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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.

-Thomas Jefferson

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I Set Out On

Thomas Jefferson

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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.

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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.

The Sun Has Not Caught Me In Bed In Fifty Years.

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.

When Habit Has Strengthened Our Sense Of Duties, They Leave Us No Time For Other Things; But When Young We Neglect Them And This Gives Us Time For Anything.

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.

If Nature Has Made Any One Thing Less Susceptible Than All Others Of Exclusive Property, It Is The Action Of The Thinking Power Called An Idea... No One Possesses The Less, Because Every Other Possess The Whole Of It. He Who Receives An Idea From Me, Receives Instruction Himself Without Lessening Mine; As He Who Lights His Taper At Mine, Receives Light Without Darkening Me.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Functionaries Of Public Power Rarely Strengthen In Their Dispositions To Abridge It, And An Unorganized Call For Timely Amendment Is Not Likely To Prevail Against An Organized Opposition To It. We Are Always Told That Things Are Going On Well; Why Change Them? 'chi Sta Bene, No Si Mueve,' Said The Italian, 'let Him Who Stands Well, Stand Still.' This Is True; And I Verily Believe They Would Go On Well With Us Under An Absolute Monarch, While Our Present Character Remains, Of Order, Industry And Love Of Peace, And Restrained As He Would Be, By The Proper Spirit Of The People.

Tobacco Is A Culture Productive Of Infinite Wretchedness.

Error Indeed Has Often Prevailed By The Assistance Of Power Or Force. Truth Is The Proper And Sufficient Antagonist To Error.

Freedom, The First-born Of Science.

Letters Are Not The First, But The Last Step In The Progression From Barbarism To Civilisation.

No Man Will Ever Carry Out Of The Presidency The Reputation Which Carried Him Into It.

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.

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

It Is Important To Strengthen The State Governments; And As This Cannot Be Done By Any Change In The Federal Constitution (for The Preservation Of That Is All We Need Contend For), It Must Be Done By The States Themselves, Erecting Such Barriers At The Constitutional Line As Cannot Be Surmounted Either By Themselves Or By The General Government. The Only Barrier In Their Power Is A Wise Government. A Weak One Will Lose Ground In Every Contest.

I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Power Of The Society But The People Themselves.

Above All Things, Lose No Occasion Of Exercising Your Dispositions To Be Grateful, To Be Generous, To Be Charitable, To Be Humane, To Be True, Just, Firm, Orderly, Courageous, Etc. Consider Every Act Of This Kind As An Exercise Which Will Strengthen Your Moral Faculties And Increase Your Worth.

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

Yet The Hour Of Emancipation Is Advancing ... This Enterprise Is For The Young; For Those Who Can Follow It Up, And Bear It Through To It's Consummation. It Shall Have All My Prayers, And These Are The Only Weapons Of An Old Man.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

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.

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.

Among The Most Inestimable Of Our Blessings Is That ... Of Liberty To Worship Our Creator In The Way We Think Most Agreeable To His Will; A Liberty Deemed In Other Countries Incompatible With Good Government And Yet Proved By Our Experience To Be Its Best Support.

The Most Successful War Seldom Pays For Its Losses.

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.

It Is Proof Of Sincerity, Which I Value Above All Things; As, Between Those Who Practice It, Falsehood And Malice Work Their Efforts In Vain.

He Who Is Permitted By Law To Have No Property Of His Own, Can With Difficulty Conceive That Property Is Founded In Anything But Force.

The Oppressed Should Rebel, And They Will Continue To Rebel And Raise Disturbance Until Their Civil Rights Are Fully Restored To Them And All Partial Distinctions, Exlusions, And Incapacitations Are Removed.

Truth Between Candid Minds Can Never Do Harm.

I Am Not Fully Informed Of The Practices At Harvard, But There Is One From Which We Shall Certainly Vary, Although It Has Been Copied, I Believe, By Nearly Every College And Academy In The United States. That Is, The Holding The Students All To One Prescribed Course Of Reading, And Disallowing Exclusive Application To Those Branches Only Which Are To Qualify Them For The Particular Vocations To Which They Are Destined. We Shall, On The Contrary, Allow Them Uncontrolled Choice In The Lectures They Shall Choose To Attend, And Require Elementary Qualification Only, And Sufficient Age.

