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In America, No Other Distinction Between Man And Man Had Ever Been Known But That Of Persons In Office Exercising Powers By Authority Of The Laws, And Private Individuals. Among These Last, The Poorest Laborer Stood On Equal Ground With The Wealthiest Millionaire, And Generally On A More Favored One Whenever Their Rights Seem To Jar.

-Thomas Jefferson

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In America, No Other

Thomas Jefferson

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In America, No Other Distinction Between Man And Man Had Ever Been Known But That Of Persons In Office Exercising Powers By Authority Of The Laws, And Private Individuals. Among These Last, The Poorest Laborer Stood On Equal Ground With The Wealthiest Millionaire, And Generally On A More Favored One Whenever Their Rights Seem To Jar.

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Believing That The Happiness Of Mankind Is Best Promoted By The Useful Pursuits Of Peace, That On These Alone A Stable Prosperity Can Be Founded, That The Evils Of War Are Great In Their Endurance, And Have A Long Reckoning For Ages To Come, I Have Used My Best Endeavors To Keep Our Country Uncommitted In The Troubles Which Afflict Europe, And Which Assail Us On Every Side.

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

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.

My Great Wish Is To Go On In A Strict But Silent Performance Of My Duty; To Avoid Attracting Notice, And To Keep My Name Out Of The Newspapers.

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

One Imputation In Particular Has Been Repeated Till It Seems As If Some At Least Believed It: That I Am An Enemy To Commerce. They Admit Me A Friend Of Agriculture, And Suppose Me An Enemy To The Only Means Of Disposing Of Its Produce.

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

A Mind Always Employed Is Always Happy.

If The Game Runs Sometimes Against Us At Home We Must Have Patience Till Luck Turns, And Then We Shall Have An Opportunity Of Winning Back The Principles We Have Lost, For This Is A Game Where Principles Are At Stake.

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

The Day Will Come When The Mystical Generation Of Jesus, By The Supreme Being As His Father, In The Womb Of A Virgin, Will Be Classed With The Fable Of The Generation Of Minerva In The Brain Of Jupiter.

One Single Object . . . [will Merit] The Endless Gratitude Of The Society: That Of Restraining The Judges From Usurping Legislation.

A Country Whose Buildings Are Of Wood, Can Never Increase In Its Improvements To Any Considerable Degree.... Whereas When Buildings Are Of Durable Materials, Every New Edifice Is An Actual And Permanent Acquisition To The State, Adding To Its Value As Well As To Its Ornament.

Bank-paper Must Be Suppressed, And The Circulating Medium Must Be Restored To The Nation To Whom It Belongs.

The Judiciary Of The United States Is The Subtle Corps Of Sappers And Miners Constantly Working Under Ground To Undermine The Foundations Of Our Confederated Fabric. They Are Construing Our Constitution From A Co-ordination Of A General And Special Government To A General And Supreme One Alone.

In Defense Of Our Persons And Properties Under Actual Violation, We Took Up Arms. When That Violence Shall Be Removed, When Hostilities Shall Cease On The Part Of The Aggressors, Hostilities Shall Cease On Our Part Also.

The Firmness With Which The (american) People Have Withstood The... Abuses Of The Press, The Discernment They Have Manifested Between Truth And Falsehood, Show That They May Safely Be Trusted To Hear Everything True And False And To Form A Correct Judgment Between Them.

In Truth, Politeness Is Artificial Good Humor, It Covers The Natural Want Of It, And Ends By Rendering Habitual A Substitute Nearly Equivalent To The Real Virtue. It Is The Practice Of Sacrificing To Those Whom We Meet In Society, All The Little Inconveniences And Preferences Which Will Gratify Them, And Deprive Us Of Nothing Worth A Moment's Consideration; It Is The Giving A Pleasing And Flattering Turn To Our Expressions, Which Will Conciliate Others, And Make Them Pleased With Us As Well As Themselves. How Cheap A Price For The Good Will Of Another!

