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

. . . In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment.

Such Is The Moral Construction Of The World That No National Crime Passes Unpunished In The Long Run... Were Present Oppressors To Reflect On The Same Truth, They Would Spare To Their Own Countries The Penalties On Their Present Wrongs Which Will Be Inflicted On Them In Future Times. The Seeds Of Hatred And Revenge Which They Sow With A Large Hand Will Not Fail To Produce Their Fruits In Time. Like Their Brother Robbers On The Highway, They Suppose The Escape Of The Moment A Final Escape And Deem Infamy And Future Risk Countervailed By Present Gain.

In Short I Must Confide In You To Take Such Care Of The Men Under You As An Economical Householder Would Of His Own Family, Doingevery Thing Within Himself As Far As He Can, And Calling For As Few Supplies As Possible. The Less You Depend For Supplies From This Quarter, The Less You Will Be Disappointed.

The Opinions Of Men Are Not The Object Of Civil Government, Nor Under Its Jurisdiction.

There Is... An Artificial Aristocracy Founded On Wealth And Birth, Without Either Virtue Or Talents... The Artificial Aristocracy Is A Mischievous Ingredient In Government, And Provision Should Be Made To Prevent Its Ascendency.

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

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.

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

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

It Is My Principle That The Will Of The Majority Should Always Prevail.

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.

I Have Never Been Able To Conceive How Any Rational Being Could Propose Happiness To Himself From The Exercise Of Power Over Others... An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens.... Power Is Not Alluring To Pure Minds And Is Not With Them The Primary Principle Of Contest.

If We Move In Mass, Be It Ever So Circuitously, We Shall Attain Our Object; But If We Break Into Squads, Everyone Pursuing The Path He Thinks Most Direct, We Become An Easy Conquest To Those Who Can Now Barely Hold Us In Check.

It Is A Misnomer To Call A Government Republican In Which A Branch Of The Supreme Power Is Independent Of The Nation.

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

The Same Political Parties Which Now Agitiate The Us Have Existed Through All Time. And In Fact The Terms Of Whig And Tory Belong To Natural As Well As To Civil History. They Denote The Temper And Constitution And Mind Of Different Individuals.

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

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

In Every Country Where Man Is Free To Think And To Speak, Difference Of Opinion Will Arise From Difference Of Perception, And The Imperfection Of Reason; But These Differences, When Permitted, As In This Happy Country, To Purify Themselves By Free Discussion, Are But As Passing Clouds Overspreading Our Land Transiently, And Leaving Our Horizon More Bright And Serene.

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.

Money, Not Morality, Constitutes The Principle Of Commercial Nations.

The Most Effective Way To Find Ourselves Enslaved Will Not Be Done Openly. If Weakened We Will Sink Gradually. I Ask, Who Are The Militia? They Consist Of The Whole People, .... Except A Few Public Officers.

If The Children Are Untaught, Their Ignorance And Vices Will In Future Life Cost Us Much Dearer In Their Consequences Than It Would Have Done In Their Correction By A Good Education.

If The Book Be False In Its Facts, Disprove Them; If False In Its Reasoning, Refute It. But, For God's Sake, Let Us Freely Hear Both Sides, If We Choose.

Political Differences

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.

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

Rightful Liberty Is Unobstructed Action According To Our Will Within Limits Drawn Around Us By The Equal Rights Of Others. I Do Not Add 'within The Limits Of The Law' Because Law Is Often But The Tyrant's Will, And Always So When It Violates The Rights Of The Individual.

My Theory Has Always Been, That If We Are To Dream, The Flatteries Of Hope Are As Cheap, And Pleasanter, Than The Gloom Of Despair.

A Good Cause Is Often Injured More By Ill-timed Efforts Of Its Friends Than By The Arguments Of Its Enemies. Persuasion, Perseverance And Patience Are The Best Advocates On Questions Depending On The Will Of Others.

A System Of General Instruction, Which Shall Reach Every Description Of Our Citizens, From The Richest To The Poorest, As It Was The Earliest, So Will It Be The Latest, Of All The Public Concerns In Which I Shall Permit Myself To Take An Interest.

The Mass Of Our Citizens May Be Divided Into Two Classes -- The Laboring And The Learned. The Laboring Will Need The First Grade Of Education To Qualify Them For Their Pursuits And Duties; The Learned Will Need It As A Foundation For Further Acquirements.

Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law.

I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery.

