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

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Application Requisite To

Thomas Jefferson

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

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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.

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.

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

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

Travelling Is Good For Your Health And Necessary For Your Amusement.

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

The Dead Should Not Rule The Living

Health Is The Requisite After Morality

But Under The Beaming, Constant And Almost Vertical Sun Of Virginia, Shade Is Our Elysium. In The Absence Of This No Beauty Of The Eye Can Be Enjoyed.

When We See Ourselves In A Situation Which Must Be Endured And Gone Through, It Is Best To Make Up Our Minds To It, Meet It With Firmness, And Accommodate Everything To It In The Best Way Practicable. This Lessens The Evil; While Fretting And Fuming Only Serves To Increase Your Own Torments.

I Hope We Shall Crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Monied Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To A Trial By Strength, And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country.

What Is True Of Every Member Of The Society, Individually, Is True Of Them All Collectively; Since The Rights Of The Whole Can Be No More Than The Sum Of The Rights Of The Individuals.

This Institution Will Be Based On The Illimitable Freedom Of The Human Mind. For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead, Not Tolerate Error As Long As Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

The True Foundation Of Republican Government Is The Equal Right Of Every Citizen In His Person And Property And In Their Management.

I Consider The Foundation Of The Constitution As Laid On This Ground That 'all Powers Not Delegated To The United States, By The Constitution, Nor Prohibited By It To The States, Are Reserved To The States Or To The People.' To Take A Single Step Beyond The Boundaries Thus Specially Drawn Around The Powers Of Congress, Is To Take Possession Of A Boundless Field Of Power Not Longer Susceptible Of Any Definition.

I Believe That Every Human Mind Feels Pleasure In Doing Good To Another.

No Experiment Can Be More Interesting Than That We Are Now Trying, And Which We Trust Will End In Establishing The Fact, That Man May Be Governed By Reason And Truth.

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 Learn With Great Concern That [one] Portion Of Our Frontier So Interesting, So Important, And So Exposed, Should Be So Entirely Unprovided With Common Fire-arms. I Did Not Suppose Any Part Of The United States So Destitute Of What Is Considered As Among The First Necessaries Of A Farm-house.

The Constitution Of The United States Is The Result Of The Collected Wisdom Of Our Country.

I Acknowledge That Such A Debt [of Service To My Fellow-citizens] Exists, That A Tour Of Duty In Whatever Line He Can Be Most Useful To His Country, Is Due From Every Individual. It Is Not Easy Perhaps To Say Of What Length Exactly That Tour Should Be, But We May Safely Say Of What Length It Should Not Be. Not Of Our Whole Life, For Instance, For That Would Be To Be Born A Slave-not Even Of A Very Large Portion Of It.

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

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

Big Banks Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies, And The Practice Of Borrowing And Spending Money To Be Paid Back By The Next Generation Is Stealing From Their Future.

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

We Discover In The Gospels A Groundwork Of Vulgar Ignorance, Of Things Impossible, Of Superstition, Fanaticism And Fabrication .

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

I Sincerely Wish You May Find It Convenient To Come Here. The Pleasure Of The Trip Will Be Less Than You Expect, But The Utility Greater. It Will Make You Adore Your Own Country, It's Soil, It's Climate, It's Equality, Liberty, Laws, People & Manners. My God! How Little Do My Countrymen Know.

Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, And Navigation, The Four Pillars Of Our Prosperity, Are The Most Thriving When Left Most Free To Individual Enterprise.

The Contest Is Not Between Us And Them, But Between Good And Evil, And If Those Who Would Fight Evil Adopt The Ways Of Evil, Evil Wins.

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

They Are Exactly The Persons Who Are To Succeed To The Government Of Our Country And To Rule Its Future Enmities, Its Friendships And Fortunes.

State A Moral Case To A Plowman And A Professor. The Former Will Decide It As Well, And Often Better Than The Latter, Because He Has Not Been Led Astray By Artificial Rules.

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.

