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It Has Been A Source Of Great Pain To Me To Have Met With So Many Among [my] Opponents Who Had Not The Liberality To Distinguish Between Political And Social Opposition; Who Transferred At Once To The Person, The Hatred They Bore To His Political Opinions.

-Thomas Jefferson

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It Has Been A

Thomas Jefferson

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It Has Been A Source Of Great Pain To Me To Have Met With So Many Among [my] Opponents Who Had Not The Liberality To Distinguish Between Political And Social Opposition; Who Transferred At Once To The Person, The Hatred They Bore To His Political Opinions.

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Political Opinions

More From Thomas Jefferson

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

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 Man Will Ever Bring Out Of That Office The Reputation Which Carries Him Into It. The Honeymoon Would Be As Short In That Case As In Any Other, And Its Moments Of Ecstasy Would Be Ransomed By Years Of Torment And Hatred.

The First Object Of Human Association [is] The Full Improvement Of Their Condition.

The Smell Rewards The Care.

It Is Not The Policy Of The Government In America To Give Aid To Works Of Any Kind. They Let Things Take Their Natural Course Without Help Or Impediment, Which Is Generally The Best Policy.

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

Truth Can Stand By Itself...if There Be But One Right [religion], And [christianity] That One, We Should Wish To See The Nine Hundred And Ninety-nine Wandering Sects Gathered Into The Fold Of Truth.

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

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

What Justice Would There Be To Take This Life? Justice, Gentlemen? Why, I Would Just As Soon Put A Hog In The Electric Chair As This.

Christianity Neither Is, Nor Ever Was A Part Of The Common Law.

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

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.

When The Course Of Events Shall Have Removed You To Distant Scenes Of Action Where Laurels Not Nurtured With The Blood Of My Country May Be Gathered, I Shall Urge Sincere Prayers For Your Obtaining Every Honor And Preferment Which May Gladden The Heart Of A Soldier.

A Little Rebellion Now And Then Is A Good Thing. Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God. In Order To Flourish, The Tree Of Liberty Needs The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.

No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.

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

Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

I Deem It The Duty Of Every Man To Devote A Certain Portion Of His Income For Charitable Purposes; And That It Is His Further Duty To See It So Applied And To Do The Most Good For Which It Is Capable.

Whenever A Man Has Cast A Longing Eye On Offices, A Rottenness Begins In His Conduct.

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

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

If Science Produces No Better Fruits Than Tyranny... I Would Rather Wish Our Country To Be Ignorant, Honest And Estimable As Our Neighbouring Savages Are.

The Most Fortunate Of Us, In Our Journey Through Life, Frequently Meet With Calamities And Misfortunes Which May Greatly Afflict Us; And, To Fortify Our Minds Against The Attacks Of These Calamities And Misfortunes, Should Be One Of The Principal Studies And Endeavors Of Our Lives.

An Injured Friend Is The Bitterest Of Foes.

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

One Precedent In Favor Of Power Is Stronger Than A Hundred Against It.

Tobacco Is A Culture Productive Of Infinite Wretchedness.

The Moral Sense Is As Much A Part Of Our Constitution As That Of Feeling, Seeing, Or Hearing.

If There Is One Principle More Deeply Rooted In The Mind Of Every American, It Is That We Should Have Nothing To Do With Conquest.

[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.

Take More Pleasure In Giving What Is Best To Another Than In Having It For Yourself, And Then All The World Will Love You.

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.

Laws Abridging The Natural Right Of The Citizen Should Be Restrained By Rigorous Constructions Within Their Narrowest Limits.

The States Should Be Watchful To Note Every Material Usurpation On Their Rights; To Denounce Them As They Occur In The Most Peremptory Terms; To Protest Against Them As Wrongs To Which Our Present Submission Shall Be Considered, Not As Acknowledgments Or Precedents Of Rights, But As A Temporary Yielding To The Lesser Evil, Until Their Accumulation Shall Overweigh That Of Separation.

It Is Well Known, That On The Ohio, And In Many Parts Of America Further North, Tusks, Grinders, And Skeletons Of Unparalleled Magnitude Are Found In Great Numbers, Some Lying On The Surface Of The Earth, And Some A Little Below It ... But To Whatever Animal We Ascribe These Remains, It Is Certain That Such A One Has Existed In America, And That It Has Been The Largest Of All Terrestrial Beings.