Whenever There Are In Any Country Uncultivated Lands And Unemployed Poor, It Is Clear That The Laws Of Property Have Been So Far Extended As To Violate Natural Right. The Earth Is Given As A Common Stock For Man To Labor And Live On. The Small Landowners Are The Most Precious Part Of A State

They Are Exactly The Persons Who Are To Succeed To The Government Of Our Country And To Rule Its Future Enmities, Its Friendships And Fortunes.

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.

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.

An Informed Citizenry Is At The Heart Of A Dynamic Democracy.

Informed Citizenry

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

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.

The Moral Sense, Or Conscience, Is As Much Part Of A Man As His Leg Or Arm. It Is Given To All In A Stronger Or Weaker Degree.. It May Be Strengthened By Exercise.

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

The Evils Of War Are Great In Their Endurance, And Have A Long Reckoning For Ages To Come.

The Smell Rewards The Care.

The Parties Of Whig And Tory Are Those Of Nature. They Exist In All Countries, Whether Called By These Names Or By Those Of Aristocrats And Democrats, Cote Droite And Cote Gauche, Ultras And Radicals, Serviles And Liberals. The Sickly, Weakly, Timid Man Fears The People, And Is A Tory By Nature. The Healthy, Strong And Bold Cherishes Them, And Is Formed A Whig By Nature.

Never Spend Your Money Before You Have Earned It.

Perseverance In Object, Though Not By The Most Direct Way, Is Often More Laudable Than Perpetual Changes, As Often As The Object Shifts Light.

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

The Opinions Of Men Are Not The Object Of Civil Government, Nor Under Its Jurisdiction; That To Suffer The Civil Magistrate To Intrude His Powers Into The Field Of Opinion And To Restrain The Profession Or Propagation Of Principles On Supposition Of Their Ill Tendency Is A Dangerous Falacy, Which At Once Destroys All Religious Liberty...

Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven, And You Are Answerable For, Not The Rightness, But The Uprightness Of The Decision

Where The Press Is Free And Every Man Able To Read, All Is Safe.

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

The Whole Art Of Government Consists In The Art Of Being Honest.

From The Nature Of Things, Every Society Must At All Times Possess Within Itself The Sovereign Powers Of Legislation.

Bigotry Is The Disease Of Ignorance, Of Morbid Minds; Enthusiasm Of The Free And Buoyant. Education And Free Discussion Are The Antidotes Of Both.

But Is An Enemy So Execrable That Tho In Captivity His Wishes And Comforts Are To Be Disregarded And Even Crossed? I Think Not. It Is For The Benefit Of Mankind To Mitigate The Horrors Of War As Much As Possible.

Trial By Jury Is Part Of That Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.

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

Native American

I Hope We Shall Crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Monied Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To A Trial By Strength, And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country.

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.

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

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

The Steady Character Of Our Countrymen Is A Rock To Which We May Safely Moor; And Notwithstanding The Efforts Of The Papers To Disseminate Early Discontents, I Expect That A Just, Dispassionate And Steady Conduct, Will At Length Rally To A Proper System The Great Body Of Our Country. Unequivocal In Principle, Reasonable In Manner, We Shall Be Able I Hope To Do A Great Deal Of Good To The Cause Of Freedom & Harmony.

Whether I Retire To Bed Early Or Late, I Rise With The Sun.

No Government Can Continue Good, But Under The Control Of The People.

Our People Shall Be Free

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

Second Amendment

Preachers Dread The Advance Of Science As Witches Do The Approach Of Daylight.

The Commotions That Have Taken Place In America, As Far As They Are Yet Known To Me, Offer Nothing Threatening. They Are A Proof That The People Have Liberty Enough, And I Could Not Wish Them Less Than They Have. If The Happiness Of The Mass Of The People Can Be Secured At The Expense Of A Little Tempest Now And Then, Or Even Of A Little Blood, It Will Be A Precious Purchase. 'malo Libertatem Periculosam Quam Quietem Servitutem.' Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

My Views And Feelings (are) In Favor Of The Abolition Of War-and I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Disposition To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

The Sickly, Weakly, Timid Man Fears The People, And Is A Tory By Nature. The Healthy, Strong And Bold Cherishes Them, And Is Formed A Whig By Nature.

