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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.

-Thomas Jefferson

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Let Us, Then, Fellow

Thomas Jefferson

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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.

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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.

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.

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 Foundation On Which (our Government Is) Built Is The Natural Equality Of Man, The Denial Of Every Pre-eminence But That Annexed To Legal Office, And Particularly The Denial Of A Pre-eminence By Birth.

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

I Join Cordially In Admiring And Revering The Constitution Of The United States, The Result Of The Collected Wisdom Of Our Country. That Wisdom Has Committed To Us The Important Task Of Proving By Example That A Government, If Organized In All Its Parts On The Representative Principle Unadulterated By The Infusion Of Spurious Elements, If Founded, Not In The Fears & Follies Of Man, But On His Reason, On His Sense Of Right, On The Predominance Of The Social Over His Dissocial Passions, May Be So Free As To Restrain Him In No Moral Right, And So Firm As To Protect Him From Every Moral Wrong.

That Government That Governs Least Governs Best.

I Pledge Undying Hostility To Any Government Restrictions On The Free Minds Of The People.

The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That... It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed.

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.

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God.

When Great Evils Happen, I Am In The Habit Of Looking Out For What Good May Arise From Them As Consolations To Us, And Providence Has In Fact So Established The Order Of Things, As That Most Evils Are The Means Of Producing Some Good.

My Construction Of The Constitution Is Very Different From That You Quote. It Is That Each Department Is Truly Independent Of The Others, And Has An Equal Right To Decide For Itself What Is The Meaning Of The Constitution In The Cases Submitted To Its Action; And Especially, Where It Is To Act Ultimately And Without Appeal.

How To Check These Unconstitutional Invasions Of Rights By The Federal Judiciary? Not By Impeachment In The First Instance, But By A Strong Protestation Of Both Houses Of Congress That Such And Such Doctrines Advanced By The Supreme Court Are Contrary To The Constitution; And If Afterwards They Relapse Into The Same Heresies, Impeach And Set The Whole Adrift. For What Was The Government Divided Into Three Branches, But That Each Should Watch Over The Others And Oppose Their Usurpations?

[the People] Are In Truth The Only Legitimate Proprietors Of The Soil And Government.

Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.

Secular Society

When The Representative Body Have Lost The Confidence Of Their Constituents, When They Have Notoriously Made Sale Of Their Most Valuable Rights, When They Have Assumed To Themselves Powers Which The People Never Put Into Their Hands, Then Indeed Their Continuing In Office Becomes Dangerous To The State

Of Distinction By Birth Or Badge, [americans] Had No More Idea Than They Had Of The Mode Of Existence In The Moon Or Planets. They Had Heard Only That There Were Such, And Knew That They Must Be Wrong.

Inalienable Rights

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

Do Not Be Too Severe Upon The Errors Of The People, But Reclaim Them By Enlightening Them.

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.

The Art Of Governing Consists Simply Of Being Honest, Exercising Common Sense, Following Principle, And Doing What Is Right And Just.

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.

Establish The Eternal Truth That Acquiescence Under Insult Is Not The Way To Escape War.

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.

May I Never Get Too Busy In My Own Affairs That I Fail To Respond To The Needs Of Others With Kindness And Compassion.

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

Our [virginia's] Act For Freedom Of Religion Is Extremely Applauded. The Ambassadors And Ministers Of The Several Nations Of Europe Resident At This Court Have Asked Me Copies Of It To Send To Their Sovereigns, And It Is Inserted At Full Length In Several Books Now In The Press; Among Others, In The New Encyclopédie. I Think It Will Produce Considerable Good Even In Those Countries Where Ignorance, Superstition, Poverty And Oppression Of Body And Mind In Every Form, Are So Firmly Settled On The Mass Of The People, That Their Redemption From Them Can Never Be Hoped.

We Must Use A Good Deal Of Economy In Our Wood, Never Cutting Down New, Where We Can Make The Old Do.

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

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.

We Have The Wolf By The Ears, And We Can Neither Hold Him, Nor Safely Let Him Go. Justice Is In One Scale, And Self-preservation In The Other.

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

The Precepts Of Philosophy And Of The Hebrew Code, Laid Hold Of Actions Only. (jesus) Pushed His Scrutinies Into The Heart Of Man, Erected His Tribunal In The Regions Of His Thoughts, And Purified The Waters At The Fountain Head.

