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Our Tenet Ever Was . . . That Congress Had Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Were Restrained To Those Specifically Enumerated; And That, As It Was Never Meant That They Should Provide For That Welfare But By The Exercise Of The Enumerated Powers, So It Could Not Have Been Meant They Should Raise Money For Purposes Which The Enumeration Did Not Place Under Their Action.

-Thomas Jefferson

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Our Tenet Ever Was

Thomas Jefferson

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Our Tenet Ever Was . . . That Congress Had Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Were Restrained To Those Specifically Enumerated; And That, As It Was Never Meant That They Should Provide For That Welfare But By The Exercise Of The Enumerated Powers, So It Could Not Have Been Meant They Should Raise Money For Purposes Which The Enumeration Did Not Place Under Their Action.

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The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.

The Government You Elect Is The Government You Deserve.

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

The Suppression Of Unnecessary Offices, Of Useless Establishments And Expenses Enabled Us To Discontinue Our Internal Taxes. These Covering Our Land With Officers, And Opening Our Doors To Their Intrusions, Had Already Begun That Process Of Domiciliary Vexation Which, Once Entered, Is Scarcely To Be Restrained From Reaching Successively Every Article Of Produce And Property.

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

The Ordinary Affairs Of A Nation Offer Little Difficulty To A Person Of Any Experience.

Without Health There Is No Happiness. An Attention To Health, Then, Should Take The Place Of Every Other Object.

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.

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

The Truth Is That The Want Of Common Education With Us Is Not From Our Poverty, But From The Want Of An Orderly System. More Money Is Now Paid For The Education Of A Part Than Would Be Paid For That Of The Whole If Systematically Arranged.

The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union.

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 Only Security Of All Is In A Free Press.

Freedom Of The Press

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

The Issuing Power [of Money] Should Be Taken From The Banks And Restored To The People, To Whom It Properly Belongs.

Democracies Have

A Government Is Republican In Proportion As Every Member Composing It Has His Equal Voice In The Direction Of Its Concerns, Not Indeed In Person, Which Would Be Impracticable Beyond The Limits Of A City Or Small Township, But By Representatives Chosen By Himself And Responsible To Him At Short Periods.

Our Constitution... Has Not Left The Religion Of Its Citizens Under The Power Of Its Public Functionaries, Were It Possible That Any Of These Should Consider A Conquest Over The Conscience Of Men Either Attainable Or Applicable To Any Desirable Purpose.

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

Second Amendment

The Declaration That Religious Faith Shall Be Unpunished Does Not Give Immunity To Criminal Acts Dictated By Religious Error.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

Freedom [is] The First-born Daughter Of Science

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong.

God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion.

Second Amendment

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

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

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.

The Appointment Of A Woman To Office Is An Innovation For Which The Public Is Not Prepared, Nor I.

I Join You Therefore In Branding As Cowardly The Idea That The Human Mind Is Incapable Of Further Advances.

I Think Our Governments Will Remain Virtuous For Many Centuries; As Long As They Are Chiefly Agricultural.

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

Unalienable Rights

Inalienable Rights

A Share In The Sovereignty Of The State, Which Is Exercised By The Citizens At Large, In Voting At Elections Is One Of The Most Important Rights Of The Subject, And In A Republic Ought To Stand Foremost In The Estimation Of The Law.

Don't Spend Your Money Till You Have It.

Success In Life

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

I Am Increasingly Persuaded That The Earth Belongs Exclusively To The Living And That One Generation Has No More Right To Bind Another To It's Laws And Judgments Than One Independent Nation Has The Right To Command Another.

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

Nothing Gives One Person So Much Advantage Over Another As To Remain Always Cool And Unruffled Under All Circumstances.

I Should . . . Prefer Swallowing One Incomprehensibility Rather Than Two. It Requires One Effort Only To Admit The Single Incomprehensibility Of Matter Endowed With Thought, And Two To Believe, First That Of An Existence Called Spirit, Of Which We Have Neither Evidence Nor Idea, And Then Secondly How That Spirit, Which Has Neither Extension Nor Solidity, Can Put Material Organs Into Motion.

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.

Cultivators Of The Earth Are The Most Valuable Citizens. They Are The Most Vigorous, The Most Independent, The Most Virtuous And They Are Tied To Their Country And Wedded To Its Liberty And Interests By The Most Lasting Bands.