Believing With You That Religion Is A Matter Which Lies Solely Between Man And His God, That He Owes Account To None Other For His Faith Or His Worship, That The Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only, And Not Opinions, I Contemplate With Sovereign Reverence That Act Of The Whole American People Which Declared That Their Legislature Should 'make No Law Respecting An Establishment Of Religion, Or Prohibiting The Free Exercise Thereof,' Thus Building A Wall Of Separation Between Church And State.

I Am Opposed To Any Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man.

An Individual, Thinking Himself Injured, Makes More Noise Than A State.

The Sentiments Of Men Are Known Not Only By What They Receive, But What They Reject Also.

Paul Was The First Corrupter Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.

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.

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.

The Declaration That Religious Faith Shall Be Unpunished Does Not Give Immunity To Criminal Acts Dictated By Religious Error.

Were We Directed From Washington When To Sow And When To Reap, We Should Soon Want Bread.

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

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.

The Plough Is To The Farmer What The Wand Is To The Sorcerer. Its Effect Is Really Like Sorcery.

There Is... An Artificial Aristocracy Founded On Wealth And Birth, Without Either Virtue Or Talents... The Artificial Aristocracy Is A Mischievous Ingredient In Government, And Provision Should Be Made To Prevent Its Ascendency.

Though The Will Of The Majority Is In All Cases To Prevail, That Will, To Be Rightful, Must Be Reasonable.

Tyranny Of The Majority

Bodily Decay Is Gloomy In Prospect, But Of All Human Contemplations The Most Abhorrent Is Body Without Mind.

I Find That The Harder I Work, The More Luck I Seem To Have.

The Tumults In America I Expected Would Have Produced In Europe An Unfavorable Opinion Of Our Political State. But It Has Not. On The Contrary, The Small Effect Of These Tumults Seems To Have Given More Confidence In The Firmness Of Our Governments. The Interposition Of The People Themselves On The Side Of Government Has Had A Great Effect On The Opinion Here In Europe.

I Do Verily Believe That If The Principle Were To Prevail Of A Common Law Being In Force In The United States (which Principle Possesses The General Government At Once Of All The Powers Of The State Governments, And Reduces Us To A Single Consolidated Government), It Would Become The Most Corrupt Government On The Earth.

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

History By Apprising Them [the People] Of The Past Will Enable Them To Judge Of The Future. . . . It Will Qualify Them As Judges Of The Actions And Designs Of Men: It Will Enable Them To Know Ambition Under Every Disguise It May Assume; And Knowing It, To Defeat Its Views.

I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude

We Defer Therefore Till This Time Twelve Month To Avail Ourselves Of The Instruction Of That Place, And Particularly Of Your Kindness In The Two Branches Of Botany And Natural History To Which We Wish Him Particularly To Apply.

No Religious Reading, Instruction Or Exercise, Shall Be Prescribed Or Practiced [in The Elementary Schools] Inconsistent With The Tenets Of Any Religious Sect Or Denomination.

Hemp Is Of First Necessity To The Wealth & Protection Of The Country.

If Virtuous, The Government Need Not Fear The Fair Operation Of Attack And Defense. Nature Has Given To Man No Other Means Of Sifting The Truth, Either In Religion, Law, Or Politics.

Force Is The Vital Principle And Immediate Parent Of Despotism.

The Genius Of Architecture Seems To Have Shed Its Maledictions Over This Land.

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

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

A Nation's Best Defense Is An Educated Citizenry

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.

I Consider The Government Of The U.s. As Interdicted By The Constitution From Intermeddling With Religious Institutions, Their Doctrines, Discipline, Or Exercises.

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

Don't Spend Your Money Till You Have It.

Success In Life

I Should . . . Prefer Swallowing One Incomprehensibility Rather Than Two. It Requires One Effort Only To Admit The Single Incomprehensibility Of Matter Endowed With Thought, And Two To Believe, First That Of An Existence Called Spirit, Of Which We Have Neither Evidence Nor Idea, And Then Secondly How That Spirit, Which Has Neither Extension Nor Solidity, Can Put Material Organs Into Motion.

