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I Sincerely Congratulate You On The Arrival Of The Mockingbird. Learn All The Children To Venerate It As A Superior Being In The Form Of A Bird, Or As A Being Which Will Haunt Them If Any Harm Is Done To Itself Or Its Eggs.
-Thomas Jefferson
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I Sincerely Congratulate You

Thomas Jefferson
I Sincerely Congratulate You On The Arrival Of The Mockingbird. Learn All The Children To Venerate It As A Superior Being In The Form Of A Bird, Or As A Being Which Will Haunt Them If Any Harm Is Done To Itself Or Its Eggs.
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Topic
Children
Learning
Eggs
More From Thomas Jefferson
With The Same Honest Views, The Most Honest Men Often Form Different Conclusions.
Men
Views
Different
The Federal Government Is Our Servant, Not Our Master.
Government
Masters
Servant
[t]he True Key For The Construction Of Everything Doubtful In A Law Is The Intention Of The Law-makers. This Is Most Safely Gathered From The Words, But May Be Sought Also In Extraneous Circumstances Provided They Do Not Contradict The Express Words Of The Law.
Keys
Law
May
Commerce With All Nations, Alliance With None, Should Be Our Motto.
War
Liberty
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There Are Two Amendments Only Which I Am Anxious For: 1. A Bill Of Rights, Which It Is So Much The Interest Of All To Have That I Conceive It Must Be Yielded...2. The Restoring Of The Principle Of Necessary Rotation, Particularly To The Senate And Presidency, But Most Of All To The Last.
Rights
Two
Principles
Self-interest, Or Rather Self-love, Or Egoism, Has Been More Plausibly Substituted As The Basis Of Morality.
Self
Morality
Interest
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.
Happiness
Government
People
[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.
Book
Men
Thinking
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.
Christian
Hatred
Religion
Music, Drawing, Books, Invention & Exercise Will Be So Many Resources To You Against Ennui.
Educational
Book
Exercise
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.
Father
Liberty
May
I Wish It Were Possible To Obtain A Single Amendment To Our Constitution. I Would Be Willing To Depend On That Alone For The Reduction Of The Administration Of Our Government; I Mean An Additional Article Taking From The Federal Government The Power Of Borrowing.
Mean
Government
Political
Private Enterprise Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal.
Civil Rights
Equal
Enterprise
The Moment A Person Forms A Theory, His Imagination Sees In Every Object Only The Traits Which Favor That Theory.
Love Life
Imagination
Favors
If We Believe That He [jesus Christ]really Countenanced The Follies, The Falsehoods, And The Charlatanisms, Which His Biographers [writers Of The New Testament]father Upon Him, And Admit The Misconstructions, Interpolations, And Theorizations Of The Fathers Of The Early And The Fanatics Of The Latter Ages, The Conclusion Would Be Irresistible By Every Sound Mind That He Was An Impostor.
Jesus
Father
Believe
My Theory Has Always Been, That If We Are To Dream, The Flatteries Of Hope Are As Cheap, And Pleasanter, Than The Gloom Of Despair.
Dream
Doom And Gloom
Hopeful
If The Question [before Justices Of The Peace] Relate To Any Point Of Public Liberty, Or If It Be One Of Those In Which The Judges May Be Suspected Of Bias, The Jury Undertake To Decide Both Law And Fact.
Law
Judging
Justice
I Never Told My Own Religion Nor Scrutinized That Of Another. I Never Attempted To Make A Convert, Nor Wished To Change Another's Creed. I Am Satisfied That Yours Must Be An Excellent Religion To Have Produced A Life Of Such Exemplary Virtue And Correctness. For It Is In Our Lives, And Not From Our Words, That Our Religion Must Be Judged.
Life
Religion
Our Words
Independence Can Be Trusted Nowhere But With The People In Mass. They Are Inherently Independent Of All But Moral Law.
Independent
Law
People
We Are Now Trusting To Those Who Are Against Us In Position And Principle, To Fashion To Their Own Form The Minds And Affections Of Our Youth... This Canker Is Eating On The Vitals Of Our Existence, And If Not Arrested At Once, Will Be Beyond Remedy.
Fashion
Mind
Principles
Among The Sayings And Discourses Imputed To Him (i.e. Jesus) By His Biographers, I Find Many Passages Of Fine Imagination, Correct Morality, And Of The Most Lovely Benevolence; And Others Again Of So Much Ignorance, So Much Absurdity, So Much Untruth, Charlatanism, And Imposture, As To Pronounce It Impossible That Such Contradictions Should Have Proceeded From The Same Being.
