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If I Am To Meet With A Disappointment, The Sooner I Know It, The More Of Life I Shall Have To Wear It Off.
-Thomas Jefferson
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If I Am To

Thomas Jefferson
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If I Am To Meet With A Disappointment, The Sooner I Know It, The More Of Life I Shall Have To Wear It Off.

Understanding the Quote: "if i am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner i know..."

This quote by Thomas Jefferson reflects deeply on the theme of disappointment. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Disappointment, Disappointing, Knows, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Jefferson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on disappointment and disappointing. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Disappointment
Disappointing
Knows
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Rejecting All Organs Of Informationbut My Senses, I Rid Myself Of The Pyrrhonisms With Which An Indulgence In Speculations Hyperphysical And Antiphysical So Uselessly Occupy And Disquiet The Mind.
Mind
Speculation
Indulgence
All Men Are Created Equal.
Men
Classic
Equal
The Right Of Self-government Does Not Comprehend The Government Of Others.
Government
Self
Doe
Truth Will Do Well Enough If Left To Shift For Herself.
Enough
Wells
Left
Our Duty To Ourselves, To Posterity, And To Mankind, Call On Us By Every Motive Which Is Sacred Or Honorable, To Watch Over The Safety Of Our Beloved Country During The Troubles Which Agitate And Convulse The Residue Of The World, And To Sacrifice To That All Personal And Local Considerations.
Country
Sacrifice
Safety
What We Learn To Do, We Learn By Doing.
Inspirational
Educational
Learning
Travelling. ... When Men Of Sober Age Travel, They Gather Knowlege Which They May Apply Usefully For Their Country
Country
Educational
Men
In A Free Society With A Government Based On Reason, It Is Inevitable That There Will Be No Uniform Opinion About Important Issues. Those Accustomed To Suppression And Control By Governmental Authority See This As Leading Only To Chaos. But A Government Of The People Requires Difference Of Opinion In Order To Discover Truth And To Take Advantage Of The Opportunity That Only Understanding Brings.
Opportunity
Order
Differences
Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve Of The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blind-folded Fear.
Religious
Atheist
Fear
It Is Between Fifty And Sixty Years Since I Read It (i.e. The Book Of Revelations), And I Then Considered It Merely The Ravings Of A Maniac, No More Worthy Nor Capable Of Explanation Than The Incoherence Of Our Own Nightly Dreams.
Dream
Religious
Book
To History Therefore I Must Refer For Answer, In Which It Would Be An Unhappy Passage Indeed, Which Should Shew By What Fatal Indulgence Of Subordinate Views And Passions, A Contest For An Atom Had Defeated Well Founded Prospects Of Giving Liberty To Half The Globe.
Passion
Views
Giving
For The Power Given To Congress By The Constitution Does Not Extend To The Internal Regulation Of The Commerce Of A State (that Is To Say, Of The Commerce Between Citizen And Citizen,) Which Remain Exclusively With Its Own Legislature; But To Its External Commerce Only, That Is To Say, Its Commerce With Another State, Or With Foreign Nations, Or With The Indian Tribes.
Regulation
Tribes
Doe
I Rejoice When I Hear Of Young Men Of Virtue And Talents, Worthy To Receive And Likely To Preserve The Splendid Inheritance Of Self- Government, Which We Have Acquired And Shaped For Them.
Men
Self
Inheritance
The Genius Of Architecture Seems To Have Shed Its Maledictions Over This Land.
Land
Genius
Architecture
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
I Like The Power Given The Legislature To Levy Taxes, And For That Reason Solely Approve Of The Greater House Being Chosen By The People Directly.
People
House
Reason
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.
Daughter
Kings
Honesty
Our Tenet Ever Was . . . That Congress Had Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Were Restrained To Those Specifically Enumerated; And That, As It Was Never Meant That They Should Provide For That Welfare But By The Exercise Of The Enumerated Powers, So It Could Not Have Been Meant They Should Raise Money For Purposes Which The Enumeration Did Not Place Under Their Action.
Exercise
Purpose
Action
The Moment A Person Forms A Theory, His Imagination Sees In Every Object Only The Traits Which Favor That Theory.
