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[t]o Preserve The Republican Form And Principles Of Our Constitution And Cleave To The Salutary Distribution Of Powers Which That [the Constitution] Has Established . . . Are The Two Sheet Anchors Of Our Union. If Driven From Either, We Shall Be In Danger Of Foundering.

-Thomas Jefferson

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[t]o Preserve The Republican

Thomas Jefferson

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[t]o Preserve The Republican Form And Principles Of Our Constitution And Cleave To The Salutary Distribution Of Powers Which That [the Constitution] Has Established . . . Are The Two Sheet Anchors Of Our Union. If Driven From Either, We Shall Be In Danger Of Foundering.

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Distribution Of Power

More From Thomas Jefferson

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. I Knew That Age Well; I Belonged To And Labored With It. It Deserved Well Of Its Country. It Was Very Like The Present, But Without The Experience Of The Present; And Forty Years Of Experience In Government Is Worth A Century Of Book-reading; And This They Would Say Themselves, Were They To Rise From The Dead.

It Is While We Are Young That The Habit Of Industry Is Formed. If Not Then, It Never Is Afterwards. The Fortune Of Our Lives Therefore Depends On Employing Well The Short Period Of Our Youth.

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

If You Have Any Duty Which Must Be Done, And It Seems Disagreeable, Do It Promptly And Have It Over.

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.

Societies Exist Under Three Forms Sufficiently Distinguishable. 1. Without Government, As Among Our Indians. 2. Under Governments Wherein The Will Of Every One Has A Just Influence, As Is The Case In England In A Slight Degree, And In Our States, In A Great One. 3. Under Governments Of Force: As Is The Case In All Other Monarchies And In Most Of The Other Republics. To Have An Idea Of The Curse Of Existence Under These Last, They Must Be Seen. It Is A Government Of Wolves Over Sheep.

The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance. In This Line Antiquity Has Left Us The Finest Models For Imitation; I Should Consider The Speeches Of Livy, Sallust, And Tacitus, As Pre-eminent Specimens Of Logic, Taste, And That Sententious Brevity Which, Using Not A Word To Spare, Leaves Not A Moment For Inattention To The Hearer. Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory.

Who Then Can So Softly Bind Up The Wound Of Another As He Who Has Felt The Same Wound Himself.

The Declaration Of Independence . . . [is The] Declaratory Charter Of Our Rights, And The Rights Of Man.

... I Am Not Afraid Of Priests. They Have Tried Upon Me All Their Various Batteries Of Pious Whining, Hypocritical Canting, Lying And Slandering. I Have Contemplated Their Order From The Magi Of The East To The Saints Of The West And I Have Found No Difference Of Character, But Of More Or Less Caution, In Proportion To Their Information Or Ignorance On Whom Their Interested Duperies Were To Be Played Off. Their Sway In New England Is Indeed Formidable. No Mind Beyond Mediocrity Dares There To Develop Itself.

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

Informed Citizenry

He Who Made Us Would Have Been A Pitiful Bungler, If He Had Made The Rules Of Our Moral Conduct A Matter Of Science. For One Man Of Science, There Are Thousands Who Are Not. What Would Have Become Of Them? Man Was Destined For Society. His Morality, Therefore, Was To Be Formed To This Object. He Was Endowed With A Sense Of Right And Wrong, Merely Relative To This.

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

To The Corruptions Of Christianity I Am Indeed Opposed; But Not To The Genuine Precepts Of Jesus Himself.

When I Hear Another Express An Opinion Which Is Not Mine, I Say To Myself, He Has A Right To His Opinion, As I To Mine. Why Should I Question It? His Error Does Me No Injury, And Shall I Become A Don Quixote, To Bring All Men By Force Of Argument To One Opinion? ...be A Listener Only, Keep Within Yourself, And Endeavor To Establish With Yourself The Habit Of Silence, Especially In Politics.