Religious
Jesus
Ignorance
Our Liberty Depends On Freedom Of The Press.
Liberty
Freedom Of The Press
Depends
The Clergy ... Believe That Any Portion Of Power Confided To Me [as President] Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes. And They Believe Rightly: For I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man. But This Is All They Have To Fear From Me: And Enough, Too, In Their Opinion.
Religious
Believe
Men
The Whole Art Of Government Consists In The Art Of Being Honest.
Art
Honesty
Government
What Are The Objects Of An Useful American Education? Classical Knowlege, Modern Languages & Chiefly French, Spanish, & Italian; Mathematics; Natural Philosophy; Natural History; Civil History; Ethics.
Philosophy
Educational
Italian
It Can Never Be Too Often Repeated, That The Time For Fixing Every Essential Right On A Legal Basis Is While Our Rulers Are Honest, And Ourselves United.
Essentials
Fixing
Revolution
The Mass Of Mankind Has Not Been Born With Saddles On Their Backs, Nor A Favored Few Booted And Spurred, Ready To Ride Them Legitimately, By The Grace Of God.
Freedom
Grace
Liberty
No Occupation Is So Delightful To Me As The Culture Of The Earth, And No Culture Comparable To That Of The Garden.
Garden
Culture
Earth
Instead Of That Liberty Which Takes Root And Growth In The Progress Of Reason, If Recovered By Mere Force Or Accident, It Becomes With An Unprepared People A Tyranny Still Of The Many, The Few, Or The One.
Roots
People
Growth
I Am For A Government Rigorously Frugal & Simple, Applying All The Possible Savings Of The Public Revenue To The Discharge Of The National Debt; And Not For A Multiplication Of Officers & Salaries Merely To Make Partisans, & For Increasing, By Every Device, The Public Debt, On The Principle Of Its Being A Public Blessing.
Blessing
Simple
Government
In A Republican Nation Whose Citizens Are To Be Led By Reason And Persuasion And Not By Force, The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance.... Reason And Persuasion Are The Only Practicable Instruments. To Make Way For These, Free Inquiry Must Be Indulged.... Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To The Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them.
Art
Citizens
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It Will Be Said That Great Societies Cannot Exist Without Government.
Government
Politics
Said
Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People. Enable Them To See That It Is Their Interest To Preserve Peace And Order, And They Will Preserve Them.
Meaningful
Order
People
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.
Art
Father
Discovery
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.
Religious
Atheist
Government
Each Generation Has A Right To Choose For Itself The Form Of Government It Believes Most Promotive Of Its Happiness.
Believe
Government
Generations
Lake George Is Without Comparison, The Most Beautiful Water I Ever Saw; Formed By A Contour Of Mountains Into A Basin... Finely Interspersed With Islands, Its Water Limpid As Crystal, And The Mountain Sides Covered With Rich Groves... Down To The Water-edge: Here And There Precipices Of Rock To Checker The Scene And Save It From Monotony.
Beautiful
Lakes
Islands
We Are Completely Saddled And Bridled, And... The Bank Is So Firmly Mounted On Us That We Must Go Where It Will Guide.
Wisdom
Politics
Economy
Happiness Is Not Being Pained In Body Or Troubled In Mind.
Happiness
Happy
Pain
The Influence Over Government Must Be Shared Among All The People. If Every Individual Which Composes Their Mass Participates Of The Ultimate Authority, The Government Will Be Safe, Because The Corrupting Of The Whole Mass Will Exceed Any Private Resources Of Wealth, And Public Ones Cannot Be Provided But By Levies On The People. In This Case Every Man Would Have To Pay His Own Price.
Men
People
Safe
To Instruct The Mass Of Our Citizens In These, Their Rights, Interests And Duties, As Men And Citizens...this Brings Us To The Point At Which Are To Commence The Higher Branches Of Education . . . . To Develop The Reasoning Faculties Of Our Youth, Enlarge Their Minds, Cultivate Their Morals, And Instill Into Them The Precepts Of Virtue And Order.
Education
Men
Rights
If Thinking Men Would Have The Courage To Think For Themselves, And To Speak What They Think, It Would Be Found They Do Not Differ In Religious Opinions As Much As Is Supposed.
Religious
Men
Thinking
If We Move In Mass, Be It Ever So Circuitously, We Shall Attain Our Object; But If We Break Into Squads, Everyone Pursuing The Path He Thinks Most Direct, We Become An Easy Conquest To Those Who Can Now Barely Hold Us In Check.
