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The Country Is Headed Toward A Single And Splendid Government Of An Aristocracy Founded On Banking Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations And If This Tendency Continues It Will Be The End Of Freedom And Democracy, The Few Will Be Ruling...i Hope We Shall...crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Moneyed Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To Trial And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country. I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies.

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Country Is Headed

Thomas Jefferson

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The Country Is Headed Toward A Single And Splendid Government Of An Aristocracy Founded On Banking Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations And If This Tendency Continues It Will Be The End Of Freedom And Democracy, The Few Will Be Ruling...i Hope We Shall...crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Moneyed Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To Trial And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country. I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies.

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Men Fight For Freedom; Then They Begin To Accumulate Laws To Take It Away From Themselves.

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

A Great Deal Of Love Given To A Few Is Better Than A Little To Many.

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

Experience Has Proved To Us That A Dollar Of Silver Disappears For Every Dollar Of Paper Emitted.

Sensibility Of Mind Is Indeed The Parent Of Every Virtue, But It Is The Parent Of Much Misery, Too.

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

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.

The Press Is The Best Instrument For Enlightening The Mind Of Man, And Improving Him As A Rational, Moral And Social Being

A Right To Property Is Founded In Our Natural Wants, In The Means With Which We Are Endowed To Satisfy These Wants, And The Right To What We Acquire By Those Means Without Violating The Similar Rights Of Other Sensible Beings.

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

Convinced That The People Are The Only Safe Depositories Of Their Own Liberty, And That They Are Not Safe Unless Enlightened To A Certain Degree, I Have Looked On Our Present State Of Liberty As A Short-lived Possession Unless The Mass Of The People Could Be Informed To A Certain Degree.

It Has Been A Source Of Great Pain To Me To Have Met With So Many Among [my] Opponents Who Had Not The Liberality To Distinguish Between Political And Social Opposition; Who Transferred At Once To The Person, The Hatred They Bore To His Political Opinions.

Political Opinions

Doubts And Jealousies Often Beget The Facts They Fear.

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?

When Two Parties Make A Compact, There Results To Each A Power Of Compelling The Other To Execute It.

Agriculture Is At The Same Time The Most Tranquil, Healthy, And Independent Occupation.

The Boys Of The Rising Generation Are To Be The Men Of The Next, And The Sole Guardians Of The Principles We Deliver Over To Them.

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.

While Old Men Feel Sensibly Enough Their Own Advance In Years, They Do Not Sufficiently Recollect It In Those Whom They Have Seenyoung.

Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

It Is To Secure Our Rights That We Resort To Government At All.

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.

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

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

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle. The Real Extent Of This State Of Misinformation Is Known Only To Those Who Are In Situations To Confront Facts Within Their Knowledge With The Lies Of The Day.

Would It Not Be Better To Simplify The System Of Taxation Rather Than To Spread It Over Such A Variety Of Subjects And Pass Through So Many New Hands.

A Democratic Society Depends Upon An Informed And Educated Citizenry.

Motherhood Is The Keystone Of The Arch Of Matrimonial Happiness.

What An Augmentation Of The Field For Jobbing, Speculating, Plundering, Office-building And Office-hunting Would Be Produced By An Assumption Of All The State Powers Into The Hands Of The General Government.

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.

Laws ... Proportionate And Mild Should Never Be Dispensed With. Let Mercy Be The Character Of The Law-giver, But Let The Judge Be A Mere Machine.

Everyone Must Act According To The Dictates Of His Own Reason.

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

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.

I Am For Freedom Of Religion, And Against All Maneuvers To Bring About A Legal Ascendency Of One Sect Over Another.

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.

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 Art Of Life Is The Art Of Avoiding Pain.

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.

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.

No Government Can Continue Good But Under The Control Of The People; And . . . . Their Minds Are To Be Informed By Education What Is Right And What Wrong; To Be Encouraged In Habits Of Virtue And To Be Deterred From Those Of Vice . . . . These Are The Inculcations Necessary To Render The People A Sure Basis For The Structure And Order Of Government.

It Is Incumbent On Every Generation To Pay Its Own Debts As It Goes. A Principle Which If Acted On Would Save One-half The Wars Of The World.

Government Debt

1.never Put Off Till To-morrow What You Can Do To-day. 2.never Trouble Another For What You Can Do Yourself. 3.never Spend Your Money Before You Have It. 4.never Buy What You Do Not Want, Because It Is Cheap; It Will Be Dear To You. 5.pride Costs Us More Than Hunger, Thirst, And Cold. 6.we Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little. 7.nothing Is Troublesome That We Do Willingly. 8.how Much Pain Have Cost Us The Evils Which Have Never Happened. 9.take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle. 10.when Angry, Count Ten, Before You Speak; If Very Angry, A Hundred.

We Do Not Mean To Count Or Weigh Our Contributions By Any Standard Other Than That Of Our Abilities.