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

I Believe That Banking Institutions Are More Dangerous To Our Liberties Than Standing Armies. Already They Have Raised Up A Moneyed Aristocracy That Has Set The Government At Defiance. The Issuing Power Should Be Taken From The Banks And Restored To The People To Whom It Properly Belongs.

The People Of Every Country Are The Only Safe Guardians Of Their Own Rights, And Are The Only Instruments Which Can Be Used For Their Destruction. And Certainly They Would Never Consent To Be So Used Were They Not Deceived. To Avoid This They Should Be Instructed To A Certain Degree.

Difference Of Opinion Is Advantageous In Religion. The Several Sects Perform The Office Of A Censor - Over Each Other.

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.

The Functionaries Of Every Government Have Propensities To Command At Will The Liberty And Property Of Their Constituents.

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?

The Issue Today Is The Same As It Has Been Throughout All History, Whether Man Shall Be Allowed To Govern Himself Or Be Ruled By A Small Elite.

The Republican Is The Only Form Of Government Which Is Not Eternally At Open Or Secret War With The Rights Of Mankind.

I Sincerely Wish You May Find It Convenient To Come Here. The Pleasure Of The Trip Will Be Less Than You Expect, But The Utility Greater. It Will Make You Adore Your Own Country, It's Soil, It's Climate, It's Equality, Liberty, Laws, People & Manners. My God! How Little Do My Countrymen Know.

Responsibility Is A Tremendous Engine In A Free Government.

Free Government

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.

When You Abandon Freedom To Achieve Security, You Lose Both And Deserve Neither.

We Prefer War In All Cases To Tribute Under Any Form And To Any People Whatever.

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

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.

The Worst Day In A Man's Life Is When He Sits Down And Begins Thinking About How He Can Get Something For Nothing.

The Sheep Are Happier Of Themselves, Than Under The Care Of Wolves.

Life Is Of No Value But As It Brings Gratifications. Among The Most Valuable Of These Is Rational Society. It Informs The Mind, Sweetens The Temper, Chears Our Spirits, And Promotes Health.

Politics Is Such A Torment That I Advise Everyone I Love Not To Mix With It.

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

When A Uniform Exercise Of Kindness To Prisoners On Our Part Has Been Returned By As Uniform Severity On The Part Of Our Enemies,you Must Excuse Me For Saying It Is High Time, By Other Lessons, To Teach Respect To The Dictates Of Humanity; In Such A Case, Retaliation Becomes An Act Of Benevolence.

It Behooves Our Citizens To Be On Their Guard, To Be Firm In Their Principles, And Full Of Confidence In Themselves. We Are Able To Preserve Our Self-government If We Will But Think So.

It Is A Wise Rule And Should Be Fundamental In A Government Disposed To Cherish Its Credit, And At The Same Time To Restrain The Use Of It Within The Limits Of Its Faculties, "never To Borrow A Dollar Without Laying A Tax In The Same Instant For Paying The Interest Annually, And The Principal Within A Given Term; And To Consider That Tax As Pledged To The Creditors On The Public Faith."

The Course Of History Shows That As A Government Grows, Liberty Decreases.

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

Our Ancestors ... Possessed A Right, Which Nature Has Given To All Men, Of Departing From The Country In Which Chance, Not Choice Has Placed Them.

I Hold It That A Little Rebellion Now And Then Is A Good Thing, And As Necessary In The Political World As Storms In The Physical.

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

Industry, Commerce And Security Are The Surest Roads To The Happiness And Prosperity Of People.

Nothing Can Be Believed But What One Sees, Or Has From An Eye Witness.

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.

What An Augmentation Of The Field For Jobbing, Speculating, Plundering, Office-building And Office-hunting Would Be Produced By An Assumption Of All The State Powers Into The Hands Of The General Government.

Politics, Like Religion, Hold Up The Torches Of Martyrdom To The Reformers Of Error.

By Making This Wine Known To The Public, I Have Rendered My Country As Great A Service As If I Had Enabled It To Pay Back The National Debt.