Moving
Thinking
Squad
Civil Government Being The Sole Object Of Forming Societies, Its Administration Must Be Conducted By Common Consent.
Government
Administration
Common
What A Stupendous, What An Incomprehensible Machine Is Man! Who Can Endure Toil, Famine, Stripes, Imprisonment & Death Itself In Vindication Of His Own Liberty, And The Next Moment ... Inflict On His Fellow Men A Bondage, One Hour Of Which Is Fraught With More Misery Than Ages Of That Which He Rose In Rebellion To Oppose.
Men
Compassion
Rose
When Virtue Is Banished, Ambition Invades The Minds Of Those Who Are Disposed To Receive It, And Avarice Possesses The Whole Community. The Objects Of Their Desires Are Changed; What They Were Fond Of Before Has Become Indifferent; They Were Free While Under The Restraint Of Laws, But They Would Fain Now Be Free To Act Against Law.
Ambition
Law
Community
The 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.
Jesus
Mean
Writing
[an] Act Of The Congress Of The United States... Which Assumes Powers... Not Delegated By The Constitution, Is Not Law, But Is Altogether Void And Of No Force.
Law
Void
United States
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.
Men
Religion
Matter
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.
Religious
Atheist
Wall
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.
Art
Rights
Giving
The Good Opinion Of Mankind, Like The Lever Of Archimedes, With The Given Fulcrum, Moves The World.
Moving
Public Opinion
World
Travelling Is Good For Your Health And Necessary For Your Amusement.
Amusement
Great Innovations Should Not Be Forced On Slender Majorities.
Presidential
Innovation
Majority
My Heart Trembles When I Reflect That God Is Just
God
Patriotic
Heart
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.
Pain
Political Opinions
Hatred
We Are Not To Expect To Be Translated From Despotism To Liberty In A Featherbed.
Encouragement
Difficult And Easy
Political
I Abhor War And View It As The Greatest Scourge Of Mankind.
Peace
War
Views
We Are The Friends Of Liberty Everywhere, But The Guarrantors Of Only Our Own.
Liberty
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.
White
Rights
France
Honesty, Disinterestedness And Good Nature Are Indispensable To Procure The Esteem And Confidence Of Those With Whom We Live, And On Whose Esteem Our Happiness Depends.
Confidence
Honesty
Good Nature
1.never Put Off Till To-morrow What You Can Do To-day. 2.never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself. 3.never Spend Your Money Before You Have It. 4.never Buy What You Do Not Want, Because It Is Cheap; It Will Be Dear To You. 5.pride Costs Us More Than Hunger, Thirst, And Cold. 6.we Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little. 7.nothing Is Troublesome That We Do Willingly. 8.how Much Pain Have Cost Us The Evils Which Have Never Happened. 9.take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle. 10.when Angry, Count Ten, Before You Speak; If Very Angry, A Hundred.
Pain
Pride
Evil
The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That... It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed.
Gun
Strong Arms
People
When Earth Is Rich It Bids Defiance To Droughts, Yields In Abundance And Of The Best Quality.
Yield
Environmental
Quality
An Industrious Farmer Occupies A More Dignified Place In The Scale Of Beings...than A Lazy Lounger...too Proud To Work, And Drawing Out A Miserable Existence By Eating On That Surplus Of Other Men's Labor.
Men
Drawing
Lazy
Questions Of Natural Right Are Triable By Their Conformity With The Moral Sense And Reason Of Man.
Men
Inalienable Rights
Moral
Where The Law Of The Majority Ceases To Be Acknowledged, There Government Ends; The Law Of The Strongest Takes Its Place, And Life And Property Are His Who Can Take Them.
Government
Law
Democracy
Dispositions Of The Mind, Like Limbs Of The Body, Acquire Strength By Exercise.
Exercise
Mind
Body
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.
Country
Science
Thinking
The End Of Democracy And The Defeat Of The American Revolution Will Occur When Government Falls Into The Hands Of Lending Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations.
Fall
Government
Hands
The Country Is Headed Toward A Single And Splendid Government Of An Aristocracy Founded On Banking Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations And If This Tendency Continues It Will Be The End Of Freedom And Democracy, The Few Will Be Ruling...i Hope We Shall...crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Moneyed Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To Trial And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country. I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies.
Crush
Country
Believe
All Persons Shall Have Full And Free Liberty Of Religious Opinion; Nor Shall Any Be Compelled To Frequent Or Maintain Any Religious Institution.