Love Life
Imagination
Favors
When The People Are Afraid Of The Government, That's Tyranny. But When The Government Is Afraid Of The People, That's Liberty.
Government
People
Liberty
I Long To Be In The Midst Of The Children, And Have More Pleasure In Their Little Follies Than In The Wisdom Of The Wise.
Wise
Wisdom
Children
Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To God Alone.
Accountability
Principles
Civil Rights
The Dominion Which The Banking Institutions Have Obtained Over The Minds Of Our Citizens...must Be Broken, Or It Will Break Us.
Broken
Historical
Mind
No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.
Wine
Drunk
Politics
Man, Once Surrendering His Reason, Has No Remaining Guard Against Absurdities The Most Monstrous. . . .
Men
Religion
Reason
The General (federal) Government Will Tend To Monarchy, Which Will Fortify Itself From Day To Day, Instead Of Working Its Own Cures.
Government
Cures
Monarchy
I Would Observe To You That What Is Called Style In Writing Or Speaking Is Formed Very Early In Life While The Imagination Is Warm, And Impressions Are Permanent.
Writing
Imagination
Style
A Community Of Small Farmers... Land Property Owners, Will Be The Only Assurance That The Freedom Our Republic Offers Will Be Guaranteed To Each And Every Citizen.
Wisdom
Land
Community
The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.
Strength
Wisdom
Veterans Day
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
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.
Yield
New Orleans
History
He [washington] Has Often Declared To Me That He Considered Our New Constitution As An Experiment On The Practicability Of Republican Government, And With What Dose Of Liberty Man Could Be Trusted For His Own Good; That He Was Determined The Experiment Should Have A Fair Trial, And Would Lose The Last Drop Of His Blood In Support Of It. And These Declarations He Repeated To Me The Oftener And The More Pointedly.
Men
Blood
Should Have
Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error.
Errors
Enquiry
Inquiry
...it Is Impossible, I Say, For The Human Mind Not To Believe That There Is In All This Design, Cause, And Effect Up To An Ultimate Cause-a Fabricator Of All Things, From Matter And Motion-their Preserver And Regulator While Permitted To Exist In Their Present Forms-and Their Regenerator Into New And Other Forms.
Believe
Design
Mind
The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depositary Of Their Own Rights.
Rights
Citizens
Mass
Beer, If Drank With Moderation, Softens The Temper, Cheers The Spirit, And Promotes Health.
Cheer
Drinking
Beer
I Have Wished To See Chemistry Applied To Domestic Objects, To Malting, For Instance, Brewing, Making Cider, To Fermentation And Distillation Generally, To The Making Of Bread, Butter, Cheese, Soap, To The Incubation Of Eggs, &c.
Science
Eggs
Cheese
Were We Directed From Washington When To Sow And When To Reap, We Should Soon Want Bread.
4th Of July
Government
Political
Letters Are Not The First, But The Last Step In The Progression From Barbarism To Civilisation.
Educational
Letters
Lasts
Easter Was When They Nailed Him To The Cross. And He Never Said A Mumbling Word.
Easter
Dying
Crosses
We Should Talk Over The Lessons Of The Day, Or Lose Them In Music, Chess, Or The Merriments Of Our Family Companions.
Lessons
Chess
Should
In A Republican Nation Whose Citizens Are To Be Led By Reason And Persuasion And Not By Force, The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance.... Reason And Persuasion Are The Only Practicable Instruments. To Make Way For These, Free Inquiry Must Be Indulged.... Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To The Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them.
Art
Citizens
Inquiry
The Chief Purpose Of Government Is To Protect Life. Abandon That And You Have Abandoned All.
Government
Purpose
Abandoned
The Private Buildings [of Virginia] Are Very Rarely Constructed Of Stone Or Brick; Much The Greatest Proportion Being Of Scantlingand Boards, Plastered With Lime. It Is Impossible To Devise Things More Ugly, Uncomfortable, And Happily More Perishable.
Virginia
Boards
Ugly
Private Enterprise Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal.
Civil Rights
Equal
Enterprise
History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government.
Religious
Believe
Government
Laws Abridging The Natural Right Of The Citizen Should Be Restrained By Rigorous Constructions Within Their Narrowest Limits.
Law
Citizens
Limits
An Elective Despotism Was Not The Government We Fought For.