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.

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

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

I Do Not Agree That An Age Of Pleasure Is No Compensation For A Moment Of Pain.

Would The Honest Patriot, In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment, Abandon A Government Which Has So Far Kept Us Free And Firm On The Theoretic And Visionary Fear That This Government, The World's Best Hope, May By Possibility Want Energy To Preserve Itself? I Trust Not.

I Had Rather Ask An Enlargement Of Power From The Nation, Where It Is Found Necessary, Than To Assume It By A Construction Which Would Make Our Powers Boundless.

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

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

The States Should Be Urged To Concede To The General Government, With A Saving Of Chartered Rights, The Exclusive Power Of Establishing Banks Of Discount For Paper.

Experience Having Long Taught Me The Reasonableness Of Mutual Sacrifices Of Opinion Among Those Who Are To Act Together For Any Common Object, And The Expediency Of Doing What Good We Can; When We Cannot Do All We Would Wish.

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.

History, In General, Only Informs Us Of What Bad Government Is.

For A People Who Are Free, And Who Mean To Remain So, A Well-organized And Armed Militia Is Their Best Security.

Should Things Go Wrong At Any Time, The People Will Set Them To Rights By The Peaceable Exercise Of Their Elective Rights.

The Cement Of This Union Is The Heart-blood Of Every American.

Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law. We Must Resist At All Costs Any Attempt To Regulate Our Individual Freedoms And To Legislate Our Personal Moralities.

A Pirate Spreading Misery And Ruin Over The Face Of The Ocean

The True Theory Of Our Constitution Is Surely The Wisest And Best, That The States Are Independent As To Everything Within Themselves, And United As To Everything Respecting Foreign Affairs. Let The General Government Be Reduced To Foreign Concerns Only, And Let Our Affairs Be Disentangled From Those Of All Other Nations, Except As To Commerce, Which The Merchants Will Manage The Better, The More They Are Left Free To Manage For Themselves, And Our General Government May Be Reduced To A Very Simple Organization, And A Very Inexpensive One; A Few Plain Duties To Be Performed By A Few Servants.

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.

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.

A Truth Now And Then Projecting Into The Ocean Of Newspaper Lies Serves Like Headlands To Correct Our Course. Indeed, My Scepticism As To Everything I See In A Newspaper Makes Me Indifferent Whether I Ever See One.

Where The Preamble Declares, That Coercion Is A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion, An Amendment Was Proposed By Inserting "jesus Christ," So That It Would Read "a Departure From The Plan Of Jesus Christ, The Holy Author Of Our Religion;" The Insertion Was Rejected By The Great Majority, In Proof That They Meant To Comprehend, Within The Mantle Of Its Protection, The Jew And The Gentile, The Christian And Mohammedan, The Hindoo And Infidel Of Every Denomination.

Be Polite To All, But Intimate With Few.

We Are Firmly Convinced, And We Act On That Conviction, That With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties, And History Bears Witness To The Fact That A Just Nation Is Trusted On Its Word When Recourse Is Had To Armaments And Wars To Bridle Others.

I Hold It To Be One Of The Distinguishing Excellences Of Elective Over Hereditary Successions That The Talents Which Nature Has Provided In Sufficient Proportion, Should Be Selected By The Society For The Govenment Of Their Affairs, Rather Than That This Should Be Be Transmitted Through The Loins Of Knaves And Fools Passing From The Debauches Of The Table To Those Of The Bed.

Ministers Of The Gospel Are Excluded [from Serving As Visitors Of The County Elementary Schools] To Avoid Jealousy From The Other Sects, Were The Public Education Committed To The Ministers Of A Particular One; And With More Reason Than In The Case Of Their Exclusion From The Legislative And Executive Functions.

What Is It Men Cannot Be Made To Believe!

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.

The Day Is Not Distant When We Must Bear And Adopt [the Abolition Of Slavery], Or Worse Will Follow.