Religious
Liberty
Opinion
Say Nothing Of My Religion. It Is Known To God And Myself Alone. Its Evidence Before The World Is To Be Sought In My Life: If It Has Been Honest And Dutiful To Society The Religion Which Has Regulated It Cannot Be A Bad One.
Religion
World
Honest
Above All Things, And At All Times, Practice Yourself In Good Humor.
Humor
Practice
All Time
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.
Respect
Nature
Law
Traveling Makes Men Wiser, But Less Happy.
Travel
Men
Wiser
The Opinions And Beliefs Of Men Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds.
Freedom
Men
Mind
My Principle Is To Do Whatever Is Right, And Leave Consequences To Him Who Has The Disposal Of Them.
Principles
Consequence
The Fantastical Idea Of Virtue And The Public Good Being A Sufficient Security To The State Against The Commission Of Crimes, Which You Say You Have Heard Insisted On By Some, I Assure You Was Never Mine.
Ideas
Virtue
Crime
State A Moral Case To A Plowman And A Professor. The Former Will Decide It As Well, And Often Better Than The Latter, Because He Has Not Been Led Astray By Artificial Rules.
Intelligence
Ethics
Morality
It Is To Secure Our Rights That We Resort To Government At All.
Rights
Government
Resorts
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?
Son
Men
Democracy
To Preserve The Freedom Of The Human Mind Then And Freedom Of The Press, Every Spirit Should Be Ready To Devote Itself To Martyrdom; For As Long As We May Think As We Will, And Speak As We Think, The Condition Of Man Will Proceed In Improvement
4th Of July
Men
Thinking
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.
Life
Character
World
Bigotry Is The Disease Of Ignorance.
Ignorance
Disease
Bigotry
We Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little.
Inspirational
Food
Weight Loss
If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free, It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be ... The People Cannot Be Safe Without Information. When The Press Is Free, And Every Man Is Able To Read, All Is Safe.
Truth
Men
People
If I Could Not Go To Heaven With But A Party, I Would Not Go There At All. Therefore, I Am Not Of The Party Of Federalists. But I Am Much Further From That Of The Anti-federalists.
Party
Heaven
Federalist
Sometimes It Is Said That Man Cannot Be Trusted With The Government Of Himself. Can He, Then Be Trusted With The Government Of Others? Or Have We Found Angels In The Form Of Kings To Govern Him? Let History Answer This Question.
Trust
Kings
Angel
My Construction Of The Constitution Is Very Different From That You Quote. It Is That Each Department Is Truly Independent Of The Others, And Has An Equal Right To Decide For Itself What Is The Meaning Of The Constitution In The Cases Submitted To Its Action; And Especially, Where It Is To Act Ultimately And Without Appeal.
Independent
Different
Action
My Most Earnest Wish Is To See The Republican Element Of Popular Control Pushed To The Maximum Of Its Practicable Exercise. I Shall Then Believe That Our Government May Be Pure And Perpetual.
Believe
Exercise
Government
I... [am] Convinced [man] Has No Natural Right In Opposition To His Social Duties.
Men
Civil Rights
Separation Of Church And State
Until We Stop Harming All Other Living Beings, We Are Still Savages.
Animal
Rights
Vegetarian Diet
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.
Religious
Rights
Natural
If The Measures Which Have Been Pursued Are Approved By The Majority, It Is The Duty Of The Minority To Acquiesce And Conform.
Democracy
Majority
Minorities
The Interests Of The States... Ought To Be Made Joint In Every Possible Instance In Order To Cultivate The Idea Of Our Being One Nation, And To Multiply The Instances In Which The People Shall Look Up To Congress As Their Head.
Ideas
Order
People
[the Federal Convention] Is Really An Assembly Of Demigods.
Assembly
Demigods
Conventions
A Nation, As A Society, Forms A Moral Person, And Every Member Of It Is Personally Responsible For His Society.
Integrity
Responsibility
Hypocrisy
He Alone Who Walks Strict And Upright, And Who, In Matters Of Opinion, Will Be Contented That Others Should Be As Free As Himself And Acquiesce When His Opinion Is Freely Overruled, Will Attain His Object In The End.
Politics
Matter
Opinion
Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error.
Errors
Enquiry
Inquiry
I Am Myself An Empiric In Natural Philosophy, Suffering My Faith To Go No Further Than My Facts. I Am Pleased, However, To See The Efforts Of Hypothetical Speculation, Because By The Collisions Of Different Hypotheses, Truth May Be Elicited And Science Advanced In The End.