In Matters Of Religion, I Have Considered That Its Free Exercise Is Placed By The Constitution Independent Of The Powers Of The General Government. I Have Therefore Undertaken On No Occasion To Prescribe The Religious Exercises Suited To It; But Have Left Them As The Constitution Found Them, Under The Direction And Discipline Of State Or Church Authorities Acknowledged By The Several Religious Societies.

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

Communities Should Be Planned With An Eye To The Effect On The Human Spirit Of Being Continually Surrounded By A Maximum Of Beauty.

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.

Never Put Off Your Massage Until Tomorrow If You Can Get It Today.

It Is Left... To The Juries, If They Think The Permanent Judges Are Under Any Bias Whatever In Any Cause, To Take On Themselves To Judge The Law As Well As The Fact. They Never Exercise This Power But When They Suspect Partiality In The Judges; And By The Exercise Of This Power They Have Been The Firmest Bulwarks Of English Liberty.

Long Accustomed To The Use Of European Manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] Are As Incapable Of Returning To Their Habits Of Skinsand Furs As We Are, And Find Their Wants The Less Tolerable As They Are Occasioned By A War [the American Revolution] The Event Of Which Is Scarcely Interesting To Them.

In Truth, Politeness Is Artificial Good Humor, It Covers The Natural Want Of It, And Ends By Rendering Habitual A Substitute Nearly Equivalent To The Real Virtue.

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

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

The Law For Religious Freedom... [has]put Down The Aristocracy Of The Clergy And Restored To The Citizen The Freedom Of The Mind.

Every Man's Reason Is His Own Rightful Umpire. This Principle, With That Of Acquiescence In The Will Of The Majority, Will Preserve Us Free And Prosperous As Long As They Are Sacredly Observed.

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

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.

Liberty Is The Great Parent Of Science And Of Virtue; And A Nation Will Be Great In Both In Proportion As It Is Free.

[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.

... 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.

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

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

In Our Own Native Land, In Defense Of The Freedom That Is Our Birthright And Which We Ever Enjoyed Till The Late Violation Of It. For The Protection Of Our Property, Acquired Solely By The Honest Industry Of Our Fore-fathers And Ourselves, Against Violence Actually Offered, We Have Taken Up Arms. We Shall Lay Them Down When Hostilities Shall Cease On The Part Of The Aggressors, And All Danger Of Their Being Renewed Shall Be Removed, And Not Before.

Indeed, We Need Not Look Back Half A Century To Times Which Many Now Living Remember Well, And See The Wonderful Advances In The Sciences And Arts Which Have Been Made Within That Period. Some Of These Have Rendered The Elements Themselves Subservient To The Purposes Of Man, Have Harnessed Them To The Yoke Of His Labors And Effected The Great Blessings Of Moderating His Own, Of Accomplishing What Was Beyond His Feeble Force, And Extending The Comforts Of Life To A Much Enlarged Circle, To Those Who Had Before Known Its Necessaries Only.

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

Some Other Natural Rights... [have] Not Yet Entered Into Any Declaration Of Rights.

When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty.

Most Men Die At Age 25, But Aren't Buried Until 70.

All, Too, Will Bear In Mind This Sacred Principle, That Though The Will Of The Majority Is In All Cases To Prevail, That Will To Be Rightful Must Be Reasonable; That The Minority Possess Their Equal Rights, Which Equal Law Must Protect, And To Violate Would Be Oppression.

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

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

Inalienable Rights

Dependence Begets Subservience And Paves The Way For Tyranny.

Religion, Morality, And Knowledge Are Necessary For Good Government... Therefore Schools And The Means Of Educating The People Should Always Be Encouraged.

In A Virtuous Government, And More Especially In Times Like These, Public Offices Are What They Should Be - Burdens To Those Appointed To Them Which It Would Be Wrong To Decline, Though Foreseen To Bring Them Intense Labor And Great Private Loss.

Times Like These

Civil Government Being The Sole Object Of Forming Societies, Its Administration Must Be Conducted By Common Consent.

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

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

A Lively And Lasting Sense Of Filial Duty Is More Effectually Impressed On The Mind Of A Son Or Daughter By Reading King Lear, Than By All The Dry Volumes Of Ethics, And Divinity That Ever Were Written.

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

It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods Or No God.

The Two Principles On Which Our Conduct Towards The Indians Should Be Founded Are Justice And Fear. After The Injuries We Have Done Them, They Cannot Love Us.

