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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.

-Thomas Jefferson

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In A Republican Nation

Thomas Jefferson

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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.

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

Ours Are The Only Farmers Who Can Read Homer

It Is Not Only Vain, But Wicked, In A Legislator To Frame Laws In Opposition To The Laws Of Nature, And To Arm Them With The Terrors Of Death. This Is Truly Creating Crimes In Order To Punish Them.

I Am A Real Christian, That Is To Say, A Cisciple Of The Doctrines Of Jesus. I Have Little Doubt That Our Whole Country Will Soon Be Rallied To The Unity Of Our Creator.

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

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.

He Has Erected A Multitude Of New Offices, And Sent Hither Swarms Of Officers To Harass Our People And Eat Out Their Substance.

This I Hope Will Be The Age Of Experiments In Government, And That Their Basis Will Be Founded In Principles Of Honesty, Not Of Mere Force.

Were I To Commence My Administration Again, The First Question I Would Ask Respecting A Candidate Would Be, Does He Use Ardent Spirits?

As For What Is Not True, You Will Always Find Abundance In The Newspapers.

Every One Must Act According To The Dictates Of His Own Reason, And Mine Tells Me That Civil Powers Alone Have Been Given To The President Of The United States, And No Authority To Direct The Religious Exercises Of His Constituents.

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.

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

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.

I Am Already Sensible Of Decay In The Power Of Walking, And Find My Memory Not So Faithful As It Used To Be. This May Be Partly Owing To The Incessant Current Of New Matter Flowing Constantly Through It; But I Ascribe To Years Their Share In It Also.

The Wise Know Too Well Their Weakness To Assume Infallibility; And He Who Knows Most Knows Best How Little He Knows.

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

Progress Of Society

The Right Of Self-government Does Not Comprehend The Government Of Others.

I Hold The Precepts Of Jesus As Delivered By Himself, To Be The Most Pure, Benevolent And Sublime Which Have Ever Been Preached To Man.

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.

I Am A Sect By Myself, As Far As I Know.

Wine From Long Habit Has Become An Indispensable For My Health

The Last Hope Of Human Liberty In This World Rests On Us.

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.

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.

For St. Paul Only Says That It Is Better To Be Married Than To Burn. Now I Presume That If That Apostle Had Known That Providence Would At An After Day Be So Kind To Any Particular Set Of People As To Furnish Them With Other Means Of Extinguishing Their Fire Than Those Of Matrimony, He Would Have Earnestly Recmmended Them To Their Practice.

No Man Will Labor For Himself Who Can Make Another Labor For Him.

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.

By A Declaration Of Rights, I Mean One Which Shall Stipulate Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce Against Monopolies, Trial By Juries In All Cases, No Suspensions Of The Habeas Corpus, No Standing Armies. These Are Fetters Against Doing Evil Which No Honest Government Should Decline.

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

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

Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom. Let It Be Our Endeavor To Merit The Character Of A Just Nation.

Every Man Has Two Countries: His Own And France.

Countries Of The World

The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.

Bigotry Is The Disease Of Ignorance.

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

The Whole History Of These Books (i.e. The Gospels) Is So Defective And Doubtful That It Seems Vain To Attempt Minute Enquiry Into It: And Such Tricks Have Been Played With Their Text, And With The Texts Of Other Books Relating To Them, That We Have A Right, From That Cause, To Entertain Much Doubt What Parts Of Them Are Genuine. In The New Testament There Is Internal Evidence That Parts Of It Have Proceeded From An Extraordinary Man; And That Other Parts Are Of The Fabric Of Very Inferior Minds. It Is As Easy To Separate Those Parts, As To Pick Out Diamonds From Dunghills.

[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.

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

I Find Friendship To Be Like Wine, Raw When New, Ripened With Age, The True Old Man's Milk And Restorative Cordial.