Philosophy
Effort
Suffering
All The World Would Be Christian If They Were Taught The Pure Gospel Of Christ!.
Christian
Would Be
World
The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union.
People
Unions
Arbiter
No One, I Hope, Can Doubt My Wish To See... All Mankind Exercising Self-government, And Capable Of Exercising It. But The Question Is Not What We Wish, But What Is Practicable.
Exercise
Government
Self
Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Person Under Protection Of Habeas Corpus; And Trial By Juries Impartially Selected, These Principles Form The Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us, And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.
Freedom
Age
Trials
Resisting Tyranny Is Obeying God
Obeying God
Tyranny
Obeying
We Are Here Lounging Our Time Away, Doing Nothing, And Having Nothing To Do. It Gives Me Great Regret To Be Passing My Time So Uselessly When It Could Have Been So Importantly Employed At Home.
Regret
Home
Giving
I View Great Cities As Pestilential To The Morals, The Health And The Liberties Of Man. True, They Nourish Some Of The Elegant Arts; But The Useful Ones Can Thrive Elsewhere; And Less Perfection In The Others, With More Health, Virtue And Freedom, Would Be My Choice.
Art
Health
Men
Peace And Abstinence From European Interferences Are Our Objects, And So Will Continue While The Present Order Of Things In America Remain Uninterrupted.
Peace
War
Order
God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion.
Years
Second Amendment
Twenties
Ignorance Is Preferable To Error, And He Is Less Remote From The Truth Who Believes Nothing Than He Who Believes What Is Wrong.
Truth
Mistake
Believe
It Is Neither Wealth Nor Splendor; But Tranquility And Occupation Which Give You Happiness.
Life
Happiness
Work
The Present Generation Has The Same Right Of Self-government Which The Past One Has Exercised For Itself.
Past
Government
Self
A Schism Has Taken Place Among The Chemists. A Particular Set Of Them In France Have Undertaken To Remodel All The Terms Of The Science, And To Give Every Substance A New Name, The Composition, And Especially The Termination Of Which, Shall Define The Relation In Which It Stands To Other Substances Of The Same Family.
Taken
Science
Names
A Cold-blooded, Calculation, Unprincipled, Usurper, Without A Virtue, No Statesman, Knowing Nothing Of Commerce, Political Economy, Or Civil Government, And Supplying Ignorance By Bold Presumption.
Ignorance
Knowing Nothing
Government
By Nature's Law, Every Man Has A Right To Seize And Retake By Force His Own Property Taken From Him By Another, By Force Of Fraud. Nor Is This Natural Right Among The First Which Is Taken Into The Hands Of Regular Government After It Is Instituted. It Was Long Retained By Our Ancestors. It Was A Part Of Their Common Law, Laid Down In Their Books, Recognized By All The Authorities, And Regulated As To Circumstances Of Practice.
Book
Taken
Men
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.
Needs
Stones
Way
A Pirate Spreading Misery And Ruin Over The Face Of The Ocean
Ocean
Pirate
Insulting
I Never Before Knew The Full Value Of Trees. Under Them I Breakfast, Dine, Write, Read And Receive My Company.
Nature
Writing
Garden
Agreeable Society Is The First Essential In Constituting The Happiness And Of Course The Value Of Our Existence.
Society
Essentials
Firsts
If You Have To Eat Crow, Eat It While It's Young And Tender.
Motivational
Wisdom
Crow
The Selfish Spirit Of Commerce, Which Knows No Country, And Feels No Passion Or Principle But That Of Gain.
Country
Business
Selfish
The Sovereign Invigorator Of The Body Is Exercise, And Of All The Exercises Walking Is The Best.
Motivational
Fitness
Health
Reading, Reflection And Time Have Convinced Me That The Interests Of Society Require The Observation Of Those Moral Precepts Only In Which All Religions Agree (for All Forbid Us To Steal, Murder, Plunder, Or Bear False Witness), And That We Should Not Intermeddle With The Particular Dogmas In Which All Religions Differ, And Which Are Totally Unconnected With Morality.
Reading
Reflection
Bears
Convinced That The Republican Is The Only Form Of Government Which Is Not Eternally At Open Or Secret War With The Rights Of Mankind, My Prayers & Efforts Shall Be Cordially Distributed To The Support Of That We Have So Happily Established. It Is Indeed An Animating Thought That, While We Are Securing The Rights Of Ourselves & Our Posterity, We Are Pointing Out The Way To Struggling Nations Who Wish, Like Us, To Emerge From Their Tyrannies Also. Heaven Help Their Struggles, And Lead Them, As It Has Done Us, Triumphantly Thro' Them.