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.

On The Subject Of The History Of The American Revolution, You Ask Who Shall Write It? Who Can Write It? And Who Will Ever Be Able To Write It? Nobody, Except Merely Its External Facts... All Its Councils, Designs And Discussions Having Been Conducted By Congress [behind] Closed Doors - And No Members, As Far As I Know, Having Even Made Notes Of Them. These, Which Are The Life And Soul Of History, Must Forever Be Unknown.

I Would Rather Have Newspapers Without A Government Than A Government Without Newspapers.

It [appears] That However Certain Forms Of Government Are Better Calculated Than Others To Protect Individuals In The Free Exercise Of Their Natural Rights, And Are At The Same Time Themselves Better Guarded Against Degeneracy, Yet Experience [has] Shown That, Even Under The Best Forms, Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.

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.

I Can Never Join Calvin In Addressing His God. He Was Indeed An Atheist, Which I Can Never Be; Or Rather His Religion Was Daemonism. If Ever Man Worshipped A False God, He Did.

The Fantastical Idea Of Virtue And The Public Good Being A Sufficient Security To The State Against The Commission Of Crimes, Which You Say You Have Heard Insisted On By Some, I Assure You Was Never Mine.

And, In General, That Branch Which Is To Act Ultimately And Without Appeal On Any Law Is The Rightful Expositor Of The Validity Of The Law, Uncontrolled By The Opinions Of The Other Coordinate Authorities.

Those Who Would Trade Safety For Freedom Deserve Neither.

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.

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.

That The Several States Who Formed That Instrument, Being Sovereign And Independent, Have The Unquestionable Right To Judge Of Its Infraction; And That A Nullification, By Those Sovereignties, Of All Unauthorized Acts Done Under Colour Of That Instrument, Is The Rightful Remedy.

Instead Of That Liberty Which Takes Root And Growth In The Progress Of Reason, If Recovered By Mere Force Or Accident, It Becomes With An Unprepared People A Tyranny Still Of The Many, The Few, Or The One.

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

The Contradictory Experiments Of Chemists Leave Us At Liberty To Conclude What We Please. My Conclusion Is, That Art Has Not Yet Invented Sufficient Aids To Enable Such Subtle Bodies [air, Light, &c.] To Make A Well-defined Impression On Organs As Blunt As Ours; That It Is Laudable To Encourage Investigation But To Hold Back Conclusion.

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.

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error... They Are The Natural Enemies Of Error, And Of Error Only... If [free Enquiry] Be Restrained Now, The Present Corruptions Will Be Protected, And New Ones Encouraged.

[the People] Are The Ultimate, Guardians Of Their Own Liberty.

Travelling. ... When Men Of Sober Age Travel, They Gather Knowlege Which They May Apply Usefully For Their Country

An Informed Citizenry Is The Only True Repository Of The Public Will.

Informed Citizens

Informed Citizenry

While Prudence Will Endeavor To Avoid This Issue Of War, Bravery Will Prepare To Meet It.

How Much Pain They Have Cost Us, The Evils Which Have Never Happened.

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.

Who Better To So Softly Bind The Wound Of One, Than She Who Has Suffered The Wound Herself.

I Have Sometimes Asked Myself Whether My Country Is The Better For My Having Lived At All? I Do Not Know That It Is. I Have Been The Instrument Of Doing The Following Things; But They Would Have Been Done By Others; Some Of Them, Perhaps, A Little Better.

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.

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

Public Employment Contributes Neither To Advantage Nor Happiness. It Is But Honorable Exile From One's Family And Affairs.

Natural Rights [are] The Objects For The Protection Of Which Society Is Formed And Municipal Laws Established.

It Is Not By The Consolidation Or Concentration Of Powers But By Their Distribution That Good Government Is Effected.

We Must Endeavor To Forget Our Former Love For Them [the British] And To Hold Them, As We Hold The Rest Of Mankind, Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

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

The Application Requisite To The Duties Of The Office I Hold [governor Of Virginia] Is So Excessive, And The Execution Of Them After All So Imperfect, That I Have Determined To Retire From It At The Close Of The Present Campaign.

Man Is Not Made For The State But The State For Man And It Derives Its Just Powers Only From The Consent Of The Governed.