I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Power Of The Society But The People Themselves.

Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far. The Europeans Value Themselves On Having Subdued The Horse To The Uses Of Man; But I Doubt Whether We Have Not Lost More Than We Have Gained, By The Use Of This Animal.

So Much Of The Presidency Is A Matter Of Standing In The Path Of A Newsham Engine For Quenching Fires, Opening One's Mouth, And Attempting To Get A Drink.

Hemp Is One Of The Greatest, Most Important Substances Of Our Nation

Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State'... Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

That The Enthusiasm Which Characterizes Youth Should Lift Its Parricide Hands Against Freedom And Science Would Be Such A Monstrous Phenomenon As I Cannot Place Among Possible Things In This Age And Country.

Christian Creeds And Doctrines, The Clergy's Own Fatal Inventions, Through All The Ages Has Made Of Christendom A Slaughterhouse, And Divided It Into Sects Of Inextinguishable Hatred For One Another.

But Every State, Says An Inquisitor, Has Established Some Religion. No Two, Say I, Have Established The Same. Is This A Proof Of The Infallibility Of Establishments?

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle.

Never Use Two Words When One Will Do.

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

To Your Request Of My Opinion Of The Manner In Which A Newspaper Should Be Conducted, So As To Be Most Useful, I Should Answer, "by Restraining It To True Facts & Sound Principles Only." Yet I Fear Such A Paper Would Find Few Subscribers. It Is A Melancholy Truth, That A Suppression Of The Press Could Not More Completely Deprive The Nation Of It's Benefits, Than Is Done By It's Abandoned Prostitution To Falsehood.

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

To Penetrate And Dissipate These Clouds Of Darkness, The General Mind Must Be Strengthened By Education.

Gouverneur Morris Had Often Told Me That General Washington Believed No More Of That System (christianity) Than Did He Himself.

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

I Tremble For My Country When I Reflect That God Is Just; That His Justice Cannot Sleep Forever.

Power Is Not Alluring To Pure Minds.

A First Attempt To Recover The Right Of Self Government May Fail, So May A Second, A Third, Etc. But As A Younger And More Instructed Race Comes On, The Sentiment Becomes More And More Intuitive, And A Fourth, A Fifth, Or Some Subsequent One Of The Ever Renewed Attempts Will Ultimately Succeed... To Attain All This, However, Rivers Of Blood Must Yet Flow, And Years Of Desolation Pass Over; Yet The Object Is Worth Rivers Of Blood And Years Of Desolation. For What Inheritance So Valuable Can Man Leave To His Posterity?

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.

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

I Hope The Terms Of Excellency, Honor, Worship, Esquire, Forever Disappear From Among Us... I Wish That Of Mr. Would Follow Them.

If There Be Any Among Us Who Wish To Dissolve The Union Or To Change Its Republican Form, Let Them Stand Undisturbed, As Monuments Of The Safety With Which Error Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

I Am Satisfied, And Sufficiently Occupied With The Things Which Are, Without Tormenting Or Troubling Myself About Those Which May Indeed Be, But Of Which I Have No Evidence.

This Formidable Censor Of The Public Functionaries [the Press], By Arraigning Them At The Tribunal Of Public Opinion, Produces Reform Peaceably, Which Must Otherwise Be Done By Revolution. It Is Also The Best Instrument For Enlightening The Mind Of Man And Improving Him As A Rational, Moral, And Social Being.

The Tumults In America I Expected Would Have Produced In Europe An Unfavorable Opinion Of Our Political State. But It Has Not. On The Contrary, The Small Effect Of These Tumults Seems To Have Given More Confidence In The Firmness Of Our Governments. The Interposition Of The People Themselves On The Side Of Government Has Had A Great Effect On The Opinion Here In Europe.

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.

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

Against Us Are All Timid Men Who Prefer The Calm Of Despotism To The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty We Are Likely To Preserve The Liberty We Have Obtained Only By Unremitting Labors And Perils.

Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.

Give Up Money, Give Up Fame, Give Up Science, Give The Earth Itself And All It Contains, Rather Than Do An Immoral Act.

No Nation Is Drunken Where Wine Is Cheap.

The Olive Tree Is Surely The Richest Gift Of Heaven. I Can Scarcely Expect Bread.