4th Of July
Government
Liberty
Why Suspend The Habeas Corpus In Insurrections And Rebellions? Examine The History Of England. See How Few Of The Cases Of The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Law Have Been Worthy Of That Suspension. They Have Been Either Real Treasons, Wherein The Parties Might As Well Have Been Charged At Once, Or Sham Plots, Where It Was Shameful They Should Ever Have Been Suspected. Yet For The Few Cases Wherein The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Has Done Real Good, That Operation Is Now Become Habitual And The Minds Of The Nation Almost Prepared To Live Under Its Constant Suspension.
Real
Party
Government
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
While The Farmer Holds The Title To The Land, Actually, It Belongs To All The People Because Civilization Itself Rests Upon The Soil.
Land
Civilization
People
I'd Rather Have Newspapers And No Government Than Government And No Newspapers.
Government
Newspapers
Public Employment Contributes Neither To Advantage Nor Happiness. It Is But Honorable Exile From One's Family And Affairs.
Happiness
Employment
Affair
War Is An Instrument Entirely Inefficient Toward Redressing Wrong; And Multiplies, Instead Of Indemnifying Losses.
Peace
War
Loss
If We Did A Good Act Merely From Love Of God And A Belief That It Is Pleasing To Him, Whence Arises The Morality Of The Atheist? ...their Virtue, Then, Must Have Had Some Other Foundation Than The Love Of God.
Religious
Atheist
Religion
Man ... Feels That He Is A Participator In The Government Of Affairs Not Merely At An Election, One Day In The Year, But Every Day.
Men
Years
One Day
When We Consider How Much Climate Contributes To The Happiness Of Our Condition, By The Fine Sensation It Excites, And The Productions It Is The Parent Of, We Have Reason To Value Highly The Accident Of Birth In Such A One As That Of Virginia.
Virginia
Parent
Climate
A Properly Functioning Democracy Depends On An Informed Electorate.
Democracy
Electorate
Depends
Ridicule Is The Only Weapon Which Can Be Used Against Unintelligible Propositions. Ideas Must Be Distinct Before Reason Can Act Upon Them; And No Man Ever Had A Distinct Idea Of The Trinity. It Is The Mere Abracadabra Of The Mountebanks Calling Themselves The Priests Of Jesus.
Jesus
Men
Ideas
The Selfish Spirit Of Commerce, Which Knows No Country, And Feels No Passion Or Principle But That Of Gain.
Country
Business
Selfish
For Themselves They Fought, For Themselves They Conquered, And For Themselves Alone They Have They Have Right To Hold.
The Way To Have Good And Safe Government Is Not To Trust It All To One, But To Divide It Among The Many, Distributing To Everyone Exactly The Functions In Which He Is Competent ... It Is By Dividing And Subdividing These Republics From The Great National One Down Through All Its Subordinations Until It Ends In The Administration Of Everyman's Farm By Himself, By Placing Under Everyone What His Own Eye May Superintend, That All Will Be Done For The Best.
Eye
Government
Liberty
It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods Or No God.
Life
God
Religious
Shake Off All The Fears And Servile Prejudices Under Which Weak Minds Are Servilely Crouched. Fix Reason Firmly In Her Seat, And Call To Her Tribunal Every Fact, Every Opinion. Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blindfolded Fear... Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven, And You Are Answerable Not For The Rightness But Uprightness Of The Decision.
Decision
Heaven
Mind
Now I Will Avow, That I Then Believed And Now Believe That Those General Principles Of Christianity Are As Eternal And Immutable As The Existence And Attributes Of God; And That Those Principles Of Liberty Are As Unalterable As Human Nature And Our Terrestrial, Mundane System.
Believe
Liberty
Principles
Though The Will Of The Majority Is In All Cases To Prevail, That Will, To Be Rightful, Must Be Reasonable.
Majority Rule
Tyranny Of The Majority
Minorities
From The Circumstances Of My Position, I Was Often Thrown Into The Society Of Horse-racers, Card-players, Fox-hunters, Scientific And Professional Men, And Of Dignified Men; And Many A Time Have I Asked Myself, In The Enthusiastic Moment Of The Death Of A Fox, The Victory Of A Favorite Horse, The Issue Of A Question Eloquently Argued At The Bar, Or In The Great Council Of The Nation, Well, Which Of These Kinds Of Reputation Should I Prefer? That Of A Horse-jockey, A Fox-hunter, An Orator, Or The Honest Advocate Of My Country's Rights?