Almighty God Hath Created The Mind Free. All Attempts To Influence It By Temporal Punishments Or Burthens...are A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion...no Man Shall Be Compelled To Frequent Or Support Religious Worship Or Ministry Or Shall Otherwise Suffer On Account Of His Religious Opinions Or Belief, But All Men Shall Be Free To Profess And By Argument To Maintain, Their Opinions In Matters Of Religion. I Know But One Code Of Morality For Men Whether Acting Singly Or Collectively.

I Enclose To You A Copy Of The Declaration Of Independence As Agreed To By The House, And Also, As Originally Framed. You Will Judge Whether It Is The Better Or Worse For The Critics.

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

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.

Leave All The Afternoon For Exercise And Recreation, Which Are As Necessary As Reading. I Will Rather Say More Necessary Because Health Is Worth More Than Learning.

Whenever You Do A Thing, Act As If All The World Were Watching.

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.

We May Say With Truth And Meaning, That Governments Are More Or Less Republican, As They Have More Or Less Of The Element Of Popular Election And Control In Their Composition; And Believing As I Do, That The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depository Of Their Own Rights And Especially That The Evils Flowing From The Duperies Of The People Are Less Injurious Than Those From The Egoism Of Their Agents, I Am A Friend To That Composition Of Government Which Has In It The Most Of This Ingredient.

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

[the Purpose Of A Written Constitution Is] To Bind Up The Several Branches Of Government By Certain Laws, Which, When They Transgress, Their Acts Shall Become Nullities; To Render Unnecessary An Appeal To The People, Or In Other Words A Rebellion, On Every Infraction Of Their Rights, On The Peril That Their Acquiescence Shall Be Construed Into An Intention To Surrender Those Rights.

Man Is An Imitative Animal. This Quality Is The Germ Of All Education In Him. From His Cradle To His Grave He Is Learning To Do What He Sees Others Do.

Those Who Would Trade Safety For Freedom Deserve Neither.

One Travels More Usefully When Alone, Because He Reflects More.

As Government Grows, Freedom Recedes.

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

We Are Sensible Of The Duty And Expediency Of Submitting Our Opinions To The Will Of The Majority, And Can Wait With Patience Till They Get Right If They Happen To Be At Any Time Wrong.

The Fore Horse Of This Frightful Team Is Public Debt. Taxation Follow That, And In Its Turn Wretchedness And Oppression.

One War, Such As That Of Our Revolution, Is Enough For One Life.

History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government. This Marks The Lowest Grade Of Ignorance Of Which Their Civil As Well As Religious Leaders Will Always Avail Themselves For Their Own Purposes.

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong.

You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts.

Was The Government To Prescribe To Us Our Medicine And Diet, Our Bodies Would Be In Such Keeping As Our Souls Are Now.

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

Traveling Makes Men Wiser, But Less Happy.

Those Who Bear Equally The Burthens Of Government Should Equally Participate Of Its Benefits.

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

Every State Has A Natural Right In Cases Not Within The Compact (casus Non Faederis) To Nullify Of Their Own Authority All Assumptions Of Power By Others Within Their Limits. Without This Right, They Would Be Under The Dominion, Absolute And Unlimited, Of Whosoever Might Exercise This Right Of Judgment For Them.

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

Truth Between Candid Minds Can Never Do Harm.

When Angry Count To Ten Before You Speak. If Very Angry, Count To One Hundred.

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.

The Interests Of The States... Ought To Be Made Joint In Every Possible Instance In Order To Cultivate The Idea Of Our Being One Nation, And To Multiply The Instances In Which The People Shall Look Up To Congress As Their Head.

When Virtue Is Banished, Ambition Invades The Minds Of Those Who Are Disposed To Receive It, And Avarice Possesses The Whole Community. The Objects Of Their Desires Are Changed; What They Were Fond Of Before Has Become Indifferent; They Were Free While Under The Restraint Of Laws, But They Would Fain Now Be Free To Act Against Law.

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.

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

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

Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

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

I Can Scarcely Contemplate A More Incalculable Evil Than The Breaking Of The Union Into Two Or More Parts.