All Eyes Are Opened, Or Opening, To The Rights Of Man. The General Spread Of The Light Of Science Has Already Laid Open To Every View. The Palpable Truth, That 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. These Are Grounds Of Hope For Others. For Ourselves, Let The Annual Return Of This Day Forever Refresh Our Recollections Of These Rights, And An Undiminished Devotion To Them.

The Merchants Will Manage [commerce] The Better, The More They Are Left Free To Manage For Themselves.

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.

The Principle Of The Constitution Is That Of A Separation Of Legislative, Executive And Judiciary Functions, Except In Cases Specified. If This Principle Be Not Expressed In Direct Terms, It Is Clearly The Spirit Of The Constitution, And It Ought To Be So Commented And Acted On By Every Friend Of Free Government.

The God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty. Can The Liberties Of A Nation Be Secure When We Have Removed A Conviction That These Liberties Are The Gift Of God?

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.

I Consider Ethics, As Well As Religion, As Supplements To Law In The Government Of Man.

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

I Deem No Government Safe Which Is Under The Vassalage Of Any Self-constituted Authorities, Or Any Other Authority Than That Of The Nation, Or Its Regular Functionaries.

If There Is A Gratification Which I Envy Any People In This World It Is To Your Country [italy] Its Music. This Is The Favorite Passion Of My Soul, And Fortune Has Cast My Lot In A Country Where It Is In A State Of Deplorable Barbarism.

What Is True Of Every Member Of The Society, Individually, Is True Of Them All Collectively; Since The Rights Of The Whole Can Be No More Than The Sum Of The Rights Of The Individuals.

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

I Hope We Shall . . . Crush In [its] Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Monied Corporations.

[f]alsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.

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

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

War Is An Instrument Entirely Inefficient Toward Redressing Wrong; And Multiplies, Instead Of Indemnifying Losses.

Blest Is That Nation Whose Silent Course Of Happiness Furnishes Nothing For History To Say.

Whenever Any Form Of Government Becomes Destructive Of These Ends [life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness] It Is The Right Of The People To Alter Or Abolish It, And To Institute New Government.

Pursuit Of Happiness

A Republic Will Avoid War Unless The Avoidance Might Create Conditions That Are Worse Than Warfare Itself. Sometimes, The Dispositions Of Those Who Choose To Make Themselves Our Enemies Leaves Us No Choice.

A Well Informed Citizenry Is The Best Defense Against Tyranny.

Force Cannot Give Right.

The Field Of Knolege Is The Common Property Of All Mankind

No Experiment Can Be More Interesting Than That We Are Now Trying, And Which We Trust Will End In Establishing The Fact, That Man May Be Governed By Reason And Truth. Our First Object Should Therefore Be, To Leave Open To Him All The Avenues To Truth. The Most Effectual Hitherto Found, Is The Freedom Of The Press. It Is, Therefore, The First Shut Up By Those Who Fear The Investigation Of Their Actions.

Freedom Of Speech

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

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.

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle.

Agriculture Is Our Wisest Pursuit, Because It Will In The End Contribute Most To Real Wealth, Good Morals, And Happiness.

Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery And Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.

What I Value More Than All Things, Good Humor.

Merchants Have No Country.

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effective Agents Against Error. Give A Loose To Them, They Will Support The True Religion By Bringing Every False One To Their Tribunal, To The Test Of Their Investigation. They Are The Natural Enemies Of Error And Error Only. Had Not The Roman Government Permitted Free Inquiry, Christianity Could Never Have Been Introduced. Had Not Free Inquiry Been Indulged At The Era Of The Reformation, The Corruption Of Christianity Could Not Have Been Purged Away.

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

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

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.

Above All Things, And At All Times, Practice Yourself In Good Humor.

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

On The Dogmas Of Religion, As Distinguished From Moral Principles, All Mankind, From The Beginning Of The World To This Day, Have Been Quarrelling, Fighting, Burning And Torturing One Another, For Abstractions Unintelligible To Themselves And To All Others, And Absolutely Beyond The Comprehension Of The Human Mind.