Prayer
War
Struggle
No Society Can Make A Perpetual Constitution... The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generation.
Animal
Generations
Earth
If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free, In A State Of Civilization, It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be.
Education
Freedom
War
It Is A Principle That The Right To A Thing Gives A Right To The Means Without Which It Could Not Be Used, That Is To Say, That The Means Follow Their End.
Mean
Giving
Principles
You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts.
Art
Subjects
We Did Not Raise Armies For Glory Or For Conquest.
Peace
War
Army
One Insult Pocketed Soon Produces Another.
War
Political
Insult
Whenever The People Are Well Informed, They Can Be Trusted With Their Own Government; That Whenever Things Get So Far Wrong As To Attract Their Notice, They May Be Relied On To Set Them To Rights.
Trust
Rights
Government
Give Up Money, Give Up Fame, Give Up Science, Give The Earth Itself And All It Contains, Rather Than Do An Immoral Act.
Giving Up
Earth
Morality
If [god] Has Made It A Law In The Nature Of Man To Pursue His Own Happiness, He Has Left Him Free In The Choice Of Place As Well As Mode, And We May Safely Call On The Whole Body Of English Jurists To Produce The Map On Which Nature Has Traced For Each Individual The Geographical Line Which She Forbids Him To Cross In Pursuit Of Happiness.
Pursuit Of Happiness
Men
Law
The Purse Of The People Is The Real Seat Of Sensibility. Let It Be Drawn Upon Largely, And They Will Then Listen To Truths Which Could Not Excite Them Through Any Other Organ.
Real
People
Purses
The Government You Elect Is The Government You Deserve.
Government
Deserve
I Believe That Every Human Mind Feels Pleasure In Doing Good To Another.
Happiness
Peace
Laughter
Millions Of Innocent Men, Women And Children, Since The Introduction Of Christianity, Have Been Burnt, Tortured, Fined And Imprisoned; Yet We Have Not Advanced One Inch Towards Uniformity. What Has Been The Effect Of Coercion? To Make One Half The World Fools, And The Other Half Hypocrites. To Support Roguery And Error All Over The Earth.
Religious
Children
Hypocrite
Nothing Is So Disgusting To Our Sex As Want Of Cleanliness And Delicacy In Yours.
Sex
Delicacy
Want
Most Codes Extend Their Definitions Of Treason To Acts Not Really Against One's Country. They Do Not Distinguish Between Acts Against The Government, And Acts Against The Oppressions Of The Government. The Latter Are Virtues, Yet Have Furnished More Victims To The Executioner Than The Former. Real Treasons Are Rare; Oppressions Frequent. The Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.
Country
Real
Government
The Functionaries Of Every Government Have Propensities To Command At Will The Liberty And Property Of Their Constituents. There Is No Safe Deposit For These But With The People Themselves, Nor Can They Be Safe With Them Without Information. Where The Press Is Free, And Every Man Able To Read, All Is Safe.
Education
Men
People
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.
Men
Race
Self
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.
Country
Peace
War
The Most Valuable Of All Talents Is That Of Never Using Two Words When One Will Do.
Inspirational
Motivational
Teaching
An Elective Despotism Was Not The Government We Fought For, But One Which Should Not Only Be Founded On True Free Principles, But In Which The Powers Of Government Should Be So Divided And Balanced Among General Bodies Of Magistracy, As That No One Could Transcend Their Legal Limits Without Being Effectually Checked And Restrained By The Others.
Government
Liberty
Principles
The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others.
Religious
Government
Political
I Prefer To Be Remembered For What I Have Done For Others, Not What Others Have Done For Me.
Done
Preference
Remembered
My Reason For Fixing Them In Office For A Term Of Years, Rather Than For Life, Was That They Might Have An Idea That They Were At A Certain Period To Return Into The Mass Of The People And Become The Governed Instead Of The Governors Which Might Still Keep Alive That Regard To The Public Good That Otherwise They Might Perhaps Be Induced By Their Independence To Forget.
Years
Ideas
People
The Sun Of Her [great Britain] Glory Is Fast Descending To The Horizon. Her Philosophy Has Crossed The Channel, Her Freedom The Atlantic, And Herself Seems Passing To That Awful Dissolution, Whose Issue Is Not Given Human Foresight To Scan.
Philosophy
Issues
Horizon
This Institution Will Be Based On The Illimitable Freedom Of The Human Mind. For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead, Not Tolerate Error As Long As Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.
