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I... [proposed] Three Distinct Grades Of Education, Reaching All Classes. 1. Elementary Schools For All Children Generally, Rich And Poor. 2. Colleges For A Middle Degree Of Instruction, Calculated For The Common Purposes Of Life And Such As Should Be Desirable For All Who Were In Easy Circumstances. And 3d. An Ultimate Grade For Teaching The Sciences Generally And In Their Highest Degree... The Expenses Of [the Elementary] Schools Should Be Borne By The Inhabitants Of The County, Every One In Proportion To His General Tax-rate. This Would Throw On Wealth The Education Of The Poor.

-Thomas Jefferson

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I... [proposed] Three Distinct

Thomas Jefferson

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I... [proposed] Three Distinct Grades Of Education, Reaching All Classes. 1. Elementary Schools For All Children Generally, Rich And Poor. 2. Colleges For A Middle Degree Of Instruction, Calculated For The Common Purposes Of Life And Such As Should Be Desirable For All Who Were In Easy Circumstances. And 3d. An Ultimate Grade For Teaching The Sciences Generally And In Their Highest Degree... The Expenses Of [the Elementary] Schools Should Be Borne By The Inhabitants Of The County, Every One In Proportion To His General Tax-rate. This Would Throw On Wealth The Education Of The Poor.

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

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.

Our Ancestors ... Were Laborers, Not Lawyers.

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.

There Is A Natural Aristocracy Among Men. The Grounds Of This Are Virtue And Talents.

Taxes Should Be Continued By Annual Or Biennial Reeactments, Because A Constant Hold, By The Nation, Of The Strings Of The Public Purse Is A Salutary Restraint From Which An Honest Government Ought Not Wish, Nor A Corrupt One To Be Permitted, To Be Free.

I Deny The Power Of The General Government To Making Paper Money, Or Anything Else A Legal Tender.

The Smell Rewards The Care.

The Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only And Not Opinions.

He Who Lights His [candle] At Mine Receives Light Without Darkening Me.

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

Money, Not Morality, Is The Principle Commerce Of Civilized Nations.

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.

We Are The Friends Of Liberty Everywhere, But The Guarrantors Of Only Our Own.

I May Grow Rich By An Art I Am Compelled To Follow; I May Recover Health By Medicines I Am Compelled To Take Against My Own Judgment; But I Cannot Be Saved By A Worship I Disbelieve And Abhor.

The System Of Banking Have[for]ever Reprobated. I Contemplate It As A Blot Left In All Our Constitutions, Which, If Not Covered, Will End In Their Destruction, Which Is Already Hit By The Gamblers In Corruption, And Is Sweeping Away In Its Progress The Fortunes And Morals Of Our Citizens.

I Never Submitted The Whole System Of My Opinions To The Creed Of Any Party Of Men Whatever, In Religion, In Philosophy, In Politics, Or In Anything Else, Where I Was Capable Of Thinking For Myself. Such An Addiction Is The Last Degradation Of A Free And Moral Agent. If I Could Not Go To Heaven But With A Party, I Would Not Go There At All.

I Know Nothing More Important To Inculcate Into The Minds Of Young People Than The Wisdom, The Honor, And The Blessed Comfort Of Living Within Their Income.

The Parent Storms, The Child Looks On, Catches The Lineaments Of Wrath, Puts On The Same Airs In The Circle Of Smaller Slaves, Gives A Loose To The Worst Of Passions, And Thus Nursed, Educated And Daily Exercised In Tyranny, Cannot But Be Stamped By It With Odious Peculiarities.

The Present Generation Has The Same Right Of Self-government Which The Past One Has Exercised For Itself.

Had The Doctrines Of Jesus Been Preached Always As Pure As They Came From His Lips, The Whole Civilized World Would Now Have Been Christians.

The Olive Tree Is Surely The Richest Gift Of Heaven. I Can Scarcely Expect Bread.

Every Honest Man Will Suppose Honest Acts To Flow From Honest Principles, And The Rogues May Rail Without Intermission.

If Ever This Vast Country Is Brought Under A Single Government, It Will Be One Of The Most Extensive Corruption.

I Trust There Is Not A Young Man Now Living In The United States Who Will Not Die A Unitarian.