Neither Pagan Nor Mahamedan Nor Jew Ought To Be Excluded From The Civil Rights Of The Commonwealth Because Of His Religion. -quoting John Locke's Argument.

I Shall See With Sincere Satisfaction The Progress Of Those Sentiments Which Tend To Restore To Man All His Natural Rights, Convinced He Has No Natural Right In Opposition To His Social Duties.

The Bloom Of Monticello Is Chilled By My Solitude.

The Christian God Can Easily Be Pictured As Virtually The Same God As The Many Ancient Gods Of Past Civilizations. The Christian God Is A Three Headed Monster Cruel Vengeful And Capricious. If One Wishes To Know More Of This Raging Three Headed Beast Like God One Only Needs To Look At The Caliber Of People Who Say They Serve Him. They Are Always Of Two Classes Fools And Hypocrites.

Single Acts Of Tyranny May Be Ascribed To The Accidental Opinion Of The Day; But A Series Of Oppressions, Begun At A Distinguished Period, And Pursued Unalterably Through Every Change Of Ministers (adminstrators) Too Plainly Proves A Deliberate, Systematic Plan Of Reducing Us To Slavery.

When, In The Course Of Human Events, It Becomes Necessary For One People To Dissolve The Political Bands Which Have Connected Them With Another, And To Assume Among The Powers Of The Earth The Separate And Equal Station To Which The Laws Of Nature And Of Nature's God Entitle Them, A Decent Respect To The Opinions Of Mankind Requires That They Should Declare The Causes Which Impel Them To The Separation.

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

No Instance Exists Of A Person's Writing Two Language Perfectly. That Will Always Appear To Be His Native Language Which Was Most Familiar To Him In His Youth.

Native Language

Every Man Cannot Have His Way In All Things. If His Opinion Prevails At Some Times, He Should Acquiesce On Seeing That Of Others Preponderate At Other Times. Without This Mutual Disposition We Are Disjointed Individuals, But Not A Society.

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.

Where A New Invention Promises To Be Useful, It Ought To Be Tried.

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

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

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

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

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

When Earth Is Rich It Bids Defiance To Droughts, Yields In Abundance And Of The Best Quality.

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

If I Could Not Go To Heaven But With A Party, I Would Not Go There At All.

Let The Eye Of Vigilance Never Be Closed.

The Most Sacred Of The Duties Of A Government [is] To Do Equal And Impartial Justice To All Its Citizens.

Inalienable Rights

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

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

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

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.

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.

Timid Men Prefer The Calm Of Despotism To The Tempestuous Sea Of Liberty.

Our Ancestors ... Were Laborers, Not Lawyers.

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

A Judiciary Independent Of A King Or Executive Alone, Is A Good Thing; But Independence Of The Will Of The Nation Is A Solecism, At Least In A Republican Government.

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. If They Remain Quiet Under Such Misconceptions, It Is Lethargy, The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty. And What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties, If Its Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time, That This People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms.

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.

It Has Also Been A Great Solace To Me, To Believe That You Are Engaged In Vindicating To Posterity The Course We Have Pursued For Preserving To Them, In All Their Purity, The Blessings Of Self-government, Which We Had Assisted Too In Acquiring For Them. If Ever The Earth Has Beheld A System Of Administration Conducted With A Single And Steadfast Eye To The General Interest And Happiness Of Those Committed To It, One Which, Protected By Truth, Can Never Know Reproach, It Is That To Which Our Lives Have Been Devoted.

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle.

He Who Knows Best Knows How Little He Knows.

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

It Is An Essential Attribute Of The Jurisdiction Of Every Country To Preserve Peace, To Punish Acts In Breach Of It, And To Restore Property Taken By Force Within Its Limits.

Every Male Citizen Of The Commonwealth, Liable To Taxes Or To Militia Duty In Any County, Shall Have A Right To Vote For Representatives For That County To The Legislature.