Abolition Of Slavery

It Is Not Too Soon To Provide By Every Possible Means That As Few As Possible Shall Be Without A Little Portion Of Land. The Small Landholders Are The Most Precious Part Of A State.

No Occupation Is So Delightful To Me As The Culture Of The Earth, And No Culture Comparable To That Of The Garden.

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

How Did Jefferson Feel About The People Of His Day Who Were The Equivalent Of Our Modern Day Penecostals? You Know, Those Revelation Reveling Tongue Speaking Idiots.

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?

[if A Book Were] Very Innocent, And One Which Might Be Confided To The Reason Of Any Man; Not Likely To Be Much Read If Let Alone, But If Persecuted, It Will Be Generally Read. Every Man In The United States Will Think It A Duty To Buy A Copy, In Vindication Of His Right To Buy And To Read What He Pleases.

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

A Nation, As A Society, Forms A Moral Person, And Every Member Of It Is Personally Responsible For His Society.

Well, Page, I Do Wish The Devil Had Old Cooke, For I Am Sure I Never Was So Tired Of An Old Dull Scoundrel In My Life ... But The Old-fellows Say We Must Read To Gain Knowledge; And Gain Knowledge To Make Us Happy And Be Admired. Mere Jargon! Is There Any Such Thing As Happiness In This World? No.

Dispositions Of The Mind, Like Limbs Of The Body, Acquire Strength By Exercise.

Scenes Are Now To Take Place As Will Open The Eyes Of Credulity And Of Insanity Itself, To The Dangers Of A Paper Medium Abandoned To The Discretion Of Avarice And Of Swindlers.

The Whole Commerce Between Master And Slave Is A Perpetual Exercise Of The Most Boisterous Passions, The Most Unremitting Despotism On The One Part, And Degrading Submissions On The Other. Our Children See This, And Learn To Imitate It.

It Is Time Enough, For The Rightful Purposes Of Civil Government, For Its Officers To Interfere [in The Propagation Of Religious Teachings] When Principles Break Out Into Overt Acts Against Peace And Good Order.

Light And Liberty Go Together.

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.

We Shall All Consider Ourselves Unauthorized To Saddle Posterity With Our Debts, And Morally Bound To Pay Them Ourselves; And Consequently Within What May Be Deemed The Period Of A Generation, Or The Life Of The Majority.

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

A Room Without Books Is Like A Life Without Meaning.

Nothing Is More Incumbent On The Old Than To Know When They Should Get Out Of The Way And Relinquish To Younger Successors The Honors They Can No Longer Earn, And The Duties They Can No Longer Perform.

Compulsion In Religion Is Distinguished Peculiarly From Compulsion In Every Other Thing. ...i Cannot Be Saved By A Worship I Disbelieve And Abhor.

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.

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.

The Only True Corrective Of Constitutional Abuses Is Education.

Turning, Then, From This Loathsome Combination Of Church And State, And Weeping Over The Follies Of Our Fellow Men, Who Yield Themselves The Willing Dupes And Drudges Of These Mountebanks, I Consider Reformation And Redress As Desperate, And Abandon Them To The Quixotism Of More Enthusiastic Minds.

The Clergy Believe That Any Power Confided In Me Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes, And They Believe Rightly.

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.

The Field Of Knolege Is The Common Property Of All Mankind

Man Is An Imitative Animal. This Quality Is The Germ Of All Education In Him. From His Cradle To His Grave He Is Learning To Do What He Sees Others Do.

I Acknowledge That Such A Debt [of Service To My Fellow-citizens] Exists, That A Tour Of Duty In Whatever Line He Can Be Most Useful To His Country, Is Due From Every Individual. It Is Not Easy Perhaps To Say Of What Length Exactly That Tour Should Be, But We May Safely Say Of What Length It Should Not Be. Not Of Our Whole Life, For Instance, For That Would Be To Be Born A Slave-not Even Of A Very Large Portion Of It.

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

God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion... We Have Had Thirteen States Independent For Eleven Years. There Has Been One Rebellion. That Comes To One Rebellion In A Century And A Half, For Each State. What Country Before Ever Existed A Century And A Half Without A Rebellion.