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

A True Patriot Will Defend His Country From Its Government.

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People.

It Has Been A Source Of Great Pain To Me To Have Met With So Many Among [my] Opponents Who Had Not The Liberality To Distinguish Between Political And Social Opposition; Who Transferred At Once To The Person, The Hatred They Bore To His Political Opinions.

Political Opinions

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.

You Have Heard Of The New Chemical Nomenclature Endeavored To Be Introduced By Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other Chemists Of This Country, Of Equal Note, Reject It, And Prove In My Opinion That It Is Premature, Insufficient And False. These Latter Are Joined By The British Chemists; And Upon The Whole, I Think The New Nomenclature Will Be Rejected, After Doing More Harm Than Good. There Are Some Good Publications In It, Which Must Be Translated Into The Ordinary Chemical Language Before They Will Be Useful.

But Every Difference Of Opinion Is Not A Difference Of Principle.

I Shall Need, Too, The Favor Of That Being In Whose Hands We Are, Who Led Our Forefathers, As Israel Of Old.

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.

To Take A Single Step Beyond The Text Would Be To Take Possession Of A Boundless Field Of Power.

If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free, In A State Of Civilization, It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be.

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

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

I Advance It Therefore As A Suspicion Only, That The Blacks, Whether Originally A Distinct Race, Or Made Distinct By Time And Circumstances, Are Inferior To The Whites In The Endowments Of Both Body And Mind.

Delay Is Preferable To Error.

It May Be Regarded As Certain That Not A Foot Of Land Will Ever Be Taken From The Indians Without Their Own Consent.

Native American

Wisdom I Know Is Social. She Seeks Her Fellows. But Beauty Is Jealous, And Illy Bears The Presence Of A Rival.

Big Banks Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies, And The Practice Of Borrowing And Spending Money To Be Paid Back By The Next Generation Is Stealing From Their Future.

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.

I Can Never Fear That Things Will Go Far Wrong Where Common Sense Has Fair Play.

Defend Our Liberties And Fashion Into One United People The Multitudes Brought Hither Out Of Many Kindred And Tongues.

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.

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

Our [virginia's] Act For Freedom Of Religion Is Extremely Applauded. The Ambassadors And Ministers Of The Several Nations Of Europe Resident At This Court Have Asked Me Copies Of It To Send To Their Sovereigns, And It Is Inserted At Full Length In Several Books Now In The Press; Among Others, In The New Encyclopédie. I Think It Will Produce Considerable Good Even In Those Countries Where Ignorance, Superstition, Poverty And Oppression Of Body And Mind In Every Form, Are So Firmly Settled On The Mass Of The People, That Their Redemption From Them Can Never Be Hoped.

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.

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.

Civil Government Being The Sole Object Of Forming Societies, Its Administration Must Be Conducted By Common Consent.

The Ocean ... Like The Air, Is The Common Birth-right Of Mankind.

Dependence Leads To Subservience.

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

The Precepts Of Philosophy And Of The Hebrew Code, Laid Hold Of Actions Only. (jesus) Pushed His Scrutinies Into The Heart Of Man, Erected His Tribunal In The Regions Of His Thoughts, And Purified The Waters At The Fountain Head.

The Superiority Of Chocolate (hot Chocolate), Both For Health And Nourishment, Will Soon Give It The Same Preference Over Tea And Coffee In America Which It Has In Spain.

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.

With Your Talents And Industry, With Science, And That Steadfast Honesty Which Eternally Pursues Right, Regardless Of Consequences, You May Promise Yourself Every Thing-but Health, Without Which There Is No Happiness. An Attention To Health Then Should Take Place Of Evey Other Object. The Time Necessary To Secure This By Active Exercises, Should Be Devoted To It In Preference To Every Other Pursuit.

We Did Not Raise Armies For Glory Or For Conquest.

One Never Really Knows How Much One Has Been Touched By A Place Until One Has Left It.

Merchants Have No Country. The Mere Spot They Stand On Does Not Constitute So Strong An Attachment As That From Which They Draw Their Gains.

I Like A Little Rebellion Now And Then. It Is Like A Storm In The Atmosphere.