I Have Ever Deemed It Fundamental For The United States Never To Take Active Part In The Quarrels Of Europe. Their Political Interests Are Entirely Distinct From Ours. Their Mutual Jealousies, Their Balance Of Power, Their Complicated Alliances, Their Forms And Principles Of Government, Are All Foreign To Us. They Are Nations Of Eternal War.

The Remaining Revenue On The Consumption Of Foreign Luxuries To Domestic Comforts, Being Collected On Our Seaboard And Frontiers Only, And Incorporated With The Transactions Of Our Mercantile Citizens, It May Be The Pleasure And The Pride Of An American To Ask, What Farmer, What Merchant, What Laborer Ever Sees A Tax Gatherer Of The United States?

I Have Not Observed Mens Honesty To Increase With Their Riches.

It Is For The Benefit Of Mankind To Mitigate The Horrors Of War As Much As Possible.

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

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.

I Do Not Find In Orthodox Christianity One Redeeming Feature.

To Take A Single Step Beyond The Boundaries Specially Drawn Around The Powers Of Congress Is To Take Possession Of A Boundless Field Of Power, No Longer Susceptible To Definition.

Adore God. Reverence And Cherish Your Parents. Love Your Neighbor As Yourself, And Your Country More Than Yourself. Be Just. Be True. Murmur Not At The Ways Of Providence. So Shall The Life Into Which You Have Entered Be The Portal To One Of Eternal And Ineffable Bliss.

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

A Little Patience, And We Shall See The Reign Of Witches Pass Over, Their Spells Dissolve, And The People, Recovering Their True Sight, Restore Their Government To Its True Principles.

It Is Reasonable That Everyone Who Asks Justice Should Do Justice

Nothing Is More Certainly Written In The Book Of Fate Than That These People Are To Be Free. Nor Is It Less Certain That The Two Races, Equally Free, Cannot Live In The Same Government. Nature, Habit, Opinion Has Drawn Indelible Lines Of Distinction Between Them.

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

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself And Your Country More Than Yourself.

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

Every Society Has A Right To Fix The Fundamental Principles Of Its Association, And To Say To All Individuals, That If They Contemplate Pursuits Beyond The Limits Of These Principles And Involving Dangers Which The Society Chooses To Avoid, They Must Go Somewhere Else For Their Exercise; That We Want No Citizens, And Still Less Ephemeral And Pseudo-citizens, On Such Terms. We May Exclude Them From Our Territory, As We Do Persons Infected With Disease.

A Schism Has Taken Place Among The Chemists. A Particular Set Of Them In France Have Undertaken To Remodel All The Terms Of The Science, And To Give Every Substance A New Name, The Composition, And Especially The Termination Of Which, Shall Define The Relation In Which It Stands To Other Substances Of The Same Family.

I Place Economy Among The First And Most Important Virtues And Public Debt As The Greatest Dangers To Be Feared. To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. If We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And In Our Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

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

That Liberty [is Pure] Which Is To Go To All, And Not To The Few Or The Rich Alone.

Inalienable Rights

Let Us, Then, Fellow Citizens, Unite With One Heart And One Mind. Let Us Restore To Social Intercourse That Harmony And Affection Without Which Liberty And Even Life Itself Are But Dreary Things. And Let Us Reflect That Having Banished From Our Land That Religious Intolerance Under Which Mankind So Long Bled, We Have Yet Gained Little If We Counternance A Political Intolerance As Despotic, As Wicked, And Capable Of A Bitter And Bloody Persecutions.

That These Are Our Grievances Which We Have Thus Laid Before His Majesty, With That Freedom Of Language And Sentiment Which Becomes A Free People Claiming Their Rights As Derived From The Laws Of Nature, And Not As The Gift Of Their Chief Magistrate.

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

Bigotry Is The Disease Of Ignorance.

Inspirational Quotes On: Honesty, Simplicity, Secret, Universe, Modesty, Peace Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

I Had Always Hoped That The Younger Generation Receiving Their Early Impressions After The Flame Of Liberty Had Been Kindled In Every Breast . . . Would Have Sympathized With Oppression Wherever Found, And Proved Their Love Of Liberty Beyond Their Own Share Of It.

A Free Government Is Of All Others The Most Energetic.