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

I Had No Idea, However, That In Pennsylvania, The Cradle Of Toleration And Freedom Of Religion, It [fanaticism] Could Have Arisen To The Height You Describe. This Must Be Owing To The Growth Of Presbyterianism. The Blasphemy Of The Five Points Of Calvin, And The Impossibility Of Defending Them, Render Their Advocates Impatient Of Reasoning, Irritable, And Prone To Denunciation.

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

All The States But Our Own Are Sensible That Knowlege Is Power.

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

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

Ignorance Is A Poor Tool In A Battle Of Wits.

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

Music...this Is The Favorite Passion Of My Soul.

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

We Lay It Down As A Fundamental, That Laws, To Be Just, Must Give A Reciprocation Of Right; That, Without This, They Are Mere Arbitrary Rules Of Conduct, Founded In Force, And Not In Conscience.

Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

Do Not Write Me Studied Letters But Ramble As You Please.

Never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself

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

Man [is] A Rational Animal, Endowed By Nature With Rights And With An Innate Sense Of Justice.

To Seek Out The Best [persons To Serve In The Government] Though The Whole Union, We Must Resort To The Information Which From The Best Of Men, Acting Disinterestedly And With Ther Purest Motives, Is Something Incorrect....no Duty The Executive Had To Perform Was So Trying As To Put The Right Man In The Right Place.

There Is A Debt Of Service Due From Every Man To His Country, Proportioned To The Bounties Which Nature And Fortune Have Measured To Him.

To Me... It Appears That There Have Been Differences Of Opinion And Party Differences, From The First Establishment Of Government To The Present Day, And On The Same Question Which Now Divides Our Own Country; That These Will Continue Through All Future Time; That Every One Takes His Side In Favor Of The Many, Or Of The Few, According To His Constitution, And The Circumstances In Which He Is Placed.

What A Stupendous, What An Incomprehensible Machine Is Man! Who Can Endure Toil, Famine, Stripes, Imprisonment & Death Itself In Vindication Of His Own Liberty, And The Next Moment ... Inflict On His Fellow Men A Bondage, One Hour Of Which Is Fraught With More Misery Than Ages Of That Which He Rose In Rebellion To Oppose.

To Consider Judges As The Ultimate Arbiters Of All Constitutional Questions Is A Very Dangerous Doctrine Indeed, And One Which Would Place Us Under The Despotism Of An Oligarchy.

The Reward Of Esteem, Respect And Gratitude [is] Due To Those Who Devote Their Time And Efforts To Render The Youths Of Every Successive Age Fit Governors For The Next.

But, You May Ask, If The Two Departments [i.e., Federal And State] Should Claim Each The Same Subject Of Power, Where Is The Common Umpire To Decide Ultimately Between Them? In Cases Of Little Importance Or Urgency, The Prudence Of Both Parties Will Keep Them Aloof From The Questionable Ground; But If It Can Neither Be Avoided Nor Compromised, A Convention Of The States Must Be Called To Ascribe The Doubtful Power To That Department Which They May Think Best.

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

During The Course Of Administration, And In Order To Disturb It, The Artillery Of The Press Has Been Levelled Against Us, Charged With Whatsoever Its Licentiousness Could Devise Or Dare. These Abuses Of An Institution So Important To Freedom And Science Are Deeply To Be Regretted, Inasmuch As They Tend To Lessen Its Usefulness And To Sap Its Safety.

A Man's Management Of His Own Purse Speaks Volumes About Character

Morals Were Too Essential To The Happiness Of Man, To Be Risked On The Uncertain Combinations Of The Head. Nature Laid Their Foundation, Therefore, In Sentiment, Not In Science.

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

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

History Teaches The Young The Virtues Of Freedom. By Apprising Them Of The Past It Will Enable Them To Judge The Future.

A Lottery Is A Salutary Instrument And A Tax... Laid On The Willing Only, That Is To Say, On Those Who Can Risk The Price Of A Ticket Without Sensible Injury, For The Possibility Of A Higher Prize.