The Mobs Of Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body.

Unless The Mass Retains Sufficient Control Over Those Entrusted With The Powers Of Their Government, These Will Be Perverted To Their Own Oppression, And To The Perpetuation Of Wealth And Power In The Individuals And Their Families Selected For The Trust.

[the Federal Convention] Is Really An Assembly Of Demigods.

[we Should Be] Determined... To Sever Ourselves From The Union We So Much Value Rather Than Give Up The Rights Of Self-government... In Which Alone We See Liberty, Safety And Happiness.

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

How Sublime To Look Down On The Workhouse Of Nature, To See Her Clouds, Hail, Snow, Rain, Thunder, All Fabricated At Our Feet!

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

The Only True Corrective Of Constitutional Abuses Is Education.

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.

Moral Law, Evidence Of.- Man Has Been Subjected By His Creator To The Moral Law, Of Which His Feelings, Or Conscience As It Is Sometimes Called, Are The Evidence With Which His Creator Has Furnished Him. ... The Moral Duties Which Exist Between Individual And Individual In A State Of Nature, Accompany Them Into A State Of Society ... Their Maker Not Having Released Them From Those Duties On Their Forming Themselves Into A Nation.

The Only Way To Win Money Out Of A Casino Is To Own One.

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

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

Never Buy What You Do Not Want, Because It Is Cheap; It Will Be Dear To You.

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

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.

I Do Not Like [in The New Federal Constitution] The Omission Of A Bill Of Rights Providing Clearly And Without The Aid Of Sophisms For... Protection Against Standing Armies

Certain Teachings In The Bible Are As Diamonds In A Dung-heap.

Light And Liberty Go Together.

God Has Formed Us Moral Agents... That We May Promote The Happiness Of Those With Whom He Has Placed Us In Society, By Acting Honestly Towards All, Benevolently To Those Who Fall Within Our Way, Respecting Sacredly Their Rights, Bodily And Mental, And Cherishing Especially Their Freedom Of Conscience, As We Value Our Own.

The Metaphysical Insanities Of Athanasius, Of Loyola, And Of Calvin, Are, To My Understanding, Mere Lapses Into Polytheism, Differing From Paganism Only By Being More Unintelligible.

This Ball Of Liberty, I Believe Most Piously, Is Now So Well In Motion That It Will Roll Round The Globe. At Least The Enlightened Part Of It, For Light & Liberty Go Together.

There Is No Act, However Virtuous, For Which Ingenuity May Not Find Some Bad Motive.

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.

Is It Less Dishonest To Do What Is Wrong Because It Is Not Expressly Prohibited By Written Law? Let Us Hope Our Moral Principles Are Not Yet In That Stage Of Degeneracy.

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.

The Mobs Of The Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body. It Is The Manners And Spirit Of A People Which Preserve A Republic In Vigor. A Degeneracy In These Is A Canker Which Soon Eats To The Heart Of Its Laws And Constitution.

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

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God Eternal, Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man.

Among The Values Of Classical Learning I Estimate The Luxury Of Reading The Greek & Roman Authors In All The Beauties Of Their Originals ... I Think Myself More Indebted To My Father For This, Than For All The Other Luxuries His Cares And Affections Have Placed Within My Reach.

It Be Urged That The Wild And Uncultivated Tree, Hitherto Yielding Sour And Bitter Fruit Only, Can Never Be Made To Yield Better; Yet We Know That The Grafting Art Implants A New Tree On The Savage Stock, Producing What Is Most Estimable In Kind And Degree. Education, In Like Manner, Engrafts A New Man On The Native Stock, And Improves What In His Nature Was Vicious And Perverse Into Qualities Of Virtue And Social Worth.

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.

Laws That Forbid The Carrying Of Arms Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes.

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

It Will Take A Thousand Years For The Frontier To Reach The Pacific

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

Our Liberty Depends On The Freedom Of The Press, And That Cannot Be Limited Without Being Lost.

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

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.

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.