Every Man Is Under The Natural Duty Of Contributing To The Necessities Of The Society; And This Is All The Laws Should Enforce On Him.

The Only Security Of All Is In A Free Press. The Force Of Public Opinion Cannot Be Resisted When Permitted Freely To Be Expressed. The Agitation It Produces Must Be Submitted To. It Is Necessary, To Keep He Waters Pure.

I Have So Much Confidence In The Good Sense Of Man, And His Qualifications For Self-government, That I Am Never Afraid Of The Issue Where Reason Is Left Free To Exert Her Force.

Great Innovations Should Not Be Forced On Slender Majorities.

The Bulk Of Mankind Are Schoolboys Through Life.

In The Middle Ages Of Christianity Opposition To The State Opinions Was Hushed. The Consequence Was, Christianity Became Loaded With All The Romish Follies. Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery & Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.

Delay Is Preferable To Error.

The Greatest Service Which Can Be Rendered Any Country Is To Add A Useful Plant To Its Culture. --the Fruit Hunters

I Think All The World Would Gain By Setting Commerce At Perfect Liberty.

I Served With General Washington In Die Legislature Of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin In Congress. I Never Heard Neither Of Them Speak Ten Minutes At A Time, Nor To Any But The Main Point.

The Proscribing Any Citizen As Unworthy The Public Confidence By Laying Upon Him An Incapacity Of Being Called To Offices Of Trust And Emolument Unless He Profess Or Renounce This Or That Religious Opinion Is Depriving Him Injuriously Of Those Privileges And Advantages To Which, In Common With His Fellow Citizens, He Has A Natural Right.

[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.

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

But With Respect To Future Debt; Would It Not Be Wise And Just For That Nation To Declare In The Constitution They Are Forming That Neither The Legislature, Nor The Nation Itself Can Validly Contract More Debt, Than They May Pay Within Their Own Age, Or Within The Term Of 19 Years.

Sometimes It Is Said That Man Cannot Be Trusted With The Government Of Himself. Can He, Then Be Trusted With The Government Of Others? Or Have We Found Angels In The Form Of Kings To Govern Him? Let History Answer This Question.

To Be Really Useful, We Must Keep Pace With The State Of Society, And Not Dishearten It By Attempts At What Its Population, Means, Or Occupations Will Fail In Attempting.

Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoted To Exercise, And The Weather Shall Be Little Regarded. If The Body Is Feeble, The Mind Will Not Be Strong.

He Who Lights His [candle] At Mine Receives Light Without Darkening Me.

In Matters Of Style, Swim With The Current; In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.

My God! How Little Do My Countrymen Know What Precious Blessings They Are In Possession Of, And Which No Other People On Earth Enjoy!

It Is Wonderful To Me That Old Men Should Not Be Sensible That Their Minds Keep Pace With Their Bodies In The Progress Of Decay.

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

Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve Of The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blind-folded Fear.

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

I Do Verily Believe That If The Principle Were To Prevail Of A Common Law Being In Force In The United States (which Principle Possesses The General Government At Once Of All The Powers Of The State Governments, And Reduces Us To A Single Consolidated Government), It Would Become The Most Corrupt Government On The Earth.

If Ever This Vast Country Is Brought Under A Single Government, It Will Be One Of The Most Extensive Corruption.

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

American Indian

Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

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

I Endeavor To Keep Their Attention Fixed On The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom & Happiness Of Man.

Turning, Then, From This Loathsome Combination Of Church And State, And Weeping Over The Follies Of Our Fellow Men, Who Yield Themselves The Willing Dupes And Drudges Of These Mountebanks, I Consider Reformation And Redress As Desperate, And Abandon Them To The Quixotism Of More Enthusiastic Minds.

All Eyes Are Opened, Or Opening, To The Rights Of Man. The General Spread Of The Light Of Science Has Already Laid Open To Every View. The Palpable Truth, That The Mass Of Mankind Has Not Been Born With Saddles On Their Backs, Nor A Favored Few Booted And Spurred, Ready To Ride Them Legitimately, By The Grace Of God. These Are Grounds Of Hope For Others. For Ourselves, Let The Annual Return Of This Day Forever Refresh Our Recollections Of These Rights, And An Undiminished Devotion To Them.

The Best Defense Of Democracy Is An Informed Electorate.

Health, Learning And Virtue Will Ensure Your Happiness; They Will Give You A Quiet Conscience, Private Esteem And Public Honour.