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

The Great Cause Which Divides Our Countries Is Not To Be Decided By Individual Animosities. The Harmony Of Private Societies Cannot Weaken National Efforts.

A Community Of Small Farmers... Land Property Owners, Will Be The Only Assurance That The Freedom Our Republic Offers Will Be Guaranteed To Each And Every Citizen.

I 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.

In Our Richmond There Is Much Fanaticism, But Chiefly Among The Women. They Have Their Night Meetings And Prayer Parties, Where, Attended By Their Priests, And Sometimes By A Hen-pecked Husband, They Pour Forth The Effusions Of Their Love To Jesus, In Terms As Amatory And Carnal, As Their Modesty Would Permit Them To Use A Mere Earthly Lover.

The Merchant Has No Country .

But Friendship Is Precious, Not Only In The Shade, But In The Sunshine Of Life, And Thanks To A Benevolent Arrangement The Greater Part Of Life Is Sunshine.

When Virtue Is Banished, Ambition Invades The Minds Of Those Who Are Disposed To Receive It, And Avarice Possesses The Whole Community. The Objects Of Their Desires Are Changed; What They Were Fond Of Before Has Become Indifferent; They Were Free While Under The Restraint Of Laws, But They Would Fain Now Be Free To Act Against Law.

I Think It Is A Great Error To Consider A Heavy Tax On Wines As A Tax On Luxury. On The Contrary, It Is A Tax On The Health Of Our Citizens.

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.

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.

While Wading Through The Whimsies, The Puerilities, And Unintelligible Jargon Of This Work [plato's Republic], I Laid It Down Often To Ask Myself How It Could Have Been That The World Should Have So Long Consented To Give Reputation To Such Nonsense As This?

I Abhor War And View It As The Greatest Scourge Of Mankind.

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.

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.

All Things Here Appear To Me To Trudge On In One And The Same Round: We Rise In The Morning That We May Eat Breakfast, Dinner Andsupper And To Bed Again That We May Get Up The Next Morning And Do The Same: So That You Never Saw Two Peas More Alike Than Our Yesterday And To-day.

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

The Eyes Of Our Citizens Are Not Sufficiently Open To The True Cause Of Our Distress. They Ascribe Them To Everything But Their True Cause, The Banking System

It Must Be Observed That Our Revenues Are Raised Almost Wholly On Imported Goods.

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 Happiest Moments My Heart Knows Are Those In Which It Is Pouring Forth Its Affections To A Few Esteemed Characters.

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

Mind Your Own Business

... 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.

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.

Whiskey Claims To Itself Alone The Exclusive Office Of Sot-making.

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.

Knowing Nothing

Certainly, No Power To Prescribe Any Religious Exercise, Or To Assume Authority In Religious Discipline, Has Been Delegated To The General Government.

The Declaration Of Independence . . . [is The] Declaratory Charter Of Our Rights, And The Rights Of Man.

The Cornerstone Of Democracy Rests On The Foundation Of An Educated Electorate.

The Liberty Of The Whole Earth Was Depending On The Issue Of The Contest, And Was Ever Such A Prize Won With So Little Innocent Blood?

In Every Country And Every Age, The Priest Has Been Hostile To Liberty. He Is Always In Alliance With The Despot, Abetting His Abuses In Return For Protection To His Own. It Is Easier To Acquire Wealth And Power By This Combination Than By Deserving Them, And To Effect This, They Have Perverted The Purest Religion Ever Preached To Man Into Mystery And Jargon, Unintelligible To All Mankind, And Therefore The Safer For Their Purposes.

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

The Only Greater [evil] Than Separation... [is] Living Under A Government Of Discretion.

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

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.

The Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.

I Consider The Government Of The United States As Interdicted By The Constitution From Intermeddling With Religious Institutions, Their Doctrines, Discipline, Or Exercises. This Results Not Only From The Provision That No Law Shall Be Made Respecting The Establishment Or Free Exercise Of Religion, But From That Also Which Reserves To The States The Powers Not Delegated To The United States. Certainly, No Power To Prescribe Any Religious Exercise Or To Assume Authority In Any Religious Discipline Has Been Delegated To The General Government. It Must Then Rest With The States.