Chemistry Is Yet, Indeed, A Mere Embryon. Its Principles Are Contested; Experiments Seem Contradictory; Their Subjects Are So Minute As To Escape Our Senses; And Their Result Too Fallacious To Satisfy The Mind. It Is Probably An Age Too Soon To Propose The Establishment Of A System.

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...

Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than That Of Face And Stature.

His System Of Morality Was The Most Benevolent And Sublime Probably That Has Been Ever Taught, And Consequently More Perfect Than Those Of Any Of The Ancient Philosophers... He Was The Most Innocent, The Most Benevolent, The Most Eloquent And Sublime Character That Ever Has Been Exhibited To Man.

I Advance With Obedience To The Work, Ready To Retire From It Whenever You Become Sensible How Much Better Choice It Is In Your Power To Make.

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

You And I Have Formerly Seen Warm Debates And High Political Passions. But Gentlemen Of Different Politics Would Then Speak To Each Other And Separate The Business Of The Senate From That Of Society. It Is Not So Now. Men Who Have Been Intimate All Their Lives, Cross The Streets To Avoid Meeting, And Turn Their Heads Another Way, Lest They Should Be Obliged To Touch Their Hats. This May Do For Young Men With Whom Passion Is Enjoyment. But It Is Afflicting To Peaceable Minds. Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

The Government Created By This Compact Was Not Made The Exclusive Or Final Judge Of The Extent Of The Powers Delegated To Itself; Since That Would Have Made Its Discretion, And Not The Constitution, The Measure Of Its Powers.

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

For Heaven's Sake Discard The Monstrous Wig Which Makes The English Judges Look Like Rats Peeping Through Bunches Of Oakum.

The People Of Every Country Are The Only Safe Guardians Of Their Own Rights.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I Am Conscious That An Equal Division Of Property Is Impracticable, But The Consequences Of This Enormous Inequality Producing So Much Misery To The Bulk Of Mankind, Legislators Cannot Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property.

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

A Truth Now And Then Projecting Into The Ocean Of Newspaper Lies Serves Like Headlands To Correct Our Course. Indeed, My Scepticism As To Everything I See In A Newspaper Makes Me Indifferent Whether I Ever See One.

The Way To Have Good And Safe Government Is Not To Trust It All To One, But To Divide It Among The Many, Distributing To Everyone Exactly The Functions In Which He Is Competent ... It Is By Dividing And Subdividing These Republics From The Great National One Down Through All Its Subordinations Until It Ends In The Administration Of Everyman's Farm By Himself, By Placing Under Everyone What His Own Eye May Superintend, That All Will Be Done For The Best.

But Though An Old Man, I Am But A Young Gardener.

Gaming Corrupts Our Disposition And Teaches Us A Habit Of Hostility Against All Mankind.

And Say, Finally, Whether Peace Is Best Preserved By Giving Energy To The Government Or Information To The People. This Last Is The Most Legitimate Engine Of Government. Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of People. Enable Them To See That It Is Their Interest To Preserve Peace And Order, And They Will Preserve Them. And It Requires No Very High Degree Of Education To Convince Them Of This. They Are The Only Sure Reliance For The Preservation Of Our Liberty.

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

Never Fear The Want Of Business. A Man Who Qualifies Himself Well For His Calling, Never Fails Of Employment.

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

Every Constitution..., And Every Law, Naturally Expires At The End Of 19 Years [a Generation]. If It Be Enforced Longer, It Is Anact Of Force, And Not Of Right.

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.

Of All The Cankers Of Human Happiness None Corrodes With So Silent, Yet So Baneful An Influence, As Indolence.

Every Generation Needs A New Revolution.

Famous Inspirational

Religion Is A Subject On Which I Have Ever Been Most Scrupulously Reserved. I Have Considered It As A Matter Between Every Man And His Maker, In Which No Other, And Far Less The Public, Had A Right To Intermeddle.

The Patriot, Like The Christian, Must Learn To Bear Revilings And Persecutions As A Part Of His Duty; And In Proportion As The Trial Is Severe, Firmness Under It Becomes More Requisite And Praiseworthy. It Requires, Indeed, Self-command. But That Will Be Fortified In Proportion As The Calls For Its Exercise Are Repeated.