The Best (remedy) I Can Devise Would Be To Give Future Commissions To (federal) Judges For Six Years With A Re-appointability By The President With The Approbation Of Both Houses. If This Would Not Be Independence Enough, I Know Not What Would Be.

An Enemy Generally Says And Believes What He Wishes.

You Have Heard Of The New Chemical Nomenclature Endeavored To Be Introduced By Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other Chemists Of This Country, Of Equal Note, Reject It, And Prove In My Opinion That It Is Premature, Insufficient And False. These Latter Are Joined By The British Chemists; And Upon The Whole, I Think The New Nomenclature Will Be Rejected, After Doing More Harm Than Good. There Are Some Good Publications In It, Which Must Be Translated Into The Ordinary Chemical Language Before They Will Be Useful.

I Steer My Bark With Hope In The Head, Leaving Fear Astern.

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...

Friendship Is But Another Name For An Alliance With The Follies And The Misfortunes Of Others. Our Own Share Of Miseries Is Sufficient: Why Enter Then As Volunteers Into Those Of Another?

Government As Well As Religion Has Furnished Its Schisms, Its Persecutions And Its Devices For Fattening Idleness On The Earnings Of The People.

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

We Are Here Lounging Our Time Away, Doing Nothing, And Having Nothing To Do. It Gives Me Great Regret To Be Passing My Time So Uselessly When It Could Have Been So Importantly Employed At Home.

Our Country Is Too Large To Have All Its Affairs Directed By A Single Government. Public Servants At Such A Distance, And From Under The Eye Of Their Constituents, Must, From The Circumstance Of Distance, Be Unable To Administer And Overlook All The Details Necessary For The Good Government Of The Citizens; And The Same Circumstance, By Rendering Detection Impossible To Their Constituents, Will Invite Public Agents To Corruption, Plunder And Waste.

That Government Is The Strongest Of Which Every Man Feels Himself A Part.

Our Cause Is Just. Our Union Is Perfect. ... With Hearts Fortified ... We Most Solemnly, Before God And The World, Declare That... We Will, In Defiance Of Every Hazard, With Unabating Firmness And Perseverence, Employ For The Preservation Of Our Liberties; Being With One Mind Resolved To Die Freemen Rather Than To Live Slaves.

The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us.

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.

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.

Hemp Is Of First Necessity To The Wealth & Protection Of The Country.

If, Then, The Control Of The People Over The Organs Of Their Government Be The Measure Of Its Republicanism, And I Confess I Know No Other Measure, It Must Be Agreed That Our Governments Have Much Less Of Republicanism Than Ought To Have Been Expected; In Other Words, That The People Have Less Regular Control Over Their Agents, Than Their Rights And Their Interests Require.

Paul Was The First Corrupter Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.

It Is Rare That The Public Sentiment Decides Immorally Or Unwisely, And The Individual Who Differs From It Ought To Distrust And Examine Well His Own Opinion.

We Are Not Immortal Ourselves, My Friend; How Can We Expect Our Enjoyments To Be So? We Have No Rose Without Its Thorn; No Pleasure Without Alloy. It Is The Law Of Our Existence; And We Must Acquiesce.

During The Late War I Had An Infallible Rule For Deciding What Great Britain Would Do On Every Occasion. It Was, To Consider What They Ought To Do, And To Take The Reverse Of That As What They Would Assuredly Do, And I Can Say With Truth That I Was Never Deceived.

It Is Time Enough, For The Rightful Purposes Of Civil Government, For Its Officers To Interfere [in The Propagation Of Religious Teachings] When Principles Break Out Into Overt Acts Against Peace And Good Order.

Under The Law Of Nature, All Men Are Born Free, Every One Comes Into The World With A Right To His Own Person, Which Includes The Liberty Of Moving And Using It At His Own Will. This Is What Is Called Personal Liberty, And Is Given Him By The Author

Congress Has Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Only Those Specifically Enumerated.

The Flames Kindled On The Fourth Of July, 1776, Have Spread Over Too Much Of The Globe To Be Extinguished By The Feeble Engines Of Despotism; On The Contrary, They Will Consume These Engines And All Who Work Them.

The Question Whether The Judges Are Invested With Exclusive Authority To Decide On The Constitutionality Of A Law Has Been Heretofore A Subject Of Consideration With Me In The Exercise Of Official Duties. Certainly There Is Not A Word In The Constitution Which Has Given That Power To Them More Than To The Executive Or Legislative Branches.