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.

It Is Comfortable To See The Standard Of Reason At Length Erected, After So Many Ages, During Which The Human Mind Has Been Held In Vassalage By Kings, Priests, And Nobles; And It Is Honorable For Us To Have Produced The First Legislature Who Had The Courage To Declare That The Reason Of Man May Be Trusted With The Formation Of His Own Opinions.

Our Country Is Now Taking So Steady A Course As To Show By What Road It Will Pass To Destruction, To Wit: By Consolidation Of Power First, And Then Corruption, Its Necessary Consequence.

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.

As Government Grows, Freedom Recedes.

The Glow Of One Warm Thought Is To Me Worth More Than Money.

Famous Inspirational

If Your Letters Are As Long As The Bible, They Will Appear Short To Me. Only Let Them Be Brim Full Of Affection.

...we Are All Federalists,and We Are All Republicans.

If Ever We Are Constrained To Lift The Hatchet Against Any Tribe, We Will Never Lay It Down Till That Tribe Is Exterminated, Or Driven Beyond The Mississippi... In War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy Them All.

American Indian

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.

One War, Such As That Of Our Revolution, Is Enough For One Life.

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

Opinion, And The Just Maintenance Of It, Shall Never Be A Crime In My View.

Music, Drawing, Books, Invention & Exercise Will Be So Many Resources To You Against Ennui.

The Happiest Moments Of My Life Have Been The Few Which I Have Passed At Home In The Bosom Of My Family.

The Human Character, We Believe, Requires In General Constant And Immediate Control To Prevent Its Being Biased From Right By The Seductions Of Self-love.

I Am Sorry They Began Their Deliberations By So Abominable A Precedent As That Of Tying Up The Tongues Of Their Members. Nothing Can Justify This Example But The Innocence Of Their Intentions And Ignorance Of The Value Of Public Discussions. I Have No Doubt That All Their Other Measures Will Be Good And Wise. It Is Really An Assembly Of Demigods.

. . . In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment.

The Happiness Of Society Depends So Much On Preventing Party Spirit From Infecting The Common Intercourse Of Life, That Nothing Should Be Spared To Harmonize And Amalgamate The Two Parties In Social Circles.

Material Abundance Without Character Is The Surest Way To Destruction.

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.

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God.

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

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.

The Multiplication Of Public Offices, Increase Of Expense Beyond Income, Growth And Entailment Of A Public Debt Are Indications Soliciting The Employment Of The Pruning Knife.

Government Debt

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

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.

Whose Foot Is To Be The Measure To Which Ours Are All To Be Cut Or Stretched?

There Are Two Subjects, Indeed, Which I Shall Claim A Right To Further As Long As I Breathe: The Public Education, And The Sub-division Of Counties Into Wards. I Consider The Continuance Of Republican Government As Absolutely Hanging On These Two Hooks.

Every Day Is Lost In Which We Do Not Learn Something Useful. Man Has No Nobler Or More Valuable Possession Than Time.

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

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

A Man's Moral Sense Must Be Unusually Strong If Slavery Does Not Make Him A Thief.

We Exist, And Are Quoted, As Standing Proofs That A Government, So Modeled As To Rest Continually On The Will Of The Whole Society, Is A Practicable Government.

Fix Reason Firmly In Her Seat, And Call On Her Tribunal For Every Fact, Every Opinion. Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God

Truth Between Candid Minds Can Never Do Harm.

Whensoever The General Government Assumes Undelegated Powers, Its Acts Are Unauthoritative, Void, And Of No Force.

[my] Pillar Of Support Through Life.... I Can Say Conscientiously That I Do Not Know In The World A Man Of Purer Integrity, More Dispassionate, Disinterested, And Devoted To Genuine Republicanism; Nor Could I In The Whole Scope Of America And Europe Point Out An Abler Head.

