In An Individual Of That Minority?

I Recoil With Horror At The Ferociousness Of Man. Will Nations Never Devise A More Rational Umpire Of Differences Than Force? Are There No Means Of Coercing Injustice More Gratifying To Our Nature Than A Waste Of The Blood Of Thousands And Of The Labor Of Millions Of Our Fellow Creatures?

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.

It Is A Moot Question Whether The Origin Of Any Kind Of Property Is Derived From Nature At All. It Is Agreed By Those Who Have Seriously Considered The Subject That No Individual Has, Of Natural Right, A Separate Property In An Acre Of Land, For Instance. By A Universal Law, Indeed, Whatever, Whether Fixed Or Movable, Belongs To All Men Equally And In Common Is The Property For The Moment Of Him Who Occupies It; But When He Relinquishes The Occupation, The Property Goes With It. Stable Ownership Is The Gift Of Social Law, And Is Given Late In The Progress Of Society.

Progress Of Society

The Moment A Person Forms A Theory, His Imagination Sees In Every Object Only The Traits Which Favor That Theory.

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

Democracies Have

The Creator Has Not Thought Proper To Mark Those In The Forehead Who Are Of Stuff To Make Good Generals. We Are First, Therefore, To Seek Them Blindfold, And Then Let Them Learn The Trade At The Expense Of Great Losses.

I Am Not Among Those Who Fear The People. They, And Not The Rich, Are Our Dependence For Continued Freedom.

Government Debt

Determine Never To Be Idle. No Person Will Have Occasion To Complain Of The Want Of Time Who Never Loses Any. It Is Wonderful How Much May Be Done If We Are Always Doing.

It Takes Time To Persuade Men To Do Even What Is For Their Own Good.

Mind Your Own Business

No Stile Of Writing Is So Delightful As That Which Is All Pith, Which Never Omits A Necessary Word, Nor Uses An Unnecessary One.

A Prince Whose Character Is Thus Marked By Every Act Which May Define A Tyrant, Is Unfit To Be The Ruler Of A People Who Mean To Be Free.

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

A System Of General Instruction, Which Shall Reach Every Description Of Our Citizens, From The Richest To The Poorest, As It Was The Earliest, So Will It Be The Latest, Of All The Public Concerns In Which I Shall Permit Myself To Take An Interest.

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

Courts Love The People Always, As Wolves Do The Sheep.

The Man Who Never Looks Into A Newspaper Is Better Informed Than He Who Reads Them, In-as-much As He Who Knows Nothing Is Nearer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehood And Errors.

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.

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

[t]he Opinion Which Gives To The Judges The Right To Decide What Laws Are Constitutional And What Not, Not Only For Themselves, In Their, Own Sphere Of Action, But For The Legislature And Executive Also In Their Spheres, Would Make The Judiciary A Despotic Branch.

I Could Say Much About Politics, Our Only Entertainment Here, But You Would Not Care A Fig About That.

I Set Out On This Ground, Which I Suppose To Be Self Evident, "that The Earth Belongs In Usufruct To The Living": That The Dead Have Neither Powers Nor Rights Over It.

It Is Between Fifty And Sixty Years Since I Read It (i.e. The Book Of Revelations), And I Then Considered It Merely The Ravings Of A Maniac, No More Worthy Nor Capable Of Explanation Than The Incoherence Of Our Own Nightly Dreams.

In Matters Of Style, Swim With The Current; In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.

For Heaven's Sake Discard The Monstrous Wig Which Makes The English Judges Look Like Rats Peeping Through Bunches Of Oakum.

The Republican Is The Only Form Of Government Which Is Not Eternally At Open Or Secret War With The Rights Of Mankind.

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

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

The Physician Is Happy In The Attachment Of The Families In Which He Practices. All Think He Has Saved One Of Them, And He Finds Himself Everywhere A Welcome Guest, A Home In Every House.

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.

The Evils Of War Are Great In Their Endurance, And Have A Long Reckoning For Ages To Come.

It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods Or No God.

If The Present Congress Errs In Too Much Talking, How Can It Be Otherwise In A Body To Which The People Send One Hundred And Fifty Lawyers, Whose Trade It Is To Question Everything, Yield Nothing, And Talk By The Hour?

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

Trial By Jury Is Part Of That Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.

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.

Ambition Is A Tricky Little Animal To Tame. It Is Very Skillful At Concealing Itself From Its Master.

I Have Often Thought That Nothing Would Do More Extensive Good At Small Expense Than The Establishment Of A Small Circulating Library In Every County, To Consist Of A Few Well-chosen Books, To Be Lent To The People Of The Country Under Regulations As Would Secure Their Safe Return In Due Time.

The Example Of Changing A Constitution By Assembling The Wise Men Of The State, Instead Of Assembling Armies, Will Be Worth As Much To The World As The Former Examples We Had Give Them. The Constitution, Too, Which Was The Result Of Our Deliberation, Is Unquestionably The Wisest Ever Yet Presented To Men.

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

It Will Take A Thousand Years For The Frontier To Reach The Pacific

Evil Triumphs When Good Men Do Nothing.

Let Those Flatter, Who Fear: It Is Not An American Art. To Give Praise Where It Is Not Due, Might Be Well From The Venal, But Would Ill Beseem Those Who Are Asserting The Rights Of Human Nature.

None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army

Having Labored Faithfully In Establishing The Right Of Self-government, We See In The Rising Generation, Into Whose Hands It Is Passing, That Purity Of Principle And Energy Of Character Which Will Protect And Preserve It Through Their Day, And Deliver It Over To Their Sons As They Receive It From Their Fathers.

The Basis Of Our Governments Being The Opinion Of The People, The Very First Object Should Be To Keep That Right; And Were It Left To Me To Decide Whether We Should Have A Government Without Newspapers Or Newspapers Without A Government, I Should Not Hesitate A Moment To Prefer The Latter. But I Should Mean That Every Man Should Receive Those Papers And Be Capable Of Reading Them.

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.

Nothing Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Unalienable Rights Of Man.

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.

Nothing Was Or Is Farther From My Intentions, Than To Enlist Myself As The Champion Of A Fixed Opinion, Where I Have Only Expressed Doubt.

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.

The Central Bank Is An Institution Of The Most Deadly Hostility Existing Against The Principles And Form Of Our Constitution.

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.

Peace Is Our Passion.

Private Fortunes, In The Present State Of Our Circulation, Are At The Mercy Of Those Self-created Money Lenders, And Are Prostrated By The Floods Of Nominal Money With Which Their Avarice Deluges Us.

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.

My Views And Feelings (are) In Favor Of The Abolition Of War-and I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Disposition To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

I Never Before Knew The Full Value Of Trees....what Would I Not Give That The Trees Planted Nearest Round The House At Monticello Were Full Grown.

We Have The Wolf By The Ears, And We Can Neither Hold Him, Nor Safely Let Him Go. Justice Is In One Scale, And Self-preservation In The Other.

[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!

The Law Of Self-preservation Is Higher Than Written Law.

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.

The Power Of Declaring War Being With The Legislature, The Executive Should Do Nothing Necessarily Committing Them To Decide For War In Preference Of Non-intercourse, Which Will Be Preferred By A Great Many.

Lethargy Is The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty.

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.

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Jonathan Lethem

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