Free Government

Paper Is Poverty, It Is Only The Ghost Of Money, And Not Money Itself.

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

We Do Not Mean To Count Or Weigh Our Contributions By Any Standard Other Than That Of Our Abilities.

Every Man Has A Commission To Admonish, Exhort, Convince Another Of Error.

The Natural Aristocracy I Consider As The Most Precious Gift Of Nature For The Instruction, The Trusts, And Government Of Society. And Indeed It Would Have Been Inconsistent In Creation To Have Formed Man For The Social State, And Not To Have Provided Virtue And Wisdom Enough To Manage The Concerns Of The Society. May We Not Even Say That That Form Of Government Is The Best Which Provides The Most - For A Pure Selection Of These Natural Aristoi Into The Offices Of Government?

We See The Wisdom Of Solon's Remark, That No More Good Must Be Attempted Than The Nation Can Bear.

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.

Peace And Friendship With All Mankind Is Our Wisest Policy, And I Wish We May Be Permitted To Pursue It.

He, Who Steadily Observes Those Moral Precepts In Which All Religions Concur, Will Never Be Questioned At The Gates Of Heaven As To The Dogmas In Which They All Differ.

I Believe We May Lessen The Danger Of Buying And Selling Votes, By Making The Number Of Voters Too Great For Any Means Of Purchase. I May Further Say That I Have Not Observed Men's Honesty To Increase With Their Riches.

I May Grow Rich By An Art I Am Compelled To Follow; I May Recover Health By Medicines I Am Compelled To Take Against My Own Judgment; But I Cannot Be Saved By A Worship I Disbelieve And Abhor.

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.

The World Is Indebted For All Triumphs Which Have Been Gained By Reason And Humanity Over Error And Oppression.

And Where Else Will [hume,] This Degenerate Son Of Science, This Traitor To His Fellow Men, Find The Origin Of Just Powers, If Not In The Majority Of The Society? Will It Be In The Minority? Or In An Individual Of That Minority?

I Was Much An Enemy To Monarchies Before I Came To Europe. I Am Ten Thousand Times More So, Since I Have Seen What They Are. There Is Scarcely An Evil Known In These Countries, Which May Not Be Traced To Their King, As Its Source, Nor A Good, Which Is Not Derived From The Small Fibres Of Republicanism Existing Among Them.

In Every Government On Earth Is Some Trace Of Human Weakness, Some Germ Of Corruption And Degeneracy, Which Cunning Will Discover, And Wickedness Insensibly Open, Cultivate And Improve.

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.

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

When I Contemplate The Immense Advances In Science And Discoveries In The Arts Which Have Been Made Within The Period Of My Life, I Look Forward With Confidence To Equal Advances By The Present Generation, And Have No Doubt They Will Consequently Be As Much Wiser Than We Have Been As We Than Our Fathers Were, And They Than The Burners Of Witches.

To Lay Taxes To Provide For The General Welfare Of The United States, That Is To Say, 'to Lay Taxes For The Purpose Of Providing For The General Welfare.' For The Laying Of Taxes Is The Power, And The General Welfare The Purpose For Which The Power Is To Be Exercised. They Are Not To Lay Taxes Ad Libitum For Any Purpose They Please; But Only To Pay The Debts Or Provide For The Welfare Of The Union.

We Generally Learn Languages For The Benefit Of Reading The Books Written In Them

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.

That Paper Money Has Some Advantages Is Admitted. But That Its Abuses Also Are Inevitable And, By Breaking Up The Measure Of Value, Makes A Lottery Of All Private Property, Cannot Be Denied.

By Nature's Law, Every Man Has A Right To Seize And Retake By Force His Own Property Taken From Him By Another, By Force Of Fraud. Nor Is This Natural Right Among The First Which Is Taken Into The Hands Of Regular Government After It Is Instituted. It Was Long Retained By Our Ancestors. It Was A Part Of Their Common Law, Laid Down In Their Books, Recognized By All The Authorities, And Regulated As To Circumstances Of Practice.

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.

Knowing That Religion Does Not Furnish Grosser Bigots Than Law, I Expect Little From Old Judges.

Merchants Have No Country.

Our Attachment To No Nation On Earth Should Supplant Our Attachment To Liberty.