Country
Horse
Player
The Introduction Of So Powerful An Agent As Steam [to A Carriage On Wheels] Will Make A Great Change In The Situation Of Man.
Powerful
Men
Wheels
The Most Effective Way To Find Ourselves Enslaved Will Not Be Done Openly. If Weakened We Will Sink Gradually. I Ask, Who Are The Militia? They Consist Of The Whole People, .... Except A Few Public Officers.
People
Done
Way
I Consider Trial By Jury As The Only Anchor Ever Yet Imagined By Man, By Which A Government Can Be Held To The Principles Of Its Constitution.
Men
Anchors
Law
But With Respect To Future Debt; Would It Not Be Wise And Just For That Nation To Declare In The Constitution They Are Forming That Neither The Legislature, Nor The Nation Itself Can Validly Contract More Debt, Than They May Pay Within Their Own Age, Or Within The Term Of 19 Years.
Wise
Government
Debt Free
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.
Political
Politics
Projects
I Love Peace, And Am Anxious That We Should Give The World Still Another Useful Lesson, By Showing To Them Other Modes Of Punishing Injuries Than By War, Which Is As Much A Punishment To The Punisher As To The Sufferer.
Peace
War
Punishment
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 Following [addition To The Bill Of Rights] Would Have Pleased Me: The People Shall Not Be Deprived Or Abridged Of Their Right To Speak, To Write, Or Otherwise To Publish Anything But False Facts Affecting Injuriously The Life, Liberty Or Reputation Of Others, Or Affecting The Peace Of The [united States] With Foreign Nations.
Writing
Rights
People
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.
Freedom
Men
Liberty
Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, And Navigation, The Four Pillars Of Our Prosperity, Are The Most Thriving When Left Most Free To Individual Enterprise.
Agriculture
Liberty
Four
So Inscrutable Is The Arrangement Of Causes And Consequences In This World, That A Two-penny Duty On Tea, Unjustly Imposed In A Sequestered Part Of It, Changes The Condition Of All Its Inhabitants.
Two
Tea
World
Don't Talk About What You Have Done Or What You Are Going To Do.
Fidgeting
Done
Kindergarten
[the Purpose Of A Written Constitution Is] To Bind Up The Several Branches Of Government By Certain Laws, Which, When They Transgress, Their Acts Shall Become Nullities; To Render Unnecessary An Appeal To The People, Or In Other Words A Rebellion, On Every Infraction Of Their Rights, On The Peril That Their Acquiescence Shall Be Construed Into An Intention To Surrender Those Rights.
Rights
Government
Law
Be Polite To All, But Intimate With Few.
Cynicism
Intimate
Polite
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.
Reading
Writing
Years
It Is To Them I Look, To The Rising Generation, And Not To The One Now In Power, For These Great Reformations I.e., Emancipation Of Slaves And Settlement Of The Virginia Constitution On A Firmer And More Permanent Basis.
Virginia
Looks
Rising
Do Not Neglect Your Music. It Will Be A Companion Which Will Sweeten Many Hours Of Life To You.
Music
Hours
Neglect
Paul Was The First Corrupter Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.
Jesus
Historical
Doctrine
Too Old To Plant Trees For My Own Gratification, I Shall Do It For My Posterity.
Garden
Tree
Serving Others
[f]alsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.
Heart
President
Tongue
Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than That Of Face And Stature.
Faces
Opinion
Conformity
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
[n Regard To Jesus Believing Himself Inspired] This Belief Carried No More Personal Imputation Than The Belief Of Socrates That He Was Under The Care And Admonition Of A Guardian Demon. And How Many Of Our Wisest Men Still Believe In The Reality Of These Inspirations While Perfectly Sane On All Other Subjects
Jesus
Believe
Inspiration
Our Liberty Depends On Freedom Of The Press.
Liberty
Freedom Of The Press
Depends
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.
Country
Pay The Price
Government
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident: That All Men Are Created Equal; That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Unalienable Rights; That Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.