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle Grateful That They Are Not Worse Rather Than The Rough Handle, Bitter That They Are Not Better.

We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.

Unalienable Rights

Inalienable Rights

The Reward Of Esteem, Respect And Gratitude [is] Due To Those Who Devote Their Time And Efforts To Render The Youths Of Every Successive Age Fit Governors For The Next.

We Are Completely Saddled And Bridled, And... The Bank Is So Firmly Mounted On Us That We Must Go Where It Will Guide.

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

Well Aware That The Opinions And Belief Of Men Depend Not On Their Own Will, But Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds; That Almighty God Hath Created The Mind Free, And Manifested His Supreme Will That Free It Shall Remain By Making It Altogether Insusceptible Of Restraint; That All Attempts To Influence It By Temporal Punishments, Or Burthens, Or By Civil Incapacitations, Tend Only To Beget Habits Of Hypocrisy And Meanness, And Are A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion.

And For The Support Of This Declaration, With A Firm Reliance On The Protection Of Divine Providence, We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor.

We Established However Some, Although Not All Its [self-government] Important Principles . The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert, That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That They May Exercise It By Themselves, In All Cases To Which They Think Themselves Competent, (as In Electing Their Functionaries Executive And Legislative, And Deciding By A Jury Of Themselves, In All Judiciary Cases In Which Any Fact Is Involved,) Or They May Act By Representatives, Freely And Equally Chosen; That It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed.

Each Generation Has A Right To Choose For Itself The Form Of Government It Believes Most Promotive Of Its Happiness.

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

We Lay It Down As A Fundamental, That Laws, To Be Just, Must Give A Reciprocation Of Right; That, Without This, They Are Mere Arbitrary Rules Of Conduct, Founded In Force, And Not In Conscience.

In The Fevered State Of Our Country, No Good Can Ever Result From Any Attempt To Set One Of These Fiery Zealots To Rights, Either In Fact Or Principle. They Are Determined As To The Facts They Will Believe, And The Opinions On Which They Will Act. Get By Them, Therefore, As You Would By An Angry Bull; It Is Not For A Man Of Sense To Dispute The Road With Such An Animal.

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

It Has Also Been A Great Solace To Me, To Believe That You Are Engaged In Vindicating To Posterity The Course We Have Pursued For Preserving To Them, In All Their Purity, The Blessings Of Self-government, Which We Had Assisted Too In Acquiring For Them. If Ever The Earth Has Beheld A System Of Administration Conducted With A Single And Steadfast Eye To The General Interest And Happiness Of Those Committed To It, One Which, Protected By Truth, Can Never Know Reproach, It Is That To Which Our Lives Have Been Devoted.

The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert, That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That They May Exercise It By Themselves, In All Cases To Which They Think Themselves Competent, Or They May Act By Representatives, Freely And Equally Chosen; That It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed; That They Are Entitled To Freedom Of Person, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of Property, And Freedom Of The Press.

Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science, By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight. But The Enormities Of The Times In Which I Have Lived, Have Forced Me To Take A Part In Resisting Them, And To Commit Myself On The Boisterous Ocean Of Political Passions.

It Is A [disputed] Question, Whether The Circulation Of Paper, Rather Than Of Specie [gold And Silver Coin], Is A Good Or An Evil I Believe It To Be One Of Those Cases Where Mercantile Clamor Will Bear Down Reason, Until It Is Corrected By Ruin.

I Duly Acknowledge That I Have Gone Through A Long Life, With Fewer Circumstances Of Affliction Than Are The Lot Of Most Men. Uninterrupted Health, A Competence For Every Reasonable Want, Usefulness To My Fellow-citizens, A Good Portion Of Their Esteem, No Complaint Against The World Which Has Sufficiently Honored Me, And Above All, A Family Which Has Blessed Me By Their Affections, And Never By Their Conduct Given Me A Moment's Pain.