It Is A [disputed] Question, Whether The Circulation Of Paper, Rather Than Of Specie [gold And Silver Coin], Is A Good Or An Evil I Believe It To Be One Of Those Cases Where Mercantile Clamor Will Bear Down Reason, Until It Is Corrected By Ruin.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

The True Theory Of Our Constitution Is Surely The Wisest And Best, That The States Are Independent As To Everything Within Themselves And United As To Everything Respecting Foreign Nations. Let The General Government Be Reduced To Foreign Concerns Only.

Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.

Everyone Has A Natural Right To Choose That Vocation In Life Which He Thinks Most Likely Gives Him Comfortable Subsistence.

The Execution Of The Laws Is More Important Than The Making Of Them.

I Have No Fear That The Result Of Our Experiment Will Be That Men May Be Trusted To Govern Themselves Without A Master.

It Is In Our Lives And Not Our Words That Our Religion Must Be Read.

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.

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

Still Less, Let It Be Proposed That Our Properties Within Our Own Territories Shall Be Taxed Or Regulated By Any Power On Earth But Our Own. The God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time: The Hand Of Force May Destroy, But Cannot Disjoin Them.

The Influence Over Government Must Be Shared Among All The People. If Every Individual Which Composes Their Mass Participates Of The Ultimate Authority, The Government Will Be Safe, Because The Corrupting Of The Whole Mass Will Exceed Any Private Resources Of Wealth, And Public Ones Cannot Be Provided But By Levies On The People. In This Case Every Man Would Have To Pay His Own Price.

The General (federal) Government Will Tend To Monarchy, Which Will Fortify Itself From Day To Day, Instead Of Working Its Own Cures.

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

But Every Difference Of Opinion Is Not A Difference Of Principle.

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.

I Like A Little Rebellion Now And Then. It Is Like A Storm In The Atmosphere.

The Excellence Of Every Government Is Its Adaptation To The State Of Those To Be Governed By It.

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

While The Farmer Holds The Title To The Land, Actually, It Belongs To All The People Because Civilization Itself Rests Upon The Soil.

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.

The Juries Are Our Judges Of All Fact, And Of Law When They Choose It.

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.

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.

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

The Happiness Of Society Depends So Much On Preventing Party Spirit From Infecting The Common Intercourse Of Life, That Nothing Should Be Spared To Harmonize And Amalgamate The Two Parties In Social Circles.

What Is It Men Cannot Be Made To Believe!

[oppose] With Manly Firmness [any] Invasions On The Rights Of The People.

A Single Good Government Is A Blessing To The Whole Earth.

Certainly One Of The Highest Duties Of The Citizen Is A Scrupulous Obedience To The Laws Of The Nation. But It Is Not The Highest Duty.

It Is A Melancholy Truth, That A Suppression Of The Press Could Not More Completely Deprive The Nation Of Its Benefits Than Is Done By Its Abandoned Prostitution To Falsehood.

A Noiseless Course, Not Meddling With The Affairs Of Others, Unattractive Of Notice, Is A Mark That Society Is Going On In Happiness. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labors Of The People Under The Pretense Of Taking Care Of Them, They Must Become Happy.

I Am Mortified To Be Told That, In The United States Of America, The Sale Of A Book Can Become A Subject Of Inquiry, And Of Criminal Inquiry Too.

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

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

Above All Things, And At All Times, Practice Yourself In Good Humor.

If We Did A Good Act Merely From Love Of God And A Belief That It Is Pleasing To Him, Whence Arises The Morality Of The Atheist? ...their Virtue, Then, Must Have Had Some Other Foundation Than The Love Of God.

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

‎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.

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

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 Shall Often Go Wrong Through Defect Of Judgment. When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground. I Ask Your Indulgence For My Own Errors, Which Will Never Be Intentional, And Your Support Against The Errors Of Others, Who May Condemn What They Would Not If Seen In All Its Parts.

One Insult Pocketed Soon Produces Another.

To Instruct The Mass Of Our Citizens In These, Their Rights, Interests And Duties, As Men And Citizens...this Brings Us To The Point At Which Are To Commence The Higher Branches Of Education . . . . To Develop The Reasoning Faculties Of Our Youth, Enlarge Their Minds, Cultivate Their Morals, And Instill Into Them The Precepts Of Virtue And Order.