Truth
War
Errors
Let Us, Then, Fellow Citizens, Unite With One Heart And One Mind. Let Us Restore To Social Intercourse That Harmony And Affection Without Which Liberty And Even Life Itself Are But Dreary Things. And Let Us Reflect That Having Banished From Our Land That Religious Intolerance Under Which Mankind So Long Bled, We Have Yet Gained Little If We Counternance A Political Intolerance As Despotic, As Wicked, And Capable Of A Bitter And Bloody Persecutions.
Religious
Heart
Land
Material Abundance Without Character Is The Surest Way To Destruction.
Character
Way
Wealth
I Have Recently Been Examining All The Known Superstitions Of The World And Do Not Find In Our Particular Superstition [christianity] One Redeeming Feature.
Death
Wisdom
Religious
I Have No Fear That The Result Of Our Experiment Will Be That Men May Be Trusted To Govern Themselves Without A Master.
Men
Liberty
May
...we Are All Federalists,and We Are All Republicans.
Republican
Federalist
I Will Now Add What I Do Not Like. First, The Omission Of A Bill Of Rights Providing Clearly And Without The Aid Of Sophisms For Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Protection Against Standing Armies, Restriction Against Monopolies, The Eternal And Unremitting Force Of The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Trials By Jury In All Matters Of Fact Triable By The Laws Of The Land And Not By The Law Of Nations.
Army
Omission
Rights
What Has Destroyed Liberty And The Rights Of Man In Every Government Which Has Ever Existed Under The Sun? The Generalizing And Concentrating All Cares And Power Into One Body, No Matter Whether Of The Autocrats Of Russia Or France, Or Of The Aristocrats Of A Venetian Senate.
Men
Russia
Rights
Our Part Is To Pursue With Steadiness What Is Right, Turning Neither To Right Nor Left For The Intrigues Or Popular Delusions Of The Day, Assured That The Public Approbation Will In The End Be With Us.
Ends
Intrigue
Delusion
From Breakfast, Or Noon At The Latest, To Dinner, I Am Mostly On Horseback, Attending To My Farm Or Other Concerns, Which I Find Healthful To My Body, Mind, And Affairs.
Agriculture
Mind
Noon
Difference Of Opinion Is Advantageous In Religion. The Several Sects Perform The Office Of A Censor - Over Each Other.
Life
Differences
Office
France, Freed From That Monster, Bonaparte, Must Again Become The Most Agreeable Country On Earth. It Would Be The Second Choice Of All Whose Ties Of Family And Fortune Give A Preference To Some Other One, And The First Choice Of All Not Under Those Ties.
Country
Ties
Giving
Shake Hands With Pain, Give Greeting Unto Grief, Those Angels In Disguise, And Thy Glad Soul From Height To Height, From Star To Shining Star, Shall Climb And Claim Blest Immortality.
Stars
Pain
Grief
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.
Education
Individual Happiness
Judging
To Every Obstacle Oppose Patience, Perseverance And Soothing Language.
Perseverance
Adversity
Obstacles
When Angry Count To Ten Before You Speak. If Very Angry, Count To One Hundred.
Leadership
Anger
Speak
The Purpose Of Establishing Different Houses Of Legislation Is To Introduce The Influence Of Different Interests Or Different Principles.
House
Political
Principles
No Duty The Executive Had To Perform Was So Trying As To Put The Right Man In The Right Place.
Men
Political
Trying
Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery And Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.
Atheism
Argument
Purity
I Think By Far The Most Important Bill In Our Whole Code Is That For The Diffusion Of Knowlege Among The People. No Other Sure Foundation Can Be Devised For The Preservation Of Freedom, And Happiness.
Educational
Knowledge
Thinking
The Idea Of Creating A National Bank I Do Not Concur In, Because It Seems Now Decided That Congress Has Not That Power (although I Sincerely Wish They Had It Exclusively), And Because I Think There Is Already A Vast Redundancy Rather Than A Scarcity Of Paper Medium.
Thinking
Ideas
Creating
History Teaches The Young The Virtues Of Freedom. By Apprising Them Of The Past It Will Enable Them To Judge The Future.
Past
History
Judging
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.
Moon
Ideas
Inalienable Rights
Without Society, And A Society To Our Taste, Men Are Never Contented.
Men
Society
Taste
A Bill Of Rights Is What The People Are Entitled To Against Every Government, And What No Just Government Should Refuse, Or Rest On Inference.