Life
Change
Happiness
Some Other Natural Rights... [have] Not Yet Entered Into Any Declaration Of Rights.
Rights
Natural
Natural Rights
It Is A Melancholy Truth, That A Suppression Of The Press Could Not More Completely Deprive The Nation Of Its Benefits Than Is Done By Its Abandoned Prostitution To Falsehood.
Done
Benefits
Melancholy
Determine Never To Be Idle. No Person Will Have Occasion To Complain Of The Want Of Time Who Never Loses Any. It Is Wonderful How Much May Be Done If We Are Always Doing.
Inspirational
Time
Patriotic
Students Of Reading, Writing And Common Arithmetick . . . Graecian [greek], Roman, English And American History . . . Should Be Rendered . . . Worthy To Receive, And Able To Guard The Sacred Deposit Of The Rights And Liberties Of Their Fellow Citizens.
Education
Reading
Writing
An Hereditary Aristocracy... Will Change The Form Of Our Governments From The Best To The Worst In The World.
Government
Aristocracy
World
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.
Religious
Teaching
Government
I Am Persuaded Myself That The Good Sense Of The People Will Always Be Found To Be The Best Army. They May Be Led Astray For A Moment, But Will Soon Correct Themselves. The People Are The Only Censors Of Their Governors; And Even Their Errors Will Tend To Keep These To The True Principles Of Their Institution.
Army
Errors
People
The Genuine And Simple Religion Of Jesus Will One Day Be Restored: Such As It Was Preached And Practiced By Himself.
Jesus
Simple
Religion
He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second And Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual; He Tells Lies Without Attending To It, And Truths Without The World's Believing Him. This Falsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.
Lying
Believe
Heart
I Have Great Confidence In The Common Sense Of Mankind In General.
Confidence
Common Sense
Mankind
The Opinions Of Men Are Not The Object Of Civil Government, Nor Under Its Jurisdiction.
Truth
Men
Political
He Does Most In God's Great World Who Does His Best In His Own Little World.
Doe
World
Littles
The Natural Cause Of The Human Mind Is Certainly From Credulity To Skepticism.
Cynical
Mind
Causes
The People Of Every Country Are The Only Safe Guardians Of Their Own Rights.
Country
Rights
People
A Rising Nation, Spread Over A Wide And Fruitful Land, Traversing All The Seas With The Rich Production Of Their Industry.
Sea
Land
Rising
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.
Beauty
Eye
Virginia
...in War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy All Of Them
War
Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight.
Boisterous
Delight
Pursuit
The Man Who Would Choose Security Over Freedom Deserves Neither.
Freedom
Men
He Man
Considering The Great Importance To The Public Liberty Of The Freedom Of The Press, And The Difficulty Of Submitting It To Very Precise Rules, The Laws Have Thought It Less Mischievous To Give Greater Scope To Its Freedom Than To The Restraint Of It.
Law
Giving
Liberty
People Generally Have More Feeling For Canals And Roads Than Education. However, I Hope We Can Advance Them With Equal Pace.
Education
People
Feelings
It Is Wonderful How Much May Be Done If We Are Always Doing.
Done
Laziness
May
We Wish The Happiness And Prosperity Of Every Nation.
Wish
Prosperity
Foreign Policy
The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us. It Is Better To Keep The Wolf Out Of The Fold, Than To Trust To Drawing His Teeth And Talons After He Shall Have Entered.
Drawing
Teeth
Civil Rights
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.
Believe
Heart
Government
If We Are To Guard Against Ignorance And Remain Free, It Is The Responsibility Of Every American To Be Informed.
Ignorance
Responsibility
Ifs
Born In Other Countries, Yet Believing You Could Be Happy In This, Our Laws Acknowledge, As They Should Do, Your Right To Join Us In Society, Conforming, As I Doubt Not You Will Do, To Our Established Rules. That These Rules Shall Be As Equal As Prudential Considerations Will Admit, Will Certainly Be The Aim Of Our Legislatures, General And Particular.
Country
Believe
Law
The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood.
Civil Rights
Abandon
Presses
Everything Is Useful Which Contributes To Fix The Principles And Practices Of Virtue.