I Do Not Pretend That Language Is Science. It Isan Instrument For The Attainment Of Science.

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

The Several States Composing The United States Of America Are Not United On The Principle Of Unlimited Submission To Their General Government

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

This Interesting Subject, Which, If The Condition Of Man Is To Be Progressively Ameliorated, As We Fondly Hope And Believe, Is To Be The Chief Instrument In Effecting It.

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.

Still Less, Let It Be Proposed That Our Properties Within Our Own Territories Shall Be Taxed Or Regulated By Any Power On Earth But Our Own. The God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time: The Hand Of Force May Destroy, But Cannot Disjoin Them.

Good Wine Is A Necessity Of Life For Me.

No Freeman Shall Be Debarred The Use Of Arms.

Second Amendment

None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army. To Keep Ours Armed And Disciplined Is Therefore At All Times Important.

I Am Not Among Those Who Fear The People. They, And Not The Rich, Are Our Dependence For Continued Freedom.

Government Debt

Many Of The Opposition [to The New Federal Constitution] Wish To Take From Congress The Power Of Internal Taxation. Calculation Has Convinced Me That This Would Be Very Mischievous.

We Think, In America, That It Is Necessary To Introduce The People Into Every Department Of Government, As Far As They Are Capable Of Exercising It, And That This Is The Only Way To Ensure A Long Continued And Honest Administration Of Its Powers.

The Bloom Of Monticello Is Chilled By My Solitude.

I Have Given Up Newspapers In Exchange For Tacitus And Thucydides, For Newton And Euclid; And I Find Myself Much The Happier.

Errors Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

The Power Of Declaring War Being With The Legislature, The Executive Should Do Nothing Necessarily Committing Them To Decide For War In Preference Of Non-intercourse, Which Will Be Preferred By A Great Many.

I Do Believe That General Washington Had Not A Firm Confidence In The Durability Of Our Government. He Was Naturally Distrustful Of Men, And Inclined To Gloomy Apprehensions; And I Was Ever Persuaded That A Belief That We Must At Length End In Something Like A British Constitution, Had Some Weight In His Adoption Of The Ceremonies Of Levees, Birthdays, Pompous Meetings With Congress, And Other Forms Of The Same Character, Calculated To Prepare Us Gradually For A Change Which He Believed Possible, And To Let It Come On With As Little Shock As Might Be To The Public Mind.

Those Who Would Trade Safety For Freedom Deserve Neither.

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.

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 Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only And Not Opinions.

There Is Not A Truth Existing Which I Fear... Or Would Wish Unknown To The Whole World.

A True Patriot Will Defend His Country From Its Government.

To Unequal Privileges Among Members Of The Same Society The Spirit Of Our Nation Is, With One Accord, Adverse.

Inalienable Rights

It Is Better To Tolerate The Rare Instance Of A Parent Refusing To Let His Child Be Educated, Than To Shock The Common Feelings And Ideas By Forcible Asportation And Education Of The Infant Against The Will Of The Father.

It Is As Useless To Argue With Those Who Have Renounced The Use Of Reason As To Administer Medication To The Dead.

I Am Mortified To Be Told That, In The United States Of America, The Sale Of A Book Can Become A Subject Of Inquiry, And Of Criminal Inquiry Too.

The Moral Sense Is The First Excellence Of Well-organized Man.

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.

All... Natural Rights May Be Abridged Or Modified In [their] Exercise By Law.

Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God.

Being Myself A Warm Zealot For The Attainment & Enjoiment By All Mankind Of As Much Liberty As Each May Exercise Without Injury To The Equal Liberty Of His Fellow Citizens, I Have Lamented That In France The Endeavors To Obtain This Should Have Been Attended With The Effusion Of So Much Blood.

An Occasional Insurrection Will Not Weigh Against The Inconveniences Of A Government Of Force, Such As Are Monarchies And Aristocracies.

Peace, That Glorious Moment In Time When Everyone Stops And Reloads.

Moments In Time

If I Had To Choose Between Government And A Free Press, I Would Choose A Free Press.

Choice By The People Themselves Is Not Generally Distinguished For Its Wisdom.