I See No Comfort In Outliving One's Friends, And Remaining A Mere Monument Of The Times Which Are Past.

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.

The Earth Belongs To The Living, Not To The Dead.

Let Us In Education Dream Of An Aristocracy Of Achievement Arising Out Of A Democracy Of Opportunity

We Could In The United States Make As Great A Variety Of Wines As Are Made In Europe, Not Exactly Of The Same Kinds, But Doubtless As Good.

The True Foundation Of Republican Government Is The Equal Right Of Every Citizen In His Person And Property And In Their Management.

Take More Pleasure In Giving What Is Best To Another Than In Having It For Yourself, And Then All The World Will Love You.

Ignorance Is Preferable To Error, And He Is Less Remote From The Truth Who Believes Nothing Than He Who Believes What Is Wrong.

On Every Question Of Construction (of The Constitution) Let Us Carry Ourselves Back To The Time When The Constitution Was Adopted, Recollect The Spirit Of The Debates, And Instead Of Trying What Meaning May Be Squeezed Out Of The Text, Or Invented Against It, Conform To The Probable One In Which It Was Passed.

I Sincerely Pray That All The Members Of The Human Family May, In The Time Prescribed By The Father Of Us All, Find Themselves Securely Established In The Enjoyment Of Life, Liberty, And Happiness.

The Only Foundation For Useful Education In A Republic Is To Be Laid In Religion.

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.

No Government Should Be Without Critics. If Its Intentions Are Good Then It Has Nothing To Fear From Criticism.

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.

I Have Learned To Be Less Confident In The Conclusions Of Human Reason, And Give More Credit To The Honesty Of Contrary Opinions.

If We Are To Guard Against Ignorance And Remain Free, It Is The Responsibility Of Every American To Be Informed.

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

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

If Ever There Was A Holy War, It Was That Which Saved Our Liberties And Gave Us Independence.

Say Nothing Of My Religion. It Is Known To God And Myself Alone.

No Knowledge Can Be More Satisfactory To A Man Than That Of His Own Frame, Its Parts, Their Functions And Actions.

Every Man's Reason Is His Own Rightful Umpire. This Principle, With That Of Acquiescence In The Will Of The Majority, Will Preserve Us Free And Prosperous As Long As They Are Sacredly Observed.

The Constitution Has Erected No Such Single Tribunal, Knowing That To Whatever Hands Confided, With The Corruption's Of Time And Party, Its Members Would Become Despots.

A Private Central Bank Issuing The Public Currency Is A Greater Menace To The Liberties Of The People Than A Standing Army. We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

In Reviewing The History Of The Times Through Which We Have Passed, No Portion Of It Gives Greater Satisfaction Or Reflection, Than That Which Represents The Efforts Of The Friends Of Religious Freedom And The Success With Which They Are Crowned.

The Natural Cause Of The Human Mind Is Certainly From Credulity To Skepticism.

The Last Hope Of Human Liberty In This World Rests On Us. We Ought, For So Dear A Stake, To Sacrifice Every Attachment & Every Enmity.

The Possession Of Facts Is Knowledge; The Use Of Them Is Wisdom.

Whenever You Do A Thing, Act As If All The World Were Watching.

The Right To Use A Thing Comprehends A Right To The Means Necessary To Its Use, And Without Which It Would Be Useless.

On Every Unauthoritative Exercise Of Power By The Legislature Must The People Rise In Rebellion Or Their Silence Be Construed Into A Surrender Of That Power To Them? If So, How Many Rebellions Should We Have Had Already?

I Do Love This People [the French] With All My Heart, And Think That With A Better Religion And A Better Form Of Government And Their Present Governors Their Condition And Country Would Be Most Enviable.

Government Governed Least Is Government Governed Best.

Agreeable Society Is The First Essential In Constituting The Happiness And Of Course The Value Of Our Existence.

There Is On The Globe One Single Spot, The Possessor Of Which Is Our Natural And Habitual Enemy. It Is New Orleans, Through Which The Produce Of Three-eighths Of Our Territory Must Pass To Market, And From Its Fertility It Will Ere Long Yield More Than Half Of Our Whole Produce And Contain More Than Half Our Inhabitants.