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

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.

The Inhabitants Of The Ceded Territory Shall Be Incorporated In The Union Of The United States, And Admitted As Soon As Possible, According To The Principles Of The Federal Constitution, To The Enjoyment Of All The Rights, Advantages, And Immunities, Of Citizens Of The United States; And, In The Mean Time, They Shall Be Maintained And Protected In The Free Enjoyment Of Their Liberty, Property, And The Religion Which They Profess.

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.

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.

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

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

The Most Effective Means Of Preventing Tyranny Is To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts.

I Would Observe To You That What Is Called Style In Writing Or Speaking Is Formed Very Early In Life While The Imagination Is Warm, And Impressions Are Permanent.

Pride Costs Us More Than Hunger, Thirst, And Cold.

Hunger And Thirst

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

Never Yet Could I Find That A Black Had Uttered A Thought Above The Level Of Plain Narration; Never Saw Even An Elemental Trait Of Painting Or Sculpture.

From The Dissensions Among Sects Themselves Arise Necessarily A Right Of Choosing And Necessity Of Deliberating To Which We Will Conform. But If We Choose For Ourselves, We Must Allow Others To Choose Also, And So Reciprocally, This Establishes Religious Liberty.

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 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.

The Purpose Of Government Is To Enable The People Of A Nation To Live In Safety And Happiness. Government Exists For The Interests Of The Governed, Not For The Governors.

The Difficulty Is No Longer To Find Candidates For The Offices, But Offices For The Candidates.

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

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

The Possession Of Facts Is Knowledge; The Use Of Them Is Wisdom.

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.

Of Publishing A Book On Religion, My Dear Sir, I Never Had An Idea. I Should As Soon Think Of Writing For The Reformation Of Bedlam, As Of The World Of Religious Sects. Of These There Must Be, At Least, Ten Thousand, Every Individual Of Every One Of Which Believes All Wrong But His Own.

We Shall All Consider Ourselves Unauthorized To Saddle Posterity With Our Debts, And Morally Bound To Pay Them Ourselves; And Consequently Within What May Be Deemed The Period Of A Generation, Or The Life Of The Majority.

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

Our Liberty Depends On Freedom Of The Press.

Freedom Of The Press

The Executive, In Our Government Is Not The Sole, It Is Scarcely The Principle, Object Of My Jealousy. The Tyranny Of The Legislature Is The Most Formidable Dread At Present And Will Be For Many Years. That Of The Executive Will Come In Its Turn, But It Will Be At A Remote Period.

To Make Us One Nation As To Foreign Concerns, And Keep Us Distinct In Domestic Ones Gives The Outline Of The Proper Division Of Powers Between The General [national] And Particular [state] Governments.

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

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

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 Fact Is That One New Idea Leads To Another, That To A Third And So On Through A Course Of Time, Until Someone, With Whom No One Of These Ideas Was Original, Combines All Together, And Produces What Is Justly Called A New Invention.

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

For A People Who Are Free, And Who Mean To Remain So, A Well-organized And Armed Militia Is Their Best Security.

There Are Two Amendments Only Which I Am Anxious For: 1. A Bill Of Rights, Which It Is So Much The Interest Of All To Have That I Conceive It Must Be Yielded...2. The Restoring Of The Principle Of Necessary Rotation, Particularly To The Senate And Presidency, But Most Of All To The Last.

I Never Told My Own Religion Nor Scrutinized That Of Another. I Never Attempted To Make A Convert, Nor Wished To Change Another's Creed. I Am Satisfied That Yours Must Be An Excellent Religion To Have Produced A Life Of Such Exemplary Virtue And Correctness. For It Is In Our Lives, And Not From Our Words, That Our Religion Must Be Judged.

Men Of Quality Are Not Threatened By Women Of Equality

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

A Determination Never To Do What Is Wrong, Prudence, And Good-humor, Will Go Far Toward Securing To You The Estimation Of The World.