Old Heads As Well As Young May Sometimes Be Charged With Ignorance And Presumption. The Natural Course Of The Human Mind Is Certainly From Credulity To Skepticism.

Unless The Mass Retains Sufficient Control Over Those Entrusted With The Powers Of Their Government, These Will Be Perverted To Their Own Oppression, And To The Perpetuation Of Wealth And Power In The Individuals And Their Families Selected For The Trust.

The Steady Character Of Our Countrymen Is A Rock To Which We May Safely Moor; And Notwithstanding The Efforts Of The Papers To Disseminate Early Discontents, I Expect That A Just, Dispassionate And Steady Conduct, Will At Length Rally To A Proper System The Great Body Of Our Country. Unequivocal In Principle, Reasonable In Manner, We Shall Be Able I Hope To Do A Great Deal Of Good To The Cause Of Freedom & Harmony.

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.

The Hole And The Patch Should Be Commensurate.

I Am... For Freedom Of The Press, And Against All Violations Of The Constitution To Silence By Force And Not By Reason The Complaints Or Criticisms, Just Or Unjust, Of Our Citizens Against The Conduct Of Their Agents.

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

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

People Generally Have More Feeling For Canals And Roads Than Education. However, I Hope We Can Advance Them With Equal Pace.

It Behooves Our Citizens To Be On Their Guard, To Be Firm In Their Principles, And Full Of Confidence In Themselves. We Are Able To Preserve Our Self-government If We Will But Think So.

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

The Man Who Would Choose Security Over Freedom Deserves Neither.

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

Heliotrope. To Be Sowed In The Spring. A Delicious Flower, But I Suspect It Must Be Planted In Boxes And Kept In The House In The Winter. The Smell Rewards The Care.

Agriculture Is Our Wisest Pursuit, Because It Will In The End Contribute Most To Real Wealth, Good Morals, And Happiness.

Peace Is That Brief Glorious Moment In History When Everybody Stands Around Reloading.

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

If Our Legislature Does Not Heartily Push Our University [of Virginia] We Must Send Our Children For Education To Kentucky [transylvania College] Or Cambridge [harvard College]. The Latter Will Return Them To Us As Fanatics And Tories, The Former Will Keep Them To Add To Their Population.

Of All The Errors Which Can Possibly Be Committed To The Education Of Youth, That Of Sending Them To Europe Is The Most Fatal. I See [clearly] That No American Should Come To Europe Under 30 Years Of Age.

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

Liberty Is To The Collective Body, What Health Is To Every Individual Body. Without Health No Pleasure Can Be Tasted By Man; Without Liberty, No Happiness Can Be Enjoyed By Society.

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

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

We Are The Friends Of Liberty Everywhere, But The Guarrantors Of Only Our Own.

Honesty, Disinterestedness And Good Nature Are Indispensable To Procure The Esteem And Confidence Of Those With Whom We Live, And On Whose Esteem Our Happiness Depends.

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

All... Natural Rights May Be Abridged Or Modified In [their] Exercise By Law.

Our Ancestors ... Possessed A Right, Which Nature Has Given To All Men, Of Departing From The Country In Which Chance, Not Choice Has Placed Them.

Of All Exercises, Walking Is The Best.

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

Separation Of Church And State

Considering The Great Importance To The Public Liberty Of The Freedom Of The Press, And The Difficulty Of Submitting It To Very Precise Rules, The Laws Have Thought It Less Mischievous To Give Greater Scope To Its Freedom Than To The Restraint Of It.

Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences.

God Grant That Men Of Principle Shall Be Our Principal Men.

The Objects Of This Primary Education . . . Would Be . . . To Form The Statesmen, Legislators And Judges, On Whom Public Prosperity And Individual Happiness Are So Much To Depend.

Individual Happiness

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

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

The Superiority Of Chocolate (hot Chocolate), Both For Health And Nourishment, Will Soon Give It The Same Preference Over Tea And Coffee In America Which It Has In Spain.

Equal And Exact Justice To All Men, Of Whatever State Or Persuasion.

No Society Can Make A Perpetual Constitution... The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generation.