In A World Which Furnishes So Many Employments Which Are Useful, And So Many Which Are Amusing, It Is Our Own Fault If We Ever Know What Ennui [boredom] Is, Or If We Are Ever Driven To The Miserable Resource Of Gaming, Which Corrupts Our Dispositions, And Teaches Us A Habit Of Hostility Against All Mankind.

As New Discoveries Are Made, New Truths Discovered And Manners And Opinions Change With The Change Of Circumstances, Institutions Must Advance Also To Keep Pace With The Times.

The Care Of Every Man's Soul Belongs To Himself. But What If He Neglect The Care Of It? Well What If He Neglect The Care Of His Health Or His Estate, Which Would More Nearly Relate To The State. Will The Magistrate Make A Law That He Not Be Poor Or Sick? Laws Provide Against Injury From Others; But Not From Ourselves. God Himself Will Not Save Men Against Their Wills.

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

Second Amendment

The Equal Rights Of Man And The Happiness Of Every Individual Are Now Acknowledged To Be The Only Legitimate Objects Of Government.

What Justice Would There Be To Take This Life? Justice, Gentlemen? Why, I Would Just As Soon Put A Hog In The Electric Chair As This.

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

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.

We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

Government Welfare

Government Debt

Religion Is A Subject On Which I Have Ever Been Most Scrupulously Reserved. I Have Considered It As A Matter Between Every Man And His Maker, In Which No Other, And Far Less The Public, Had A Right To Intermeddle.

It Is (our) Duty . . . To Pay Especial Attention To The Principles Of Government Which Shall Be Inculcated Therein (at The University), And To Provide That None Shall Be Inculcated Which Are Incompatible With Those On Which The Constitutions Of This State, And Of The United States Were Genuinely Based, In The Common Opinion; And For This Purpose It May Be Necessary To Point Out Specially Where These Principles Are To Be Found Legitimately Developed.

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

Christian Creeds And Doctrines, The Clergy's Own Fatal Inventions, Through All The Ages Has Made Of Christendom A Slaughterhouse, And Divided It Into Sects Of Inextinguishable Hatred For One Another.

Convinced That The People Are The Only Safe Depositories Of Their Own Liberty, And That They Are Not Safe Unless Enlightened To A Certain Degree, I Have Looked On Our Present State Of Liberty As A Short-lived Possession Unless The Mass Of The People Could Be Informed To A Certain Degree.

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

Informed Citizens

Informed Citizenry

Above All Things I Hope The Education Of The Common People Will Be Attended To; Convinced That On Their Good Sense We May Rely With Most Security For The Preservation Of A Due Degree Of Liberty.

The General Desire Of Men To Live By Their Heads Rather Than Their Hands, And The Strong Allurements Of Great Cities To Those Who Have Any Turn For Dissipation, Threaten To Make Them Here, As In Europe, The Sinks Of Voluntary Misery.

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

To Seek Out The Best [persons To Serve In The Government] Though The Whole Union, We Must Resort To The Information Which From The Best Of Men, Acting Disinterestedly And With Ther Purest Motives, Is Something Incorrect....no Duty The Executive Had To Perform Was So Trying As To Put The Right Man In The Right Place.

A Walk About Paris Will Provide Lessons In History, Beauty, And In The Point Of Life.

[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.

What Country Before Ever Existed A Century And A Half Without A Rebellion? And What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties If Their Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time That Their People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them. What Signify A Few Lives Lost In A Century Or Two? The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants. It Is Its Natural Manure.

We See The Wisdom Of Solon's Remark, That No More Good Must Be Attempted Than The Nation Can Bear.

Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far. The Europeans Value Themselves On Having Subdued The Horse To The Uses Of Man; But I Doubt Whether We Have Not Lost More Than We Have Gained, By The Use Of This Animal.

Those Who Don’t Read The Newspapers Are Better Off Than Those Who Do Insofar As Those Who Know Nothing Are Better Off Than Those Whose Heads Are Filled With Half-truths And Lies.

Government Can Do Something For The People Only In Proportion As It Can Do Something To The People.