Patriotic
Rights
Government
Nothing But A Necessity Invincible By Any Other Means Can Justify ... A Prostitution Of Laws, Which Constitute The Pillars Of Our Whole System Of Jurisprudence.
Mean
Law
Jurisprudence
We Do Not Mean To Count Or Weigh Our Contributions By Any Standard Other Than That Of Our Abilities.
Money
Mean
Standards
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.
Doubt
May
Trouble
The Reason That Christianity Is The Best Friend Of Government Is Because Christianity Is The Only Religion That Changes The Heart.
4th Of July
Heart
Godly
If The Book Be False In Its Facts, Disprove Them; If False In Its Reasoning, Refute It. But, For God's Sake, Let Us Freely Hear Both Sides, If We Choose.
Book
Political Differences
Politics
I Have Learned To Be Less Confident In The Conclusions Of Human Reason, And Give More Credit To The Honesty Of Contrary Opinions.
Honesty
Giving
Politics
The Habeas Corpus Secures Every Man Here, Alien Or Citizen, Against Everything Which Is Not Law, Whatever Shape It May Assume.
Men
Law
Civil Rights
The Truth Is, That The Greatest Enemies To The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Those, Calling Themselves The Expositors Of Them, Who Have Perverted Them For The Structure Of A System Of Fancy Absolutely Incomprehensible, And Without Any Foundation In His Genuine Words.
Jesus
Enemy
Foundation
I Have Examined All Of The Known Superstitions Of The World And I Do Not Find Our Superstitions Of Christianity One Redeeming Feature. They Are All Founded On Fables And Mythology. Christianity Has Made One-half Of The World Fools And The Other Half Hypocrites
Death
Hypocrite
Half
"it Astonishes Me To Find... [that So Many] Of Our Countrymen... Should Be Contented To Live Under A System Which Leaves To Their Governors The Power Of Taking From Them The Trial By Jury In Civil Cases, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce, The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Of Yoking Them With A Standing Army. This Is A Degeneracy In The Principles Of Liberty... Which I [would Not Have Expected For At Least] Four Centuries."
Army
Law
Liberty
No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.
Wine
Drunk
Politics
Experience Has Proved To Us That A Dollar Of Silver Disappears For Every Dollar Of Paper Emitted.
Dollars
Paper
Silver
All Power Is Inherent In The People.
Gun
Strong Arms
People
We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.
Government Welfare
Government Debt
Historical
An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens.
Leadership
Honesty
Exercise
I View Great Cities As Pestilential To The Morals, The Health, And The Liberties Of Man.
Men
Views
Cities
The Christian Priesthood, Finding The Doctrines Of Christ Leveled To Every Understanding, And Too Plain To Need Explanation, Saw, In The Mysticism Of Plato, Materials With Which They Might Build Up An Artificial System Which Might, From It's Indistinctness, Admit Everlasting Controversy, Give Employment For Their Order, And Introduce It To Profit, Power And Pre-eminence.
Christian
Plato
Order
I Am Not An Advocate For Frequent Changes In Laws And Constitutions, But Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind.
Law
Hands
Mind
It Is More Honorable To Repair A Wrong Than To Persist In It.
Parliament
Honorable
Persist
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.
War
Long
Suffering
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.
Country
Book
Safe Return
I Fancy It Must Be The Quantity Of Animal Food Eaten By The English Which Renders Their Character Insusceptible To Civilization. I Suspect It Is In Their Kitchens And Not In Their Churches That The Reformation Must Be Worked.
Character
Animal
Civilization
God Grant That Men Of Principle Shall Be Our Principal Men.
Moving
Character
Men
Our Greatest Happiness Does Not Depend On The Condition Of Life In Which Chance Has Placed Us, But Is Always The Result Of A Good Conscience, Good Health, Occupation, And Freedom In All Just Pursuits.
Inspirational
Happiness
Happy
The Religion-builders Have So Distorted And Deformed The Doctrines Of Jesus, So Muffled Them In Mysticism, Fancies, And Falsehoods.
Jesus
Fancy
Doctrine
We Do, Then, Most Solemnly Before God And The World Declare That Regardless Of Every Consequence, At The Risk Of Every Distress, The Arms We Have Been Compelled To Assume We Will Use With Perseverance, Exerting To Their Utmost Energies All Those Powers Which Our Creator Hath Given Us To Preserve That Liberty Which He Committed To Us In Sacred Deposit And To Protect From Every Hostile Hand Our Lives And Our Properties.
Perseverance
Hands
Risk
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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