I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude

While The Principles Of Our Constitution Give Just Latitude To Inquiry, Every Citizen Faithful To It Will Deem Embodied Expressions Of Discontent And Open Outrages Of Law And Patriotism As Dishonorable As They Are Injurious

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

...the Science Of Calculation Also Is Indispensable As Far As The Extraction Of The Square And Cube Roots: Algebra As Far As The Quadratic Equation And The Use Of Logarithms Are Often Of Value In Ordinary Cases: But All Beyond These Is But A Luxury; A Delicious Luxury Indeed; But Not Be In Indulged In By One Who Is To Have A Profession To Follow For His Subsistence.

No One More Sincerely Wishes The Spread Of Information Among Mankind Than I Do, And None Has Greater Confidence In It's Effect Towards Supporting Free & Good Government.

It Is The Old Practice Of Despots To Use A Part Of The People To Keep The Rest In Order.

The Office Of Reformer Of The Superstitions Of A Nation, Is Ever More Dangerous. Jesus Had To Work On The Perilous Confines Of Reason And Religion; And A Step To The Right Or Left Might Place Him Within The Grasp Of The Priests Of The Superstition, A Bloodthirsty Race, As Cruel And Remorseless As The Being Whom They Represented As The Family God Of Abraham, Of Isaac And Of Jacob, And The Local God Of Israel. That Jesus Did Not Mean To Impose Himself On Mankind As The Son Of God, Physically Speaking, I Have Been Convinced By The Writings Of Men More Learned Than Myself In That Lore.

New York, Like London, Seems To Be A Cloacina [toilet] Of All The Depravities Of Human Nature.

War Has Been Avoided From A Due Sense Of The Miseries, And The Demoralization It Produces, And Of The Superior Blessings Of A State Of Peace And Friendship With All Mankind.

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

For An Unarmed Man May Be Attacked With Greater Confidence Than An Armed Man.

Experience Has Taught Me That Manufacturers Are Now As Necessary To Our Independence As To Our Comfort.

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

Democrats Consider The People As The Safest Depository Of Power In The Last Resort; They Cherish Them, Therefore, And Wish To Leave In Them All The Powers To The Exercise Of Which They Are Competent.

The People Cannot Be All, And Always Well Informed. The Part Which Is Wrong Will Be Discontented In Proportion To The Importance Of The Facts They Misconceive.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

It Is Neither Wealth Nor Splendor; But Tranquility And Occupation Which Give You Happiness.

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

Difference Of Opinion Is Helpful In Religion.

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

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

I Think Our Governments Will Remain Virtuous For Many Centuries As Long As They Are Chiefly Agricultural; And This Will Be As Long As There Shall Be Vacant Lands In Any Part Of America. When They Get Piled Upon One Another In Large Cities As In Europe, They Will Become Corrupt As In Europe.

Every People May Establish What Form Of Government They Please, And Change It As They Please, The Will Of The Nation Being The Only Thing Essential.

I Am Myself An Empiric In Natural Philosophy, Suffering My Faith To Go No Further Than My Facts. I Am Pleased, However, To See The Efforts Of Hypothetical Speculation, Because By The Collisions Of Different Hypotheses, Truth May Be Elicited And Science Advanced In The End.

He Does Most In God's Great World Who Does His Best In His Own Little World.

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

[t]he States Can Best Govern Our Home Concerns And The General Government Our Foreign Ones. I Wish, Therefore . . . Never To See All Offices Transferred To Washington, Where, Further Withdrawn From The Eyes Of The People, They May More Secretly Be Bought And Sold At Market.

But A Short Time Elapsed After The Death Of The Great Reformer Of The Jewish Religion, Before His Principles Were Departed From By Those Who Professed To Be His Special Servants, And Perverted Into An Engine For Enslaving Mankind, And Aggrandizing Their Oppressors In Church And State.

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

Too Old To Plant Trees For My Own Gratification, I Shall Do It For My Posterity.

Lethargy Is The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty.

The Genius Of Architecture Seems To Have Shed Its Maledictions Over This Land.

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.

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

Although We Are Free By The Law, We Are Not So In Practice.

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

Government Debt

Tobacco Is A Culture Productive Of Infinite Wretchedness.

When Wrongs Are Pressed Because It Is Believed They Will Be Borne, Resistance Becomes Morality.

Agreeable Society Is The First Essential In Constituting The Happiness And Of Course The Value Of Our Existence.

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.

Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.

Secular Society

If The Wise Be The Happy Man... He Must Be Virtuous Too; For, Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be. This Then Is The True Scope Of All Academical Emulation.