Practice
Principles
Virtue
I Concur With You Strictly In Your Opinion Of The Comparative Merits Of Atheism And Demonism, And Really See Nothing But The Latter In The Being Worshipped By Many Who Think Themselves Christians.
Christian
Thinking
Religion
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
Nothing Is So Engaging As The Little Domestic Cares Into Which You Appear To Be Entering, And As To Reading It Is Useful For Onlyfilling Up The Chinks Of More Useful And Healthy Occupations.
Reading
Healthy
Entering
Music Furnishes A Delightful Recreation For The Hours Of Respite From The Cares Of The Day, And Lasts Us Through Life.
Care
Lasts
Hours
A Lottery Is A Salutary Instrument And A Tax... Laid On The Willing Only, That Is To Say, On Those Who Can Risk The Price Of A Ticket Without Sensible Injury, For The Possibility Of A Higher Prize.
Gambling
Risk
Tickets
We Are Sensible Of The Duty And Expediency Of Submitting Our Opinions To The Will Of The Majority, And Can Wait With Patience Till They Get Right If They Happen To Be At Any Time Wrong.
Waiting
Democracy
Majority
I Find The Pain Of A Little Censure, Even When It Is Unfounded, Is More Acute Than The Pleasure Of Much Praise.
Pain
Emotional
Criticism
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
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.
Practice
Effort
Sincerity
The Art Of Governing Consists Simply Of Being Honest, Exercising Common Sense, Following Principle, And Doing What Is Right And Just.
Art
Exercise
Common Sense
A Little Rebellion Now And Then... Is A Medicine Necessary For The Sound Health Of Government.
Wisdom
Government
Medicine
Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery And Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.
Atheism
Argument
Purity
Hindsight Is An Exact Science. Hold Fast To Your Dreams, For It Dreams Die, Life Is A Broken-winged Bird That Cannot Fly. How Much Pain They Have Cost Us, The Evils Which Have Never Happened.
Dream
Pain
Evil
It Is A Misnomer To Call A Government Republican In Which A Branch Of The Supreme Power Is Independent Of The Nation.
Independent
Government
Branches
It Would Reduce The Whole Instrument To A Single Phrase, That Of Instituting A Congress With Power To Do Whatever Would Be For The Good Of The United States; And As They Would Be The Sole Judges Of The Good Or Evil, It Would Be Also A Power To Do Whatever Evil They Please . . . . Certainly No Such Universal Power Was Meant To Be Given Them. It [the Constitution] Was Intended To Lace Them Up Straightly Within The Enumerated Powers And Those Without Which, As Means, These Powers Could Not Be Carried Into Effect.
Mean
Evil
Judging
While Learning The Language In France A Young Man's Morals, Health And Fortune Are More Irresistibly Endangered Than In Any Country Of The Universe.
Country
Men
France
The Patriot, Like The Christian, Must Learn To Bear Revilings And Persecutions As A Part Of His Duty; And In Proportion As The Trial Is Severe, Firmness Under It Becomes More Requisite And Praiseworthy. It Requires, Indeed, Self-command. But That Will Be Fortified In Proportion As The Calls For Its Exercise Are Repeated.
Christian
Exercise
Self
Nothing Can Now Be Believed That Is Seen In A Newspaper.
Newspapers
A Superintending Power To Maintain The Universe In Its Course And Order.
Order
Courses
Universe
Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be.
Liberty
Virtue
The Boys Of The Rising Generation Are To Be The Men Of The Next, And The Sole Guardians Of The Principles We Deliver Over To Them.
Educational
Boys
Men
Where Everyman Is Participator In The Government Of Affairs, Not Merely At An Election One Day In The Year But Everyday, He Will Let The Heart Be Torn Out Of His Body Sooner Than His Power Be Wrested From Him By A Caesar Or A Bonaparte.
Heart
Government
Years
No Instance Exists Of A Person's Writing Two Language Perfectly. That Will Always Appear To Be His Native Language Which Was Most Familiar To Him In His Youth.
Writing
Native Language
Two
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
The Most Sacred Of The Duties Of A Government [is] To Do Equal And Impartial Justice To All Its Citizens.
Government
Justice
Inalienable Rights
For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead.
Truth
May
Not Afraid
Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.
Religious
Atheist
Secular Society
Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given To You By God.