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.

You Have Lived Longer Than I Have And Perhaps May Have Formed A Different Judgment On Better Grounds; But My Observations Do Not Enable Me To Say I Think Integrity The Characteristic Of Wealth. In General I Believe The Decisions Of The People, In A Body, Will Be More Honest And More Disinterested Than Those Of Wealthy Men.

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

Men Fight For Freedom; Then They Begin To Accumulate Laws To Take It Away From Themselves.

I Am Tired Of A Life Of Contention, And Of Being The Personal Object For The Hatred Of Every Man, Who Hates The Present State Of Things.

The Days Of Life Are Consumed, One By One, Without An Object Beyond The Present Moment; Ever Flying From The Ennui Of That, Yet Carrying It With Us; Eternally In Pursuit Of Happiness, Which Keeps Eternally Before Us. If Death Or Bankruptcy Happen To Trip Us Out Of The Circle, It Is Matter For The Buzz Of The Evening, And Is Completely Forgotten By The Next Morning.

Pursuit Of Happiness

As, For The Safety Of Society, We Commit Honest Maniacs To Bedlam, So Judges Should Be Withdrawn From Their Bench, Whose Erroneous Biases Are Leading Us To Dissolution. It May Indeed Injure Them In Fame Or In Fortune; But It Saves The Republic, Which Is The First And Supreme Law.

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.

Games Played With The Ball, And Others Of That Nature, Are Too Violent For The Body And Stamp No Character On The Mind.

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

The Advocate Of Religious Freedom Is To Expect Neither Peace Nor Forgiveness From [the Clergy].

I Thank Heaven That The 4th. Of July Is Over. It Is Always A Day Of Great Fatigue To Me, And Of Some Embarrassments From Improper Intrusions And Some From Unintended Exclusions.

Man Was Destined For Society. His Morality Therefore Was To Be Formed To This Object. He Was Endowed With A Sense Of Right And Wrong Merely Relative To This. This Sense Is As Much A Part Of His Nature As The Sense Of Hearing, Seeing, Feeling; It Is The True Foundation Of Morality... The Moral Sense, Or Conscience, Is As Much A Part Of Man As His Leg Or Arm. It Is Given To All Human Beings In A Stronger Or Weaker Degree, As Force Of Members Is Given Them In A Greater Or Less Degree. It May Be Strengthened By Exercise, As May Any Particular Limb Of The Body.

I Have No Ambition To Govern Men; It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

If We Could Believe That Jesus...countenanced The Follies, Falsehoods And Charlatanisms Which His Biographers Father On Him, ...the Conclusion Would Be Irresistible...that He Was An Imposter.

I Never Will, By Any Word Or Act, Bow To The Shrine Of Intolerance Or Admit A Right Of Inquiry Into The Religious Opinions 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.

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.

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

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

He Who Knows Nothing Is Closer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehoods And Errors.

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

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.

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

Heliotrope. To Be Sowed In The Spring. A Delicious Flower, But I Suspect It Must Be Planted In Boxes And Kept In The House In The Winter. The Smell Rewards The Care.

Education Is Here Placed Among The Articles Of Public Care, Not That It Would Be Proposed To Take Its Ordinary Branches Out Of The Hands Of Private Enterprise, Which Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal, But A Public Institution Can Alone Supply Those Sciences Which, Though Rarely Called For, Are Yet Necessary To Complete The Circle, All The Parts Of Which Contribute To The Improvement Of The Country, And Some Of Them To Its Preservation.

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.

The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depositary Of Their Own Rights.

A Strict Observance Of The Written Laws Is Doubtless One Of The Highest Virtues Of A Good Citizen, But It Is Not The Highest. The Laws Of Necessity, Of Self-preservation, Of Saving Our Country When In Danger, Are Of Higher Obligation. To Lose Our Country By A Scrupulous Adherence To Written Law Would Be To Lose The Law Itself, With Life, Liberty, Property And All Those Who Are Enjoying Them With Us; Thus Absurdly Sacrificing The End To The Means.

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.

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.

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