Taxes Should Be Continued By Annual Or Biennial Reeactments, Because A Constant Hold, By The Nation, Of The Strings Of The Public Purse Is A Salutary Restraint From Which An Honest Government Ought Not Wish, Nor A Corrupt One To Be Permitted, To Be Free.

Perfect Happiness, I Believe, Was Never Intended By The Deity To Be The Lot Of One Of His Creatures In This World; But That He Has Very Much Put In Our Power The Nearness Of Our Approaches To It Is What I Have Steadfastly Believed.

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.

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

That Government That Governs Least Governs Best.

The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple, And Tend To All The Happiness Of Man.

In Reviewing The History Of The Times Through Which We Have Passed, No Portion Of It Gives Greater Satisfaction Or Reflection, Than That Which Represents The Efforts Of The Friends Of Religious Freedom And The Success With Which They Are Crowned.

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

There Is No King, Who, With Sufficient Force, Is Not Always Ready To Make Himself Absolute.

Many Are The Exercises Of Power Reserved To The States Wherein A Uniformity Of Proceeding Would Be Advantageous To All. Such Are Quarantines, Health Laws, Regulations Of The Press, Banking Institutions, Training Militia, Etc., Etc.

Up Until The Late Unpleasantness Of The Civil War, Then, The Right Of Secession Was More Or Less Taken For Granted In Many Quarters, And There Has Never Been Any Amendment Or Even A Supreme Court Decision Saying It's Improper. - Samual Francis, Secession May Be Legal But Not Expedient, Conservative Chronicles 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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood.

The Germ Of Dissolution Of Our Federal Government Is In The Constitution Of The Federal Judiciary; An Irresponsible Body, (for Impeachment Is Scarcely A Scare-crow) Working Like Gravity By Night And By Day, Gaining A Little Today And A Little Tomorrow, And Advancing Its Noiseless Step Like A Thief, Over The Field Of Jurisdiction, Until All Shall Be Usurped From The States, And The Government Of All Be Consolidated Into One.

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

Self-love . . . Is The Sole Antagonist Of Virtue, Leading Us Constantly By Our Propensities To Self-gratification In Violation Of Our Moral Duties To Others.

Required To Be Constantly Recumbent I Write Slowly And With Difficulty.... Weakened In Body By Infirmities And In Mind By Age, Now Far Gone Into My 83rd Year, Reading One Newspaper Only And Forgetting Immediately What I Read.

The Truth Is, That The Greatest Enemies To The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Those, Calling Themselves The Expositors Of Them, Who Have Perverted Them For The Structure Of A System Of Fancy Absolutely Incomprehensible, And Without Any Foundation In His Genuine Words.

The Greatest Honor Of A Man Is In Doing Good To His Fellow Men, Not In Destroying Them.

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

I Leave The World And Its Affairs To The Young And Energetic, And Resign Myself To Their Care, Of Whom I Have Endeavored To Take Care When Young.

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.

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

No Government Ought To Be Without Censors; And Where The Press Is Free No One Ever Will.

I Have Ever Deemed It More Honorable And More Profitable, Too, To Set A Good Example Than To Follow A Bad One.

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

This Is Perhaps The Most Important Statement On Religion Ever Made. It Clarified The Intent Of The Founders Of The Constitution Irrespective Of The Attempts Of Modern Day Religious Revisionists.

Though You Cannot See, When You Take One Step, What Will Be The Next, Yet Follow Truth, Justice, And Plain Dealing, And Never Fear Their Leading You Out Of [any Difficult Situation] In The Easiest Manner Possible.

Difficult Situations

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

Vegetarian Diet

From Candlelight To Early Bedtime, I Read.

Dependence Begets Subservience And Paves The Way For Tyranny.

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.

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.

Subject Opinion To Coercion: Whom Will You Make Your Inquisitors? Fallible Men; Men Governed By Bad Passions, By Private As Well As Public Reasons. And Why Subject It To Coercion? To Produce Uniformity. But Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than Of Face And Stature.

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

Give Up Money, Give Up Fame, Give Up Science, Give The Earth Itself And All It Contains Rather Than Do An Immoral Act. And Never Suppose That In Any Possible Situation, Or Under Any Circumstances, It Is Best For You To Do A Dishonorable Thing, However Slightly So It May Appear To You.

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

A Democratic Society Depends Upon An Informed And Educated Citizenry.

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.