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

I Will Now Add What I Do Not Like. First, The Omission Of A Bill Of Rights Providing Clearly And Without The Aid Of Sophisms For Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Protection Against Standing Armies, Restriction Against Monopolies, The Eternal And Unremitting Force Of The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Trials By Jury In All Matters Of Fact Triable By The Laws Of The Land And Not By The Law Of Nations.

I Shall Need, Too, The Favor Of That Being In Whose Hands We Are, Who Led Our Forefathers, As Israel Of Old.

Born In Other Countries, Yet Believing You Could Be Happy In This, Our Laws Acknowledge, As They Should Do, Your Right To Join Us In Society, Conforming, As I Doubt Not You Will Do, To Our Established Rules. That These Rules Shall Be As Equal As Prudential Considerations Will Admit, Will Certainly Be The Aim Of Our Legislatures, General And Particular.

I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies, And That The Principle Of Spending Money To Be Paid By Posterity, Under The Name Of Funding, Is But Swindling Futurity On A Large Scale.

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

I Have Been Happy . . . In Believing That . . . Whatever Follies We May Be Led Into As To Foreign Nations, We Shall Never Give Up Our Union, The Last Anchor Of Our Hope, And That Alone Which Is To Prevent This Heavenly Country From Becoming An Arena Of Gladiators.

So Inscrutable Is The Arrangement Of Causes And Consequences In This World, That A Two-penny Duty On Tea, Unjustly Imposed In A Sequestered Part Of It, Changes The Condition Of All Its Inhabitants.

Bind Them Down By The Chains Of The Constitution Where They Can Do No Mischief.

But Whatever Be Their Degree Of Talent It Is No Measure Of Their Rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton Was Superior To Others In Understanding, He Was Not Therefore Lord Of The Person Or Property Of Others. On This Subject They Are Gaining Daily In The Opinions Of Nations, And Hopeful Advances Are Making Towards Their Re- Establishment On An Equal Footing With The Other Colors Of The Human Family.

I Discharge Every Person Under Punishment Or Prosecution Under The Sedition Law, Because I Considered, And Now Consider, That Law To Be A Nullity As Absolute And Palpable As If Congress Had Ordered Us To Fall Down And Worship A Golden Image.

The Sun Of Her [great Britain] Glory Is Fast Descending To The Horizon. Her Philosophy Has Crossed The Channel, Her Freedom The Atlantic, And Herself Seems Passing To That Awful Dissolution, Whose Issue Is Not Given Human Foresight To Scan.

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.

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.

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

Anarchy [is] Necessarily Consequent To Inefficiency.

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

The Country Is Headed Toward A Single And Splendid Government Of An Aristocracy Founded On Banking Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations And If This Tendency Continues It Will Be The End Of Freedom And Democracy, The Few Will Be Ruling...i Hope We Shall...crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Moneyed Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To Trial And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country. I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies.

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

Those Who Live By Mystery & Charlatanerie, Fearing You Would Render Them Useless By Simplifying The Christian Philosophy - The Most Sublime And Benevolent, But Most Perverted System That Ever Shone On Man - Endeavored To Crush Your Well-earned & Well-deserved Fame.

I Candidly Confess That I Have Ever Looked On Cuba As The Most Interesting Addition Which Could Ever Be Made To Our System Of States. The Control Which, With Florida, This Island Would Give Us Over The Gulf Of Mexico, And The Countries And Isthmus Bordering On It, As Well As All Those Whose Waters Flow Into It, Would Fill Up The Measure Of Our Political Well-being.

A Generation May Bind Itself As Long As Its Majority Continues In Life; When That Has Disappeared, Another Majority Is In Place, Holds All The Rights And Powers Their Predecessors Once Held, And May Change Their Laws And Institutions To Suit Themselves. Nothing Then Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Inalienable Rights Of Man.

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?

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

I Tolerate With The Utmost Latitude The Right Of Others To Differ From Me In Opinion Without Imputing To Them Criminality.

I Sincerely Pray That All The Members Of The Human Family May, In The Time Prescribed By The Father Of Us All, Find Themselves Securely Established In The Enjoyment Of Life, Liberty, And Happiness.

Take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle.

We Did Not Raise Armies For Glory Or For Conquest.

No Generation Has A Right To Contract Debts Greater Than Can Be Paid Off During The Course Of Its Own Existence.

Certainly, No Power To Prescribe Any Religious Exercise, Or To Assume Authority In Religious Discipline, Has Been Delegated To The General Government.

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

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

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

American Indian

I Have Always Said That A Studious Perusal Of The Sacred Volume Will Make Better Citizens, Better Fathers, And Better Husbands.

Difference Of Opinion Is Helpful In Religion.

The Evidence Of [the] Natural Right [of Expatriation], Like That Of Our Right To Life, Liberty, The Use Of Our Faculties, The Pursuit Of Happiness, Is Not Left To The Feeble And Sophistical Investigations Of Reason, But Is Impressed On The Sense Of Every Man. We Do Not Claim These Under The Charters Of Kings Or Legislators, But Under The King Of Kings.

Pursuit Of Happiness

That One Hundred And Fifty Lawyers Should Do Business Together Ought Not To Be Expected.