What Has Been The Effect Of [religious] Coercion? To Make One Half The World Fools, And The Other Half Hypocrites. To Support Roguery And Error All Over The Earth.

Our Legislators Are Not Sufficiently Apprized Of The Rightful Limits Of Their Power; That Their True Office Is To Declare And Enforce Only Our Natural Rights And Duties, And To Take None Of Them From Us.

I Am Convinced That Those Societies (such As The Native American Peoples) Which Live Without Government Enjoy In Their General Mass An Infinitely Greater Degree Of Happiness Than Those Who Live Under The European Governments. Among The Former, Public Opinion Is In The Place Of Law, & Restrains Morals As Powerfully As Laws Ever Did Anywhere. Among The Latter, Under Pretence Of Governing They Have Divided Their Nations Into Two Classes, Wolves & Sheep. I Do Not Exaggerate.

Native American

The Clergy ... Believe That Any Portion Of Power Confided To Me [as President] Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes. And They Believe Rightly: For I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man. But This Is All They Have To Fear From Me: And Enough, Too, In Their Opinion.

The Last Hope Of Human Liberty In This World Rests On Us. We Ought, For So Dear A Stake, To Sacrifice Every Attachment & Every Enmity.

[i]n Great-britain It Is Said That Their Constitution Relies On The House Of Commons For Honesty, And The Lords For Wisdom; Whichwould Be A Rational Reliance If Honesty Were To Be Bought With Money, And If Wisdom Were Hereditary.

The Liberty Of Speaking And Writing Guards Our Other Liberties.

...is The Spirit Of The People An Infallible, A Permanent Reliance? ...the Spirit Of The Times May Alter, Will Alter. Our Rulers Will Become Corrupt, Our People Careless.

The Spirit Of This Country Is Totally Adverse To A Large Military Force.

The Sun - My Almighty Physician.

By Nature's Law, Man Is At Peace With Man Till Some Aggression Is Committed, Which, By The Same Law, Authorizes One To Destroy Another As His Enemy.

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

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

Health Is Worth More Than Learning.

I Do Not Believe War The Most Certain Means Of Enforcing Principles. Those Peaceable Coercions Which Are In The Power Of Every Nation, If Undertaken In Concert And In Time Of Peace, Are More Likely To Produce The Desired Effect.

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

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

All Through Your Life, You'll Be Faced With Making A Decision Between Two Things-choose The One That Is Right. If They Are Both Right, Then Choose The One That Will Make You Feel The Best About It At The End Of The Day.

We Need A Revolution Every 20 Years Just To Keep Government Honest.

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.

The Only True Corrective Of Constitutional Abuses Is Education.

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.

The Sovereign Invigorator Of The Body Is Exercise, And Of All The Exercises Walking Is The Best.

Laws Provide Against Injury From Others; But Not From Ourselves.

Democracies Have

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

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle... Perhaps An Editor Might Begin A Reformation In Some Such Way As This. Divide His Paper Into Four Chapters, Heading The 1st, Truths. 2d, Probabilities. 3d, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The First Chapter Would Be Very Short.

I Leave To Others The Sublime Delights Of Riding In The Storm, Better Pleased With Sound Sleep & A Warmer Berth Below It Encircled, With The Society Of Neighbors, Friends & Fellow Laborers Of The Earth Rather Than With Spies & Sycophants ... I Have No Ambition To Govern Men. It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties If Its Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time That Their People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms.

And Even Should The Cloud Of Barbarism And Despotism Again Obscure The Science And Libraries Of Europe, This Country Remains To Preserve And Restore Light And Liberty To Them.

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.

A Walk About Paris Will Provide Lessons In History, Beauty, And In The Point Of Life.

Self-interest, Or Rather Self-love, Or Egoism, Has Been More Plausibly Substituted As The Basis Of Morality.

Fear Can Only Prevail When Victims Are Ignorant Of The Facts.

The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time.

Freedom [is] The First-born Daughter Of Science

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.

[emigrants] Will Bring With Them The Principles Of The Governments They Leave, Imbibed In Their Early Youth; Or, If Able To Throw Off, It Will Be In Exchange For An Unbounded Licentiousness, Passing, As Is Usual, From One Extreme To Another. It Would Be A Miracle Were They To Stop Precisely At The Point Of Temperate Liberty.