Ignorance And Bigotry, Like Other Insanities, Are Incapable Of Self-government.

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.

Every Honest Man Will Suppose Honest Acts To Flow From Honest Principles, And The Rogues May Rail Without Intermission.

Dependence Begets Subservience And Paves The Way For Tyranny.

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

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

The Rights Of The People To The Exercise And Fruits Of Their Own Industry Can Never Be Protected Against The Selfishness Of Rulers Not Subject To Their Control At Short Periods.

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

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

Never Use One Word When Two Will Do.

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

Private Fortunes, In The Present State Of Our Circulation, Are At The Mercy Of Those Self-created Money Lenders, And Are Prostrated By The Floods Of Nominal Money With Which Their Avarice Deluges Us.

A Man Has A Right To Use A Saw, An Axe, A Plane, Separately; May He Not Combine Their Uses On The Same Piece Of Wood? He Has A Right To Use His Knife To Cut His Meat, A Fork To Hold It; May A Patentee Take From Him The Right To Combine Their Use On The Same Subject? Such A Law, Instead Of Enlarging Our Conveniences, As Was Intended, Would Most Fearfully Abridge Them, And Crowd Us By Monopolies Out Of The Use Of The Things We Have.

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.

‎we Must Make Our Choice Between Economy And Liberty Or Confusion And Servitude...if We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements...if We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

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.

If The Body Be Feeble, The Mind Will Not Be Strong.

In Europe The Object Is To Make The Most Of Their Land, Labour Being Abundant: Here It Is To Make The Most Of Our Labour, Land Being Abundant.

As New Discoveries Are Made, New Truths Discovered And Manners And Opinions Change With The Change Of Circumstances, Institutions Must Advance Also To Keep Pace With The Times.

When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty.

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

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.

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

Peace Is Our Passion.

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.

Government Can Do Something For The People Only In Proportion As It Can Do Something To The People.

[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.

For The Present We May Groupe The Sciences Into Professorships As Follows, Subject However To Be Changed According To The Qualifications Of The Persons We May Be Able To Engage.

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.

The People Are Not Always Well-informed, But Is Better That They Have Misconceptions That Make Them Restless Than That They Be Lethargic-for Lethargy In The People Means Death For Republics.

...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.

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

The Opinions And Beliefs Of Men Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds.

They Are Nations Of Eternal War. All Their Energies Are Expended In The Destruction Of The Labor, Property, And Lives Of Their People.

I Am Already Sensible Of Decay In The Power Of Walking, And Find My Memory Not So Faithful As It Used To Be. This May Be Partly Owing To The Incessant Current Of New Matter Flowing Constantly Through It; But I Ascribe To Years Their Share In It Also.

[t]he People Seem To Have Deposited The Monarchical And Taken Up The Republican Government With As Much Ease As Would Have Attended Their Throwing Off An Old And Putting On A New Suit Of Clothes.

Principle Will, In... Most... Cases Open The Way For Us To Correct Conclusion.

Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.

Secular Society

What Country Before Ever Existed A Century And A Half Without A Rebellion? And What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties If Their Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time That Their People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them. What Signify A Few Lives Lost In A Century Or Two? The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants. It Is Its Natural Manure.

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 Happiness Of The Domestic Fireside Is The First Boon Of Heaven; And It Is Well It Is So, Since It Is That Which Is The Lot Of The Mass Of Mankind.

All We Can Do Is To Make The Best Of Our Friends, Love And Cherish What Is Good In Them, And Keep Out Of The Way What Is Bad.

It Is (our) Duty . . . To Pay Especial Attention To The Principles Of Government Which Shall Be Inculcated Therein (at The University), And To Provide That None Shall Be Inculcated Which Are Incompatible With Those On Which The Constitutions Of This State, And Of The United States Were Genuinely Based, In The Common Opinion; And For This Purpose It May Be Necessary To Point Out Specially Where These Principles Are To Be Found Legitimately Developed.