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.

Above All Things I Hope The Education Of The Common People Will Be Attended To; Convinced That On Their Good Sense We May Rely With Most Security For The Preservation Of A Due Degree Of Liberty.

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.

Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

Perhaps It Will Be Found That To Obtain A Just Republic (and It Is To Secure Our Just Rights That We Resort To Government At All) It Must Be So Extensive As That Local Egoisms May Never Reach Its Greater Part; That On Every Particular Question, A Majority May Be Found In Its Councils Free From Particular Interests, And Giving, Therefore, An Uniform Prevalence To The Principles Of Justice.

Let It Be Signified To Me Through Any Channelthat The Possession Of The Floridas Would Be Desirable To The United States, Andin Sixty Days It Will Be Accomplished. ...penned In The Language Of Truth, And Divested Of Those Expressions Of Servility Which Would Persuade His Majesty That We Are Asking Favors And Not Rights.

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

A True Patriot Will Defend His Country From Its Government.

The Happiest Hours Of My Life Have Been Spent In The Flow Of Affection Among Friends.

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.

We Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little.

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.

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.

Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law.

Doubts And Jealousies Often Beget The Facts They Fear.

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

The Bible Is The Cornerstone Of Liberty ... Students Perusal Of The Sacred Volume Will Make Us Better Citizens.

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.

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

I Love To See Honest And Honorable Men At The Helm, Men Who Will Not Bend Their Politics To Their Purses, Nor Pursue Measures By Which They May Profit, And Then Profit By Their Measures.

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.

Every Government Degenerates When Trusted To The Rulers Of The People Alone. The People Themselves Are Its Only Safe Depositories.

I Had Rather Be Shut Up In A Very Modest Cottage, With My Books, My Family, And A Few Old Friends, Dining On Simple Bacon, And Letting The World Roll On As It Liked, Than To Occupy The Most Splendid Post Which Any Human Power Can Give.

No Government Can Be Maintained Without The Principle Of Fear As Well As Duty. Good Men Will Obey The Last, But Bad Ones The Former Only. If Our Government Ever Fails, It Will Be From This Weakness.

A Rising Nation, Spread Over A Wide And Fruitful Land, Traversing All The Seas With The Rich Production Of Their Industry.

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

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

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People.

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

History, In General, Only Informs Us Of What Bad Government Is.

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

And For The Support Of This Declaration, With A Firm Reliance On The Protection Of Divine Providence, We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor.

Our Duty To Ourselves, To Posterity, And To Mankind, Call On Us By Every Motive Which Is Sacred Or Honorable, To Watch Over The Safety Of Our Beloved Country During The Troubles Which Agitate And Convulse The Residue Of The World, And To Sacrifice To That All Personal And Local Considerations.

I Thank Heaven That The 4th. Of July Is Over. It Is Always A Day Of Great Fatigue To Me, And Of Some Embarrassments From Improper Intrusions And Some From Unintended Exclusions.

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

Let The Eye Of Vigilance Never Be Closed.

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

Whenever Any Form Of Government Becomes Destructive Of These Ends [life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness] It Is The Right Of The People To Alter Or Abolish It, And To Institute New Government.

Pursuit Of Happiness

If You Have To Eat Crow, Eat It While It's Young And Tender.

The Benefit Of Even Limited Monopolies Is Too Doubtful, To Be Opposed To That Of Their General Suppression.

Laws Are Made For Men Of Ordinary Understanding And Should, Therefore, Be Construed By The Ordinary Rules Of Common Sense. Their Meaning Is Not To Be Sought For In Metaphysical Subtleties Which May Make Anything Mean Everything Or Nothing At Pleasure.

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.

The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.

The Commotions That Have Taken Place In America, As Far As They Are Yet Known To Me, Offer Nothing Threatening. They Are A Proof That The People Have Liberty Enough, And I Could Not Wish Them Less Than They Have. If The Happiness Of The Mass Of The People Can Be Secured At The Expense Of A Little Tempest Now And Then, Or Even Of A Little Blood, It Will Be A Precious Purchase. 'malo Libertatem Periculosam Quam Quietem Servitutem.' Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

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