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

Would The Honest Patriot, In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment, Abandon A Government Which Has So Far Kept Us Free And Firm On The Theoretic And Visionary Fear That This Government, The World's Best Hope, May By Possibility Want Energy To Preserve Itself? I Trust Not.

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

It's Only Merit Was In Being The First Publication Which Carried The Claim Of Our Rights Their Whole Length, And Asserted That There Was No Rightful Link Of Connection Between Us And England But That Of Being Under The Same King.

Courts Love The People Always, As Wolves Do The Sheep.

Of The Various Executive Abilities, No One Excited More Anxious Concern Than That Of Placing The Interests Of Our Fellow-citizens In The Hands Of Honest Men, With Understanding Sufficient For Their Stations. No Duty Is At The Same Time More Difficult To Fulfil. The Knowledge Of Character Possessed By A Single Individual Is Of Necessity Limited. To Seek Out The Best Through The Whole Union, We Must Resort To The Information Which From The Best Of Men, Acting Disinterestedly And With The Purest Motives, Is Sometimes Incorrect.

That Peace, Safety, And Concord May Be The Portion Of Our Native Land, And Be Long Enjoyed By Our Fellow-citizens, Is The Most Ardent Wish Of My Heart, And If I Can Be Instrumental In Procuring Or Preserving Them, I Shall Think I Have Not Lived In Vain.

No Man Has Done Everything He Can Who Has Done Only His Best.

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.

Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight.

What I Value More Than All Things, Good Humor.

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

Famous Inspirational

When The People Are Afraid Of The Government, That's Tyranny. But When The Government Is Afraid Of The People, That's Liberty.

Does The Government Fear Us? Or Do We Fear The Government? When The People Fear The Government, Tyranny Has Found Victory. The Federal Government Is Our Servant, Not Our Master!

I Have Never Been Able To Conceive How Any Rational Being Could Propose Happiness To Himself From The Exercise Of Power Over Others.

I Feel Much Alarmed At The Prospect Of Seeing General Jackson President. He Is The Most Unfit Man I Know For Such A Place.

Peace Is Our Passion.

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.

We Have Already Given In Example One Effectual Check To The Dog Of War By Transferring The Power Of Letting Him Loose From The Executive To The Legislative Body

All Men Are Created Equal And Have The Right To Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Pursuit Of Happiness

I Believe The States Can Best Govern Our Home Concerns, And The General Government Our Foreign Ones.

Those Who Wish To Be Ignorant And Free, Believe In Something That Never Was And Never Shall Be.

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.

Only Aim To Do Your Duty, And Mankind Will Give You Credit Where You Fail.

The Movements Of Nature Are In A Never Ending Circle. The Animal Species Which Has Once Been Put Into A Train Of Motion, Is Still Probably Moving In That Train. For If One Link In Nature's Chain Might Be Lost, Another And Another Might Be Lost, Till This Whole System Of Things Should Evanish By Piece-meal; A Conclusion Not Warranted By The Local Disappearance Of One Or Two Species Of Animals, And Opposed By The Thousands And Thousands Of Instances Of The Renovating Power Constantly Exercised By Nature For The Reproduction Of All Her Subjects, Animal, Vegetable, And Mineral.

If The Freedom Of Religion, Guaranteed To Us By Law In Theory, Can Ever Rise In Practice Under The Overbearing Inquisition Of Public Opinion, [then And Only Then Will Truth]prevail Over Fanaticism.

Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army

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

Yet The Hour Of Emancipation Is Advancing ... This Enterprise Is For The Young; For Those Who Can Follow It Up, And Bear It Through To It's Consummation. It Shall Have All My Prayers, And These Are The Only Weapons Of An Old Man.

We Believe No More In Bonaparte's Fighting Merely For The Liberties Of The Seas Than In Great Britain's Fighting For The Liberties Of Mankind. The Object Is The Same, To Draw To Themselves The Power, The Wealth And The Resources Of Other Nations.

In The Constitution Of Spain As Proposed By The Late Cortes, There Was A Principle Entirely New To Me:... That No Person Born After That Day Should Ever Acquire The Rights Of Citizenship Until He Could Read And Write. It Is Impossible Sufficiently To Estimate The Wisdom Of This Provision. Of All Those Which Have Been Thought Of For Securing Fidelity In The Administration Of The Government, Constant Reliance To The Principles Of The Constitution, And Progressive Amendments With The Progressive Advances Of The Human Mind Or Changes In Human Affairs, It Is The Most Effectual.