Grace
Oracles
Reason
Never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself
Work
Responsibility
Trouble
Born In The Same Land, We Ought To Live As Brothers, Doing To Each Other All The Good We Can, And Not Listening To Wicked Men, Who May Endeavor To Make Us Enemies. By Living In Peace, We Can Help And Prosper One Another; By Waging War, We Can Kill And Destroy Many On Both Sides; But Those Who Survive Will Not Be The Happier For That.
Peace
Brother
War
An Occasional Insurrection Will Not Weigh Against The Inconveniences Of A Government Of Force, Such As Are Monarchies And Aristocracies.
Wisdom
Government
Aristocracy
Certainly, No Power To Prescribe Any Religious Exercise, Or To Assume Authority In Religious Discipline, Has Been Delegated To The General Government.
Religious
Exercise
Government
Without Books, I Would Certainly Die.
Book
Dies
No People Can Be Both Ignorant And Free.
People
Ignorant
If We Can But Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labours Of The People, Under The Pretence Of Taking Care Of Them, They Must Become Happy.
Government
America
People
Perfect Happiness, I Believe, Was Never Intended By The Deity To Be The Lot Of One Of His Creatures In This World; But That He Has Very Much Put In Our Power The Nearness Of Our Approaches To It Is What I Have Steadfastly Believed.
Happiness
Believe
Perfect
The Contest Is Not Between Us And Them, But Between Good And Evil, And If Those Who Would Fight Evil Adopt The Ways Of Evil, Evil Wins.
Fighting
Winning
Evil
The Price Of Barbecue Is Eternal Vigilance.
Barbecue
Vigilance
Eternal
He Who Knows Nothing Is Closer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehoods And Errors.
Life
Wisdom
Fun
Those Who Labour In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God, If Ever He Had A Chosen, People, Whose Breasts He Has Made His Peculiar Deposit For Substantial And Genuine Virtue.
People
Peculiar
Earth
I Think All The World Would Gain By Setting Commerce At Perfect Liberty.
Thinking
Perfect
Liberty
A Free Government Is Of All Others The Most Energetic.
Government
Energetic
Free Government
I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Powers Of The Society But The People Themselves; And If We Think Them Not Enlightened Enough To Exercise Their Control With A Wholesome Discretion, The Remedy Is Not To Take It From Them But To Inform Their Discretion.
Education
Peace
Exercise
A Departure From Principle In One Instance Becomes A Precedent For A Second; That Second For A Third; And So On, Till The Bulk Of The Society Is Reduced To Be Mere Automatons Of Misery, To Have No Sensibilities Left But For Sin And Suffering.
Adversity
Suffering
Principles
Never Yet Could I Find That A Black Had Uttered A Thought Above The Level Of Plain Narration; Never Saw Even An Elemental Trait Of Painting Or Sculpture.
Black
Sculpture
Levels
I Do Not Agree That An Age Of Pleasure Is No Compensation For A Moment Of Pain.
Pain
Age
Moments
I Am Sure The Man Who Powders Most, Perfumes Most, Embroiders Most, And Talks Most Nonsense, Is Most Admired. Though To Be Candid, There Are Some Who Have Too Much Good Sense To Esteem Such Monkey-like Animals As These, In Whose Formation, As The Saying Is, The Tailors And Barbers Go Halves With God Almighty.
Animal
Men
Half
I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God Eternal, Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man.
Change
Religious
Men
One Man With Courage Is A Majority.
Motivational
Success
Courage
My General Plan Would Be To Make The States One As To Everything Connected With Foreign Nations And Several As To Everything Purely Domestic.
Would Be
States
Plans
The Impious Presumption Of Legislators And Rulers, Civil As Well As Ecclesiastical, Who, Being Themselves But Fallible And Uninspired Men, Have Assumed Dominion Over The Faith Of Others, Setting Up Their Own Opinions And Modes Of Thinking As The Only True And Infallible, And As Such Endeavoring To Impose Them On Others, Hath Established And Maintained False Religions Over The Greatest Part Of The World And Through All Time.
Men
Thinking
Church
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.
Country
Book
Ignorance
Travelling Is Good For Your Health And Necessary For Your Amusement.