The Fumes Of The Most Disordered Imaginations Were Recorded In Their Religious Code, As Special Communications Of The Deity; And As It Could Not But Happen That, In The Course Of Ages, Events Would Now And Then Turn Up To Which Some Of These Vague Rhapsodies Might Be Accommodated By The Aid Of Allegories, Figures, Types, And Other Tricks Upon Words, They Have Not Only Preserved Their Credit With The Jews Of All Subsequent Times, But Are The Foundation Of Much Of The Religions Of Those Who Have Schismatised From Them.

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

I Don't Want Them To Kill No Hog . . . . I Want A Man To Go To That Chair, On His Own Two Feet.

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

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

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

It Is To Secure Our Rights That We Resort To Government At All.

Some Men Look At Constitutions With Sanctimonious Reverence, And Deem Them Like The Ark Of The Covenant, Too Sacred To Be Touched. They Ascribe To The Men Of The Preceding Age A Wisdom More Than Human, And Suppose What They Did To Be Beyond Amendment.

The Greatest Calamity Which Could Befall Us Would Be Submission To A Government Of Unlimited Powers.

We Have Already Given In Example One Effectual Check To The Dog Of War By Transferring The Power Of Letting Him Loose From The Executive To The Legislative Body

In Our Early Struggles For Liberty, Religious Freedom Could Not Fail To Become A Primary Object.

When We Get Piled Upon One Another In Large Cities, As In Europe, We Shall Become As Corrupt As Europe.

Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoded To Exercise, And Weather Should Be Little Regarded. A Person Not Sick Will Not Be Injured By Getting Wet. It Is But Taking A Cold Bath, Which Never Gives A Cold To Any One. Brute Animals Are The Most Healthy, And They Are Exposed To All Weather, And Of Men, Those Are Healthiest Who Are The Most Exposed.

Truth Between Candid Minds Can Never Do Harm.

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

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

As You Are Entered With The Class Of Nat. Philosophy, Give To It The Hours Of Lecture, But Devote All Your Other Time To Mathematics, Avoiding Company As The Bane Of All Progress.

One Precedent In Favor Of Power Is Stronger Than A Hundred Against It.

Leave All The Afternoon For Exercise And Recreation, Which Are As Necessary As Reading. I Will Rather Say More Necessary Because Health Is Worth More Than Learning.

I Endeavor To Keep Their Attention Fixed On The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom & Happiness Of Man.

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.

Should Look Forward To A Time, And That Not A Distant One, When Corruption In This, As In The Country From Which We Derive Our Origin, Will Have Seized The Heads Of Government, And Be Spread By Them Through The Body Of The People; When They Will Purchase The Voices Of The People, And Make Them Pay The Price.

When You Are Doubting Whether A Thing Is Worth The Trouble Of Going To See, Recollect That You Will Never Again Be So Near It. You May Repent Not Having Seen It, But You Can Never Repent Having Seen It.

No Society Can Make A Perpetual Constitution... The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generation.

During The Course Of Administration, And In Order To Disturb It, The Artillery Of The Press Has Been Levelled Against Us, Charged With Whatsoever Its Licentiousness Could Devise Or Dare. These Abuses Of An Institution So Important To Freedom And Science Are Deeply To Be Regretted, Inasmuch As They Tend To Lessen Its Usefulness And To Sap Its Safety.

It Will Be Said That Great Societies Cannot Exist Without Government.

The Patient, Treated On The Fashionable Theory, Sometimes Gets Well In Spite Of The Medicine.

When An Instrument Admits Two Constructions, The One Safe, The Other Dangerous, The One Precise, The Other Indefinite, I Prefer That Which Is Safe And Precise.

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

The More A Subject Is Understood, The More Briefly It May Be Explained.

When Wrongs Are Pressed Because It Is Believed They Will Be Borne, Resistance Becomes Morality.

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.

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

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

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

It Is Always Better To Have No Ideas Than False Ones; To Believe Nothing, Than To Believe What Is Wrong.

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

The Law For Religious Freedom... [has]put Down The Aristocracy Of The Clergy And Restored To The Citizen The Freedom Of The Mind.

I Do Not Take A Single Newspaper, Nor Read One A Month, And I Feel Myself Infinitely The Happier For It.

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

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.

I Join You Therefore In Branding As Cowardly The Idea That The Human Mind Is Incapable Of Further Advances.