One Generation Cannot Bind Another.

Are We To Have A Censor Whose Imprimatur Shall Say What Books May Be Sold, And What We May Buy? And Who Is Thus To Dogmatize Religious Opinions For Our Citizens? Whose Foot Is To Be The Measure To Which Ours Are All To Be Cut Or Stretched? Is A Priest To Be Our Inquisitor, Or Shall A Layman, Simple As Ourselves, Set Up His Reason As The Rule Of What We Are To Read, And What We Must Believe?

[t]he Opinion Which Gives To The Judges The Right To Decide What Laws Are Constitutional And What Not, Not Only For Themselves, In Their, Own Sphere Of Action, But For The Legislature And Executive Also In Their Spheres, Would Make The Judiciary A Despotic Branch.

Take Painsto Write A Neat Round, Plain Hand, And You Will Find It A Great Convenience Through Life To Write A Small And Compact Hand As Well As A Fair And Legible One.

Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given To You By God.

When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty.

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.

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.

On Every Unauthoritative Exercise Of Power By The Legislature Must The People Rise In Rebellion Or Their Silence Be Construed Into A Surrender Of That Power To Them? If So, How Many Rebellions Should We Have Had Already?

No Race Of Kings Has Ever Presented Above One Man Of Common Sense In Twenty Generations.

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.

I Find That He Is Happiest Of Whom The World Says Least, Good Or Bad.

Bad Relationship

We Must Train And Classify The Whole Of Our Male Citizens, And Make Military Instruction A Regular Part Of Collegiate Education.

I Think With The Romans, That The General Of Today Should Be A Soldier Tomorrow If Necessary.

Do Not Bite At The Bait Of Pleasure, Till You Know There Is No Hook Beneath It.

The Man Who Stops Advertising To Save Money Is Like The Man Who Stops The Clock To Save Time.

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.

Men Possessing Minds Of The First Order And Who Have Had Opportunities Of Being Known And Of Acquiring The General Confidence Do Not Abound In Any Country Beyond The Wants Of The Country.

The Only Thing A Man Can Take Beyond This Lifetime Is His Ethics.

For The Power Given To Congress By The Constitution Does Not Extend To The Internal Regulation Of The Commerce Of A State (that Is To Say, Of The Commerce Between Citizen And Citizen,) Which Remain Exclusively With Its Own Legislature; But To Its External Commerce Only, That Is To Say, Its Commerce With Another State, Or With Foreign Nations, Or With The Indian Tribes.

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

Every Generation Needs A New Revolution.

Famous Inspirational

Good Humor Is One Of The Preservatives Of Our Peace And Tranquility.

Peace And Tranquility

I Consider The Doctrines Of Jesus As Delivered By Himself To Contain The Outlines Of The Sublimest System Of Morality That Has Ever Been Taught But I Hold In The Most Profound Detestation And Execration The Corruptions Of It Which Have Been Invented.

Every Man Wishes To Pursue His Occupation And To Enjoy The Fruits Of His Labours And The Produce Of His Property In Peace And Safety, And With The Least Possible Expense. When These Things Are Accomplished, All The Objects For Which Government Ought To Be Established Are Answered.

The Provisions We Have Made [for Our Government] Are Such As Please Ourselves; They Answer The Substantial Purposes Of Government And Of Justice, And Other Purposes Than These Should Not Be Answered.

Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory.

Easter Was When They Nailed Him To The Cross. And He Never Said A Mumbling Word.

The President Is Bound To Stop At The Limits Prescribed By Our Constitution And Law To The Authorities In His Hands, [and This] Would Apply In An Occasion Of Peace As Well As War.

Without Society, And A Society To Our Taste, Men Are Never Contented.

An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens.

Were We Directed From Washington When To Sow And When To Reap, We Should Soon Want Bread.

Without Books, I Would Certainly Die.

The Central Bank Is An Institution Of The Most Deadly Hostility Existing Against The Principles And Form Of Our Constitution.

My Heart Trembles When I Reflect That God Is Just

I Do Not Know Whether You Are Fond Of Chemical Reading. There Are Some Things In This Science Worth Reading.

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.

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.

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