Amusement
It Is More Dangerous That Even A Guilty Person Should Be Punished Without The Forms Of Law Than That He Should Escape.
Law
Guilt
President
A Prince Whose Character Is Thus Marked By Every Act Which May Define A Tyrant, Is Unfit To Be The Ruler Of A People Who Mean To Be Free.
Character
Mean
Tyrants
[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
He Wove Those Three Threads Into A Talk Ranging From Annually Spending A Week At Halloween As A Child Collecting Candy To Giving Candy To Hundreds Of Children At Halloween As An Adult; From Childhood Assistance He Received From Adults, Particularly After His Parents Divorced, To Saying I Challenge You To Be A Caring Adult In Someone's Life ... Great Times Call Forth Great Leaders.
Children
Halloween
Caring
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.
Prayer
Men
President
Nothing Gives One Person So Much Advantage Over Another As To Remain Always Cool And Unruffled Under All Circumstances.
Motivational
Running
Spiritual
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.
Freedom
Ideas
Light
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
Aristocrats Fear The People, And Wish To Transfer All Power To The Higher Classes Of Society.
Class
People
Wish
We Owe Gratitude To France, Justice To England, Good Will To All, And Subservience To None ... It Was By The Sober Sense Of Our Citizens That We Were Safely And Steadily Conducted From Monarchy To Republicanism, And It Is By The Same Agency Alone We Can Be Kept From Falling Back.
Gratitude
Fall
Agency
Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blindfolded Fear.... Do Not Be Frightened From This Inquiry From Any Fear Of Its Consequences. If It Ends In The Belief That There Is No God, You Will Find Incitements To Virtue In The Comfort And Pleasantness You Feel In Its Exercise.
Exercise
Liberty
Comfort
Every Generation Needs A New Revolution.
Change
Famous Inspirational
Needs
[states And The Federal Government Are] Coordinate Departments Of One Simple And Integral Whole... The One Is The Domestic, The Other The Foreign Branch Of The Same Government.
Simple
Government
Branches
Honor, Justice, And Humanity, Forbid Us Tamely To Surrender That Freedom Which We Received From Our Gallant Ancestors, And Which Our Innocent Posterity Have A Right To Receive From Us.
War
Justice
Humanity
Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory. It Is An Insult To An Assembly Of Reasonable Men, Disgusting And Revolting Instead Ofpersuading. Speeches Measured By The Hour, Die By The Hour.
Men
Vices
Amplification
The Great Object Of My Fear Is The Federal Judiciary. That Body, Like Gravity, Ever Acting, With Noiseless Foot, And Unalarming Advance, Gaining Ground Step By Step, And Holding What It Gains, Is Ingulfing Insidiously The Special Governments Into The Jaws Of That Which Feeds Them.
Government
Feet
Special
Would It Not Be Better To Simplify The System Of Taxation Rather Than To Spread It Over Such A Variety Of Subjects And Pass Through So Many New Hands.
Hands
Taxation
Simplify
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.
Creativity
Thinking
Light
Never Suppose That In Any Possible Situation Or Under Any Circumstances That It Is Best For You To Do A Dishonorable Thing However Slightly So It May Appear To You... Encourage All Your Virtuous Dispositions, And Exercise Them Whenever An Opportunity Arises, Being Assured That They Will Gain Strength By Exercise ... And That Exercise Will Make Them Habitual.
Truth
Lying
Exercise
Malice Will Always Find Bad Motives For Good Actions. - Shall We Therefore Never Do Good?
Action
Motive
Malice
All Authority Belongs To The People... In Questions Of Power Let No More Be Heard Of Confidence In Man, But Bind Him Down From Mischief With Chains Of The Constitution.
Men
People
Liberty
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
I Have Never Been Able To Conceive How Any Rational Being Could Propose Happiness To Himself From The Exercise Of Power Over Others... An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens.... Power Is Not Alluring To Pure Minds And Is Not With Them The Primary Principle Of Contest.
Exercise
Men
Mind
The Relations Which Exist Between Man And His Maker, And The Duties Resulting From Those Relations, Are The Most Interesting And Important To Every Human Being And The Most Incumbent On His Study And Investigation.
Men
Interesting
Voting
Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.
War
Enemy
Foreign Policy
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