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

I Cannot Live Without Books: But Fewer Will Suffice Where Amusement, And Not Use, Is The Only Future Object.

All The World Would Be Christian If They Were Taught The Pure Gospel Of Christ!.

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.

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

The Introduction Of So Powerful An Agent As Steam [to A Carriage On Wheels] Will Make A Great Change In The Situation Of Man.

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

The Issue For Patents For New Discovers Has Given A Spring To Invention Beyond My Conception.

Religious Institutions That Use Government Power In Support Of Themselves And Force Their Views On Persons Of Other Faiths, Or Of No Faith, Undermine All Our Civil Rights. Moreover, State Support Of An Established Religion Tends To Make The Clergy Unresponsive To Their Own People, And Leads To Corruption Within Religion Itself. Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State,' Therefore, Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

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

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People... They Are The Only Sure Reliance For The Preservation Of Our Liberty.

I Feel... An Ardent Desire To See Knowledge So Disseminated Through The Mass Of Mankind That It May, At Length, Reach Even The Extremes Of Society: Beggars And Kings.

An Industrious Farmer Occupies A More Dignified Place In The Scale Of Beings...than A Lazy Lounger...too Proud To Work, And Drawing Out A Miserable Existence By Eating On That Surplus Of Other Men's Labor.

Religious Leaders Will Always Avail Themselves Of Public Ignorance For Their Own Purpose.

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

If We Are Made In Some Degree For Others, Yet In A Greater Are We Made For Ourselves. It Were Contrary To Feeling And Indeed Ridiculous To Suppose That A Man Had Less Rights In Himself Than One Of His Neighbors, Or Indeed All Of Them Put Together. This Would Be Slavery, And Not That Liberty Which The Bill Of Rights Has Made Inviolable, And For The Preservation Of Which Our Government Has Been Charged.

Where The Principle Of Difference [between Political Parties] Is As Substantial And As Strongly Pronounced As Between The Republicans And The Monocrats Of Our Country, I Hold It As Honorable To Take A Firm And Decided Part And As Immoral To Pursue A Middle Line, As Between The Parties Of Honest Men And Rogues, Into Which Every Country Is Divided.

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.

Never Use One Word When Two Will Do.

This Doctrine ['that The Condition Of Man Cannot Be Ameliorated, That What Has Been Must Ever Be, And That To Secure Ourselves Where We Are We Must Tread With Awful Reverence In The Footsteps Of Our Fathers']is The Genuine Fruit Of The Alliance Between Church And State, The Tenants Of Which Finding Themselves But Too Well In Their Present Condition, Oppose All Advances Which Might Unmask Their Usurpations And Monopolies Of Honors, Wealth And Power, And Fear Every Change As Endangering The Comforts They Now Hold.

I Shall Rejoin Myself To My Native Country, With New Attachments, And With Exaggerated Esteem For Its Advantages; For Though There Is Less Wealth There, There Is More Freedom, More Ease, And Less Misery.

The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood.

Resort Is Had To Ridicule Only When Reason Is Against Us.

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

Here Was Buried Thomas Jefferson, Author Of The Declaration Of American Independence, Of The Statute Of Virginia For Religious Freedom, And Father Of The University Of Virginia.

... 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.

Light And Liberty Go Together.

I Could Say Much About Politics, Our Only Entertainment Here, But You Would Not Care A Fig About That.

Until We Stop Harming All Other Living Beings, We Are Still Savages.

Vegetarian Diet

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.

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.

It Is In The Love Of One's Family Only That Heartfelt Happiness Is Known.

The Physician Is Happy In The Attachment Of The Families In Which He Practices. All Think He Has Saved One Of Them, And He Finds Himself Everywhere A Welcome Guest, A Home In Every House.

...in War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy All Of Them

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

At The Time We Were Funding Our National Debt, We Heard Much About "a Public Debt Being A Public Blessing"; That The Stock Representing It Was A Creation Of Active Capital For The Aliment Of Commerce, Manufactures And Agriculture. This Paradox Was Well Adapted To The Minds Of Believers In Dreams.

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.

Political Interest [can] Never Be Separated In The Long Run From Moral Right.

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.

Experience Demands That Man Is The Only Animal Which Devours His Own Kind, For I Can Apply No Milder Term To The General Prey Of The Rich On The Poor.