I Steer My Bark With Hope In The Head, Leaving Fear Astern. My Hopes Indeed Sometimes Fail, But Not Oftener Than The Forebodings Of The Gloomy.

I Have Lived Temperately....i Double The Doctor's Recommendation Of A Glass And A Half Wine Each Day And Even Treble It With A Friend.

All Persons Shall Have Full And Free Liberty Of Religious Opinion; Nor Shall Any Be Compelled To Frequent Or Maintain Any Religious Institution.

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

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.

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

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

A Rigid Economy Of The Public Contributions And Absolute Interdiction Of All Useless Expenses Will Go Far Towards Keeping The Government Honest And Unoppressive.

It Is Unfortunate That The Efforts Of Mankind To Recover The Freedom Of Which They Have Been So Long Deprived, Will Be Accompanied With Violence, With Errors, And Even With Crimes. But While We Weep Over The Means, We Must Pray For The End.

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

Malice Will Always Find Bad Motives For Good Actions. - Shall We Therefore Never Do Good?

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.

A Single Zealot May Commence Prosecutor, And Better Men Be His Victims.

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

Never [enter] Into Dispute Or Argument With Another. I Never Yet Saw An Instance Of One Of Two Disputants Convincing The Other By Argument. I Have Seen Many On Their Getting Warm, Becoming Rude And Shooting One Another.

In A Virtuous And Free State, No Rewards Can Be So Pleasing To Sensible Minds, As Those Which Include The Approbation Of Our Fellow Citizens. My Great Pain Is, Lest My Poor Endeavours Should Fall Short Of The Kind Expectations Of My Country.

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

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.

A Little Revolution Is A Good Thing.

Man, Once Surrendering His Reason, Has No Remaining Guard Against Absurdities The Most Monstrous. . . .

Nothing Is Troublesome That We Do Willingly.

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

Aristocrats Fear The People, And Wish To Transfer All Power To The Higher Classes Of Society.

Can The Liberties Of A Nation Be Thought Secure When We Have Remover Their Only Firm Basis, A Conviction In The Minds Of The People That These Liberties Are The Gift Of God? That They Are Not To Be Violated But With His Wrath? Indeed, I Tremble For My Country When I Reflect That God Is Just; That His Justice Cannot Sleep Forever.

I Believe In Both A Creative And Personal God, A Divinely Ordered Universe, That Man Has An Innate Moral Sense, And That Jesus Was A Great Moral Teacher, Perhaps The Greatest The World Has Witnessed.

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.

The Art Of Governing Consists Simply Of Being Honest, Exercising Common Sense, Following Principle, And Doing What Is Right And Just.

I Considered 4 Of These Bills [of The Revised Code Of Virginia] As Forming A System By Which Every Fibre Would Be Eradicated Of Antient Or Future Aristocracy; And A Foundation Laid For A Government Truly Republican.

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.

We Are Overdone With Banking Institutions, Which Have Banished The Precious Metals, And Substituted A More Fluctuating And Unsafe Medium... These Have Withdrawn Capital From Useful Improvements And Employments To Nourish Idleness... These Are Evils More Easily To Be Deplored Than Remedied.

... The Common Law Existed While The Anglo-saxons Were Yet Pagans, At A Time When They Had Never Yet Heard The Name Of Christ Pronounced Or Knew That Such A Character Existed.

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

It Has Been Thought That The People Are Not Competent Electors Of Judges Learned In The Law. But I Do Not Know This To Be True, And, If Doubtful, We Should Follow Principle.

Many Are The Exercises Of Power Reserved To The States Wherein A Uniformity Of Proceeding Would Be Advantageous To All. Such Are Quarantines, Health Laws, Regulations Of The Press, Banking Institutions, Training Militia, Etc., Etc.

Our Minds And Hearts Are Free To Believe Everything Or Nothing At All - And It Is Our Duty To Protect And Perpetuate This Sacred Culture Of Freedom.

I Never Before Knew The Full Value Of Trees. Under Them I Breakfast, Dine, Write, Read And Receive My Company.