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

I Never Did, Or Countenanced, In Public Life, A Single Act Inconsistent With The Strictest Good Faith; Having Never Believed There Was One Code Of Morality For A Public, And Another For A Private Man.

I Have Overlived The Generation With Which Mutual Labors & Perils Begat Mutual Confidence And Influence.

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 True Fountains Of Evidence [are] The Head And Heart Of Every Rational And Honest Man. It Is There Nature Has Written Her Moral Laws, And Where Every Man May Read Them For Himself.

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.

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.

An Equal Application Of Law To Every Condition Of Man Is Fundamental.

Well, Page, I Do Wish The Devil Had Old Cooke, For I Am Sure I Never Was So Tired Of An Old Dull Scoundrel In My Life ... But The Old-fellows Say We Must Read To Gain Knowledge; And Gain Knowledge To Make Us Happy And Be Admired. Mere Jargon! Is There Any Such Thing As Happiness In This World? No.

The Relations Which Exist Between Man And His Maker, And The Duties Resulting From Those Relations, Are The Most Interesting And Important To Every Human Being And The Most Incumbent On His Study And Investigation.

An Association Of Men Who Will Not Quarrel With One Another Is A Thing Which Has Never Yet Existed, From The Greatest Confederacy Of Nations Down To A Town Meeting Or A Vestry.

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

The Man Who Never Looks Into A Newspaper Is Better Informed Than He Who Reads Them, In-as-much As He Who Knows Nothing Is Nearer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehood And Errors.

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

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

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

The Expedition Of Messrs. Lewis & Clarke For Exploring The River Missouri, & The Best Communication From That To The Pacific Ocean, Has Had All The Success Which Could Have Been Expected.

When A Man Assumes A Public Trust He Should Consider Himself A Public Property.

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

Truth Will Do Well Enough If Left To Shift For Herself.

I Have Done For My Country And For All Mankind, All That I Could Do, And I Now Resign My Soul, Without Fear, To My God - My Daughter To My Country.

The Most Effectual Means Of Preventing The Perversion Of Power Into Tyranny Are To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts Which History Exhibits, That Possessed Thereby Of The Experience Of Other Ages And Countries, They May Be Enabled To Know Ambition Under All Its Shapes, And Prompt To Exert Their Natural Powers To Defeat Its Purposes.

I Could Think Of No Worse Example For Nations Abroad, Who For The First Time Were Trying To Put Free Electoral Procedures Into Effect, Than That Of The United States Wrangling Over The Results Of Our Presidential Election, And Even Suggesting That The Presidency Itself Could Be Stolen By Thievery At The Ballot Box.

Every Citizen Should Be A Soldier. This Was The Case With The Greeks And Romans, And Must Be That Of Every Free State.

Error Is To Be Pitied And Pardoned: It Is The Weakness Of Human Nature. But Vice Is A Foul Blemish, Not Pardonable In Any Character.

The Sun Has Not Caught Me In Bed In Fifty Years.

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.

An Honest Heart Being The First Blessing, A Knowing Head Is The Second.

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

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

I Cannot Live Without Books.

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

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

My Only Fear Is That I May Live Too Long. This Would Be A Subject Of Dread To Me.

The Most Valuable Of All Talents Is That Of Never Using Two Words When One Will Do.

The Best Commentary On The Principles Of Government Which Has Ever Been Written.

Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far.

One Never Really Knows How Much One Has Been Touched By A Place Until One Has Left It.

From Breakfast, Or Noon At The Latest, To Dinner, I Am Mostly On Horseback, Attending To My Farm Or Other Concerns, Which I Find Healthful To My Body, Mind, And Affairs.

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

I Hold It To Be One Of The Distinguishing Excellences Of Elective Over Hereditary Successions That The Talents Which Nature Has Provided In Sufficient Proportion, Should Be Selected By The Society For The Govenment Of Their Affairs, Rather Than That This Should Be Be Transmitted Through The Loins Of Knaves And Fools Passing From The Debauches Of The Table To Those Of The Bed.

An Injured Friend Is The Bitterest Of Foes.

I Am Savage Enough To Prefer The Woods, The Wilds, And The Independence Of Monticello, To All The Brilliant Pleasures Of This Gaycapital [paris].

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

An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens . . . There Has Never Been A Moment Of My Life In Which I Should Have Relinquished For It The Enjoyments Of My Family, My Farm, My Friends And Books.