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

The Man Who Loves His Country On Its Own Account, And Not Merely For Its Trappings Of Interest Or Power, Can Never Be Divorced For It, Can Never Refuse To Come Forward When He Finds That She Is Engaged In Dangers Which He Has The Means Of Warding Off.

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

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

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.

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.

I Hope That We Have Not Labored In Vain, And That Our Experiment Will Still Prove That Men Can Be Governed By Reason.

I Shall Need, Too, The Favor Of That Being In Whose Hands We Are, Who Led Our Fathers, As Israel Of Old, From Their Native Land And Planted Them In A Country Flowing With All The Necessaries Of Comforts Of Life.

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

But When A Long Train Of Abuses And Usurpations, Pursuing Invariably The Same Object Evinces A Design To Reduce Them Under Absolute Despotism, It Is Their Right, It Is Their Duty, To Throw Off Such Government, And To Provide New Guards For Their Future Security.

An Elective Despotism Was Not The Government We Fought For.

Above All Things, Lose No Occasion Of Exercising Your Dispositions To Be Grateful, To Be Generous, To Be Charitable, To Be Humane, To Be True, Just, Firm, Orderly, Courageous, Etc. Consider Every Act Of This Kind As An Exercise Which Will Strengthen Your Moral Faculties And Increase Your Worth.

I Recoil With Horror At The Ferociousness Of Man. Will Nations Never Devise A More Rational Umpire Of Differences Than Force? Are There No Means Of Coercing Injustice More Gratifying To Our Nature Than A Waste Of The Blood Of Thousands And Of The Labor Of Millions Of Our Fellow Creatures?

We Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed That Is Seen In A Newspaper.

The Greeks By Their Laws, And The Romans By The Spirit Of Their People, Took Care To Put Into The Hands Of Their Rulers No Such Engine Of Oppression As A Standing Army. Their System Was To Make Every Man A Soldier, And Oblige Him To Repair To The Standard Of His Country Whenever That Was Reared. This Made Them Invincible; And The Same Remedy Will Make Us So.

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

Let Those Flatter Who Fear; It Is Not An American Art .

I Am Ever Unwilling That [peace] Should Be Disturbed As Long As The Rights And Interests Of The Nations Can Be Preserved. But Whensoever Hostile Aggressions On These Require A Resort To War, We Must Meet Our Duty And Convince The World That We Are Just Friends And Brave Enemies.

I Know Nothing More Important To Inculcate Into The Minds Of Young People Than The Wisdom, The Honor, And The Blessed Comfort Of Living Within Their Income.

[i]t Seems That The Cannibals Of Europe Are Going To Eat One Another Again. A War Between Russia And Turkey Is Like The Battle Of The Kite And Snake; Whichever Destroys The Other, Leaves A Destroyer The Less For The World.

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

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

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

[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.

For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead.

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

Stock Dealers And Banking Companies, By The Aid Of A Paper System, Are Enriching Themselves To The Ruin Of Our Country, And Swaying The Government By Their Possession Of The Printing Presses, Which Their Wealth Commands And By Any Other Means, Not Always Honorable To The Character Of Our Countrymen.

Rejecting All Organs Of Informationbut My Senses, I Rid Myself Of The Pyrrhonisms With Which An Indulgence In Speculations Hyperphysical And Antiphysical So Uselessly Occupy And Disquiet The Mind.

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.

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.

Believing With You That Religion Is A Matter Which Lies Solely Between Man And His God, That He Owes Account To None Other For His Faith Or His Worship, That The Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only, And Not Opinions, I Contemplate With Sovereign Reverence That Act Of The Whole American People Which Declared That Their Legislature Should 'make No Law Respecting An Establishment Of Religion, Or Prohibiting The Free Exercise Thereof,' Thus Building A Wall Of Separation Between Church And State.

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James St. James

Giuseppe Garibaldi

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