The Truth Is That The Want Of Common Education With Us Is Not From Our Poverty, But From The Want Of An Orderly System. More Money Is Now Paid For The Education Of A Part Than Would Be Paid For That Of The Whole If Systematically Arranged.

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.

If I Had To Choose Between Government Without Newspapers, And Newspapers Without Government, I Wouldn't Hesitate To Choose The Latter

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

A Democratic Society Depends Upon An Informed And Educated Citizenry.

But When A Long Train Of Abuses And Usurpations, Pursuing Invariably The Same Object Evinces A Design To Reduce Them Under Absolute Despotism, It Is Their Right, It Is Their Duty, To Throw Off Such Government, And To Provide New Guards For Their Future Security.

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

Responsibility Is A Tremendous Engine In A Free Government.

Free Government

How Soon The Labor Of Men Would Make A Paradise Of The Earth Were It Not For Misgovernment And A Diversion Of His Energies To Selfish Interests.

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

The Press Is The Best Instrument For Enlightening The Mind Of Man, And Improving Him As A Rational, Moral And Social Being

Difference Of Opinion Leads To Inquiry, And Inquiry To The Truth.

The Objects Of This Primary Education . . . Would Be . . . To Form The Statesmen, Legislators And Judges, On Whom Public Prosperity And Individual Happiness Are So Much To Depend.

Individual Happiness

Equal Rights For All, Special Privileges For None

The Only Security Of All Is In A Free Press.

Freedom Of The Press

One Loves To Possess Arms, Though They Hope Never To Have Occasion For Them.

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

If The Children Are Untaught, Their Ignorance And Vices Will In Future Life Cost Us Much Dearer In Their Consequences Than It Would Have Done In Their Correction By A Good Education.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident, That All Men Are Created Equal, That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Inalienable Rights, Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, That To Secure These Rights Governments Are Instituted Among Men. We...solemnly Publish And Declare, That These Colonies Are And Of A Right Ought To Be Free And Independent States...and For The Support Of This Declaration, With A Firm Reliance On The Protection Of Divine Providence, We Mutually Pledge Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.

Pursuit Of Happiness

To Constrain The Brute Force Of The People, The European Governments Deem It Necessary To Keep Them Down By Hard Labor, Poverty And Ignorance, And To Take From Them, As From Bees, So Much Of Their Earnings, As That Unremitting Labor Shall Be Necessary To Obtain A Sufficient Surplus To Sustain A Scanty And Miserable Life.

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

The Same Prudence Which In Private Life Would Forbid Our Paying Our Own Money For Unexplained Projects, Forbids It In The Dispensation Of The Public Moneys.

Civil Officials Have No Business Meddling In Private Religious Affairs.

Indeed, We Need Not Look Back Half A Century To Times Which Many Now Living Remember Well, And See The Wonderful Advances In The Sciences And Arts Which Have Been Made Within That Period. Some Of These Have Rendered The Elements Themselves Subservient To The Purposes Of Man, Have Harnessed Them To The Yoke Of His Labors And Effected The Great Blessings Of Moderating His Own, Of Accomplishing What Was Beyond His Feeble Force, And Extending The Comforts Of Life To A Much Enlarged Circle, To Those Who Had Before Known Its Necessaries Only.

For Themselves They Fought, For Themselves They Conquered, And For Themselves Alone They Have They Have Right To Hold.

I Am Never Tempted To Pray But When A Warm Feeling For My Friends Comes Athwart My Heart.

Whenever You Are To Do A Thing, Though It Can Never Be Known But To Yourself, Ask Yourself How You Would Act Were All The World Looking At You, And Act Accordingly.

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

Health Is Value Greater Than Studying.

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.

Required To Be Constantly Recumbent I Write Slowly And With Difficulty.... Weakened In Body By Infirmities And In Mind By Age, Now Far Gone Into My 83rd Year, Reading One Newspaper Only And Forgetting Immediately What I Read.

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

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.

A Free People [claim] Their Rights As Derived From The Laws Of Nature, And Not As The Gift Of Their Chief Magistrate.

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