It Is Mortifying To Suppose It Possible That A People Able And Zealous To Contend With The Enemy Should Be Reduced To Fold Their Arms For Want Of The Means Of Defence; Yet No Resources That We Know Of, Ensure Us Against This Event.

We Have No Right To Prejudice Another In His Civil Enjoyments Because He Is Of Another Church.

Religious Freedom

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

Paper Money Is Liable To Be Abused, Has Been, Is, And Forever Will Be Abused, In Every Country In Which It Is Permitted.

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

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.

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

I Suppose, Indeed, That In Public Life, A Man Whose Political Principles Have Any Decided Character And Who Has Energy Enough To Give Them Effect Must Always Expect To Encounter Political Hostility From Those Of Adverse Principles.

All Authority Belongs To The People.

My Affections Were First For My Own Country, Then, Generally, For All Mankind

Ministers Of The Gospel Are Excluded [from Serving As Visitors Of The County Elementary Schools] To Avoid Jealousy From The Other Sects, Were The Public Education Committed To The Ministers Of A Particular One; And With More Reason Than In The Case Of Their Exclusion From The Legislative And Executive Functions.

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.

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.

Our Liberty Depends On Freedom Of The Press.

Freedom Of The Press

The Soil Is The Gift Of God To The Living.

The Elective Franchise, If Guarded As The Ark Of Our Safety, Will Peaceably Dissipate All Combinations To Subvert A Constitution, Dictated By The Wisdom, And Resting On The Will Of The People.

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.

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

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

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

It Is Better To Have No Ideas Than False Ones.

Reading, Reflection And Time Have Convinced Me That The Interests Of Society Require The Observation Of Those Moral Precepts Only In Which All Religions Agree.

It Is Not Too Soon To Provide By Every Possible Means That As Few As Possible Shall Be Without A Little Portion Of Land. The Small Landholders Are The Most Precious Part Of A State.

The Purpose Of Establishing Different Houses Of Legislation Is To Introduce The Influence Of Different Interests Or Different Principles.

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

The Further The Departure From Direct And Constant Control By The Citizens, The Less Has The Government Of The Ingredient Of Republicanism.

An Acre Of The Best Ground For Hemp, Is To Be Selected And Sewn In Hemp And Be Kept For A Permanent Hemp Patch.

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

On Every Question Of Construction (of The Constitution) Let Us Carry Ourselves Back To The Time When The Constitution Was Adopted, Recollect The Spirit Of The Debates, And Instead Of Trying What Meaning May Be Squeezed Out Of The Text, Or Invented Against It, Conform To The Probable One In Which It Was Passed.

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

Where Thought Is Free In Its Range, We Need Never Fear To Hazard What Is Good In Itself.

The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others. But It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods, Or No God. It Neither Picks My Pocket Nor Breaks My Leg.

The Darker The Berry, The Sweeter The Juice.

I Apprehend... That The Total Abandonment Of The Principle Of Rotation In The Offices Of President And Senator Will End In Abuse.

The Merchant Has No Country .

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.

All Power Is Inherent In The People.

The Whole Commerce Between Master And Slave Is A Perpetual Exercise Of The Most Boisterous Passions, The Most Unremitting Despotism On The One Part, And Degrading Submissions On The Other. Our Children See This, And Learn To Imitate It.

Wake Up, Dream, Have The Ambition To Do The Things You Have Always Dreamed Of, Go Farther Than Any Man Has Ever Been Before, Go As Far As It Is Possible For Any Man To Go, What Have You Got To Lose? Nothing Can Stop The Man With The Right Mental Attitude From Achieving His Goal; Nothing On Earth Can Help The Man With The Wrong Mental Attitude.

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

One Had Rather Have No Opinion Than A False One.

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.

The Functionaries Of Public Power Rarely Strengthen In Their Dispositions To Abridge It, And An Unorganized Call For Timely Amendment Is Not Likely To Prevail Against An Organized Opposition To It. We Are Always Told That Things Are Going On Well; Why Change Them? 'chi Sta Bene, No Si Mueve,' Said The Italian, 'let Him Who Stands Well, Stand Still.' This Is True; And I Verily Believe They Would Go On Well With Us Under An Absolute Monarch, While Our Present Character Remains, Of Order, Industry And Love Of Peace, And Restrained As He Would Be, By The Proper Spirit Of The People.

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

I Never Before Knew The Full Value Of Trees....what Would I Not Give That The Trees Planted Nearest Round The House At Monticello Were Full Grown.

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