The Evils Which Of Necessity Encompass The Life Of Man Are Sufficiently Numerous. Why Should We Add To Them By Voluntarily Distressing And Destroying One Another? Peace, Brothers, Is Better Than War. In A Long And Bloody War, We Lose Many Friends, And Gain Nothing. Let Us Then Live In Peace And Friendship Together, Doing To Each Other All The Good We Can.

Were Parties Here Divided Merely By A Greediness For Office,...to Take A Part With Either Would Be Unworthy Of A Reasonable Or Moral Man.

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

It Should Be Our Endeavor To Cultivate The Peace And Friendship Of Every Nation . . . . Our Interest Will Be To Throw Open The Doors Of Commerce, And To Knock Off All Its Shackles, Giving Perfect Freedom To All Persons For The Vent To Whatever They May Choose To Bring Into Our Ports, And Asking The Same In Theirs.

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.

A Mind Always Employed Is Always Happy. This Is The True Secret, The Grand Recipe, For Felicity.

The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others.

I Own That I Am Not A Friend To A Very Energetic Government. It Is Always Oppressive.

Health Is Worth More Than Learning.

Never Use Two Words When One Will Do.

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.

To Compel A Man To Furnish Contributions Of Money For The Propagation Of Opinions Which He Disbelieves And Abhors, Is Sinful And Tyrannical; . . . Even The Forcing Him To Support This Or That Teacher Of His Own Religious Persuasion, Is Depriving Him Of The Comfortable Liberty Of Giving His Contributions To The Particular Pastor Whose Morals He Would Make His Pattern. . . .

I Do Not Find In Orthodox Christianity One Redeeming Feature.

I Have Always Said That A Studious Perusal Of The Sacred Volume Will Make Better Citizens, Better Fathers, And Better Husbands.

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

The Most Sacred Of The Duties Of A Government [is] To Do Equal And Impartial Justice To All Its Citizens.

Inalienable Rights

Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To Our God Alone. I Enquire After No Man's And Trouble None With Mine; Nor Is It Given To Us In This Life To Know Whether Yours Or Mine, Our Friend's Or Our Foe's, Are Exactly The Right.

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

It Is Too Late In The Day For Men Of Sincerity To Pretend They Believe In The Platonic Mysticisms That Three Are One, And One Is Three; And Yet That The One Is Not Three, And The Three Are Not One.

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.

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.

To Take From One Because It Is Thought That His Own Industry And That Of His Father's Has Acquired Too Much, In Order To Spare To Others, Who, Or Whose Fathers Have Not Exercised Equal Industry And Skill, Is To Violate Arbitrarily The First Principle Of Association-the Guarantee To Every One Of A Free Exercise Of His Industry And The Fruits Acquired By It.

The Most Effective Means Of Preventing Tyranny Is To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts.

I Am Anxious To See The Doctrine Of One God Commenced In Our State. But The Population Of My Neighborhood Is Too Slender, And Is Too Much Divided Into Other Sects To Maintain Any One Preacher Well. I Must Therefore Be Contented To Be An Unitarian By Myself, Although I Know There Are Many Around Me Who Would Become So, If Once They Could Hear The Questions Fairly Stated.

We Sometimes From Dreams Pick Up Some Hint Worth Improving By Reflection.

Traveling Makes Men Wiser, But Less Happy.

War...is As Much A Punishment To The Punisher As To The Sufferer.

It Should Be Remembered, As An Axiom Of Eternal Truth In Politics, That Whatever Power In Any Government Is Independent, Is Absolute Also.

The Christian God Can Easily Be Pictured As Virtually The Same God As The Many Ancient Gods Of Past Civilizations. The Christian God Is A Three Headed Monster Cruel Vengeful And Capricious. If One Wishes To Know More Of This Raging Three Headed Beast Like God One Only Needs To Look At The Caliber Of People Who Say They Serve Him. They Are Always Of Two Classes Fools And Hypocrites.

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