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.

Speeches That Are Measured By The Hour Will Die With The Hour.

Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than That Of Face And Stature.

But This Momentous Question, Like A Fire Bell In The Night, Awakened And Filled Me With Terror.

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.

The Authors Of The Gospels Were Unlettered And Ignorant Men And The Teachings Of Jesus Have Come To Us Mutilated, Misstated And Unintelligible.

If Any Doubt Has Arisen As To Me, My Country [virginia] Will Have My Political Creed In The Form Of A "declaration &c." Which I Was Lately Directed To Draw. This Will Give Decisive Proof That My Own Sentiment Concurred With The Vote They Instructed Us To Give.

In Every Free And Deliberating Society, There Must, From The Nature Of Man, Be Opposite Parties, And Violent Dissensions And Discords; And One Of These, For The Most Part, Must Prevail Over The Other For A Longer Or Shorter Time.

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

The Religion Of Jesus Is Founded In The Unity Of God, And This Principle Chiefly Gave It Triumph Over The Rabble Of Heathen Gods Then Acknowledged. Thinking Men Of All Nations Rallied Readily To The Doctrine Of One Only God, And Embraced It With The Pure-morals Which Jesus Inculcated.

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.

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 Never Saw An Instance Of One Or Two Disputants Convincing The Other By Argument.

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.

No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.

Let It Be Signified To Me Through Any Channelthat The Possession Of The Floridas Would Be Desirable To The United States, Andin Sixty Days It Will Be Accomplished. ...penned In The Language Of Truth, And Divested Of Those Expressions Of Servility Which Would Persuade His Majesty That We Are Asking Favors And Not Rights.

It Is An Essential Attribute Of The Jurisdiction Of Every Country To Preserve Peace, To Punish Acts In Breach Of It, And To Restore Property Taken By Force Within Its Limits.

It Is Strangely Absurd To Suppose That A Million Of Human Beings, Collected Together, Are Not Under The Same Moral Laws Which Bind Each Of Them Separately.

Wine Brightens The Life And Thinking Of Anyone

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.

But A Short Time Elapsed After The Death Of The Great Reformer Of The Jewish Religion, Before His Principles Were Departed From By Those Who Professed To Be His Special Servants, And Perverted Into An Engine For Enslaving Mankind, And Aggrandizing Their Oppressors In Church And State.

Freedom, The First-born Of Science.

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

I Look To The Diffusion Of Light And Education As The Resource Most To Be Relied On For Ameliorating The Condition, Promoting The Virtue And Advancing The Happiness Of Man.

It Is Incumbent On Every Generation To Pay Its Own Debts As It Goes. A Principle Which If Acted On Would Save One-half The Wars Of The World.

Government Debt

To Me... It Appears That There Have Been Differences Of Opinion And Party Differences, From The First Establishment Of Government To The Present Day, And On The Same Question Which Now Divides Our Own Country; That These Will Continue Through All Future Time; That Every One Takes His Side In Favor Of The Many, Or Of The Few, According To His Constitution, And The Circumstances In Which He Is Placed.

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.

It Behooves Every Man Who Values Liberty Of Conscience For Himself, To Resist Invasions Of It In The Case Of Others: Or Their Case May, By Change Of Circumstances, Become His Own.

Speaking One Day To Monsieur De Buffon, On The Present Ardor Of Chemical Inquiry, He Affected To Consider Chemistry But As Cookery, And To Place The Toils Of The Laboratory On The Footing With Those Of The Kitchen. I Think It, On The Contrary, Among The Most Useful Of Sciences, And Big With Future Discoveries For The Utility And Safety Of The Human Race.

No Body Wishes More Than I Do To See Such Proofs As You Exhibit, That Nature Has Given To Our Black Brethren, Talents Equal To Those Of The Other Colors Of Men, And That The Appearance Of A Want Of Them Is Owing Merely To The Degraded Condition Of Their Existence, Both In Africa & America.

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

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.

Motherhood Is The Keystone Of The Arch Of Matrimonial Happiness.

We Love And We Value Peace; We Know Its Blessings From Experience. We Abhor The Follies Of War, And Are Not Untried In Its Distresses And Calamities.

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