Economic Inequality

An Enemy Generally Says And Believes What He Wishes.

I Never Submitted The Whole System Of My Opinions To The Creed Of Any Party Of Men Whatever, In Religion, In Philosophy, In Politics, Or In Anything Else, Where I Was Capable Of Thinking For Myself. Such An Addiction Is The Last Degradation Of A Free And Moral Agent. If I Could Not Go To Heaven But With A Party, I Would Not Go There At All.

No Man Shall Be Compelled To Frequent Or Support Any Religious Worship, Place, Or Ministry Whatsoever.

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.

Printers Shall Be Liable To Legal Prosecution For Printing And Publishing False Facts Injurious To The Party Prosecuting: But They Shall Be Under No Other Restraint.

With Respect To Our State And Federal Governments, I Do Not Think Their Relations Correctly Understood By Foreigners. They Generally Suppose The Former Subordinate To The Latter. But This Is Not The Case. They Are Co-ordinate Departments Of One Simple And Integral Whole.

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

Music Furnishes A Delightful Recreation For The Hours Of Respite From The Cares Of The Day, And Lasts Us Through Life.

Nothing But A Necessity Invincible By Any Other Means Can Justify ... A Prostitution Of Laws, Which Constitute The Pillars Of Our Whole System Of Jurisprudence.

Never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself

Difference Of Opinion Is Helpful In Religion.

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.

Let The Farmer Forevermore Be Honored In His Calling; For They Who Labor In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God.

The Spirit Of 1776 Is Not Dead. It Has Only Been Slumbering. The Body Of The American People Is Substantially Republican. But Their Virtuous Feelings Have Been Played On By Some Fact With More Fiction; They Have Been The Dupes Of Artful Maneuvers, And Made For A Moment To Be Willing Instruments In Forging Chains For Themselves. But Times And Truth Dissipated The Delusion, And Opened Their Eyes.

With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties.

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

When Two Parties Make A Compact, There Results To Each A Power Of Compelling The Other To Execute It.

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

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.

The Ground Of Liberty Is To Be Gained By Inches, And We Must Be Contented To Secure What We Can Get From Time To Time And Eternally Press Forward For What Is Yet To Get. It Takes Time To Persuade Men To Do Even What Is For Their Own Good.

No Man Has A Natural Right To Commit Aggression On The Equal Rights Of Another; And This Is All From Which The Laws Ought To Restrain Him.

My Most Earnest Wish Is To See The Republican Element Of Popular Control Pushed To The Maximum Of Its Practicable Exercise. I Shall Then Believe That Our Government May Be Pure And Perpetual.

I Believe That Justice Is Instinct And Innate, That The Moral Sense Is As Much A Part Of Our Constitution As That Of Feeling, Seeing, Or Hearing; As A Wise Creator Must Have Seen To Be Necessary In An Animal Destined To Live In Society.

I... [proposed] Three Distinct Grades Of Education, Reaching All Classes. 1. Elementary Schools For All Children Generally, Rich And Poor. 2. Colleges For A Middle Degree Of Instruction, Calculated For The Common Purposes Of Life And Such As Should Be Desirable For All Who Were In Easy Circumstances. And 3d. An Ultimate Grade For Teaching The Sciences Generally And In Their Highest Degree... The Expenses Of [the Elementary] Schools Should Be Borne By The Inhabitants Of The County, Every One In Proportion To His General Tax-rate. This Would Throw On Wealth The Education Of The Poor.

Truth And Reason Are Eternal. They Have Prevailed. And They Will Eternally Prevail; However, In Times And Places They May Be Overborne For A While By Violence, Military, Civil, Or Ecclesiastical.

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

Nothing Betrays Imbecility So Much As The Being Insensible Of It.

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.

Our Rulers Can Have Authority Over Such Natural Rights Only As We Have Submitted To Them.

No Society Is So Precious As That Of One’s Own Family.

Sensibility Of Mind Is Indeed The Parent Of Every Virtue, But It Is The Parent Of Much Misery, Too.

With Earnest Prayers To All My Friends To Cherish Mutual Good Will, To Promote Harmony And Conciliation, And Above All Things To Let The Love Of Our Country Soar Above All Minor Passions, I Tender You The Assurance Of My Affectionate Esteem And Respect.

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

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Hubert Selby, Jr.

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