To The Corruptions Of Christianity I Am Indeed Opposed; But Not To The Genuine Precepts Of Jesus Himself. I Am A Christian, In The Only Sense He Wished Any One To Be; Sincerely Attached To His Doctrines, In Preference To All Others; Ascribing To Himself Every Human Excellence; & Believing He Never Claimed Any Other.

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

The Field Of Knolege Is The Common Property Of All Mankind

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 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.

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

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

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

There Is A Fulness Of Time When Men Should Go, And Not Occupy Too Long The Ground To Which Others Have A Right To Advance.

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

Independence Can Be Trusted Nowhere But With The People In Mass. They Are Inherently Independent Of All But Moral Law.

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.

If We Cannot Secure All Our Rights, Let Us Secure What We Can.

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

The Religion-builders Have So Distorted And Deformed The Doctrines Of Jesus, So Muffled Them In Mysticism, Fancies, And Falsehoods.

The Creator Has Not Thought Proper To Mark Those In The Forehead Who Are Of Stuff To Make Good Generals. We Are First, Therefore, To Seek Them Blindfold, And Then Let Them Learn The Trade At The Expense Of Great Losses.

We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

Government Welfare

Government Debt

Perfection In Wisdom, As Well As In Integrity, Is Neither Required Nor Expected In These Agents (public Servants). It Belongs Not To Man. The Wise Know Too Well Their Weaknesses To Assume Infallibility; And He Who Knows Most, Knows Best How Little He Knows.

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

The Information Of The People At Large Can Alone Make Them The Safe As They Are The Sole Depositary Of Our Political And Religious Freedom.

Trade Liberty For Safety Or Money And You'll End Up With Neither. Liberty, Like A Grain Of Salt, Easily Dissolves. The Power Of Questioning - Not Simply Believing - Has No Friends. Yet Liberty Depends On It.

No Man Has Greater Confidence Than I Have In The Spirit Of The People, To A Rational Extent. Whatever They Can, They Will.

Force Is The Vital Principle And Immediate Parent Of Despotism.

I Believe In Good Luck, And The Harder I Work And The More I Believe In Myself, The Luckier I Get.

No Nation Is Drunken Where Wine Is Cheap.

I... [am] Convinced [man] Has No Natural Right In Opposition To His Social Duties.

Separation Of Church And State

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

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

The Following [addition To The Bill Of Rights] Would Have Pleased Me: The People Shall Not Be Deprived Or Abridged Of Their Right To Speak, To Write, Or Otherwise To Publish Anything But False Facts Affecting Injuriously The Life, Liberty Or Reputation Of Others, Or Affecting The Peace Of The [united States] With Foreign Nations.

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.

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.

The End Of Democracy And The Defeat Of The American Revolution Will Occur When Government Falls Into The Hands Of Lending Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations.

The Result Of Your Fifty Or Sixty Years Of Religious Reading In The Four Words: 'be Just And Good,' Is That In Which All Our Enquiries Must End.

If The Present Congress Errs In Too Much Talking, How Can It Be Otherwise In A Body To Which The People Send One Hundred And Fifty Lawyers, Whose Trade It Is To Question Everything, Yield Nothing, And Talk By The Hour?

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.

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

Common Sense Is The Foundation Of All Authorities, Of The Laws Themselves, And Of Their Construction.

Our Ancestors ... Were Laborers, Not Lawyers.

I Have Never Conceived That Having Been In Public Life Required Me To Belie My Sentiments, Or To Conceal Them. Opinion And The Just Maintenance Of It Shall Never Be A Crime In My View, Nor Bring Injury On The Individual. I Never Will By Any Word Or Act, Bow To The Shrine Of Intolerance. I Never Had An Opinion In Politics Or Religion Which I Was Afraid To Own; A Reserve On These Subjects Might Have Procured Me More Esteem From Some People, But Less From Myself.

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.

The Best Hemp And The Best Tobacco Grow On The Same Kind Of Soil. The Former Article Is Of The First Necessity To The Wealth And Protection Of The Country. The Latter, Never Useful.

I Can Never Fear That Things Will Go Far Wrong Where Common Sense Has Fair Play.

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

I Feel A Much Greater Interest In Knowing What Has Passed Two Or Three Thousand Years Ago, Than In What Is Now Passing. I Read Nothing, Therefore, But Of The Heroes Of Troy, ... Of Pompey And Caesar, And Of Augustus Too.

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