I Am Never Tempted To Pray But When A Warm Feeling For My Friends Comes Athwart My Heart.

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

Unalienable Rights

Inalienable Rights

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

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

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

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.

Our Civil Rights Have No Dependence Upon Our Religious Opinions More Than Our Opinions In Physics Or Geometry.

If A Sect Arises Whose Tenets Would Subvert Morals, Good Sense Has Fair Play And Reasons And Laughs It Out Of Doors Without Suffering The State To Be Troubled With It.

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

I Am Not Fully Informed Of The Practices At Harvard, But There Is One From Which We Shall Certainly Vary, Although It Has Been Copied, I Believe, By Nearly Every College And Academy In The United States. That Is, The Holding The Students All To One Prescribed Course Of Reading, And Disallowing Exclusive Application To Those Branches Only Which Are To Qualify Them For The Particular Vocations To Which They Are Destined. We Shall, On The Contrary, Allow Them Uncontrolled Choice In The Lectures They Shall Choose To Attend, And Require Elementary Qualification Only, And Sufficient Age.

We Are Now Vibrating Between Too Much And Too Little Government, And The Pendulum Will Rest Finally In The Middle.

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

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.

Lake George Is Without Comparison, The Most Beautiful Water I Ever Saw; Formed By A Contour Of Mountains Into A Basin... Finely Interspersed With Islands, Its Water Limpid As Crystal, And The Mountain Sides Covered With Rich Groves... Down To The Water-edge: Here And There Precipices Of Rock To Checker The Scene And Save It From Monotony.

And, In General, That Branch Which Is To Act Ultimately And Without Appeal On Any Law Is The Rightful Expositor Of The Validity Of The Law, Uncontrolled By The Opinions Of The Other Coordinate Authorities.

The First Object Of Human Association [is] The Full Improvement Of Their Condition.

I Deny The Power Of The General Government To Making Paper Money, Or Anything Else A Legal Tender.

My Passion Strengthens Daily To Quit Political Turmoil, And Retire Into The Bosom Of My Family, The Only Scene Of Sincere And Purehappiness.

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

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

We Confide In Our Strength, Without Boasting Of It, We Respect That Of Others, Without Fearing It.

I Have Now The Gloomy Prospect Of Retiring From Office Loaded With Serious Debts, Which Will Materially Affect The Tranquility Of My Retirement.

[an] Act Of The Congress Of The United States... Which Assumes Powers... Not Delegated By The Constitution, Is Not Law, But Is Altogether Void And Of No Force.

We Have Solved, By Fair Experiment, The Great And Interesting Question Whether Freedom Of Religion Is Compatible With Order In Government And Obedience To The Laws. And We Have Experienced The Quiet As Well As The Comfort Which Results From Leaving Every One To Profess Freely And Openly Those Principles Of Religion Which Are The Inductions Of His Own Reason And The Serious Convictions Of His Own Inquiries.

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

Second Amendment

The Clergy, By Getting Themselves Established By Law And In-grafted Into The Machine Of Government, Have Been A Very Formidable Engine Against The Civil And Religious Rights Of Man.

I Have Sometimes Asked Myself Whether My Country Is The Better For My Having Lived At All? I Do Not Know That It Is. I Have Been The Instrument Of Doing The Following Things; But They Would Have Been Done By Others; Some Of Them, Perhaps, A Little Better.

The General Desire Of Men To Live By Their Heads Rather Than Their Hands, And The Strong Allurements Of Great Cities To Those Who Have Any Turn For Dissipation, Threaten To Make Them Here, As In Europe, The Sinks Of Voluntary Misery.

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.

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

That Ideas Should Freely Spread From One To Another Over The Globe, For The Moral And Mutual Instruction Of Man, And Improvement Of His Condition, Seems To Have Been Peculiarly And Benevolently Designed By Nature, When She Made Them, Like Fire, Expansible Over All Space, Without Lessening Their Density In Any Point, And Like The Air In Which We Breathe, Move, And Have Our Physical Being, Incapable Of Confinement Or Exclusive Appropriation.

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

[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.

The Mobs Of The Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body. It Is The Manners And Spirit Of A People Which Preserve A Republic In Vigor. A Degeneracy In These Is A Canker Which Soon Eats To The Heart Of Its Laws And Constitution.

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.

Men Of Energy Of Character Must Have Enemies; Because There Are Two Sides To Every Question, And Taking One With Decision, And Acting On It With Effect, Those Who Take The Other Will Of Course Be Hostile In Proportion As They Feel That Effect.

I... [proposed] Three Distinct Grades Of Education, Reaching All Classes. 1. Elementary Schools For All Children Generally, Rich And Poor. 2. Colleges For A Middle Degree Of Instruction, Calculated For The Common Purposes Of Life And Such As Should Be Desirable For All Who Were In Easy Circumstances. And 3d. An Ultimate Grade For Teaching The Sciences Generally And In Their Highest Degree... The Expenses Of [the Elementary] Schools Should Be Borne By The Inhabitants Of The County, Every One In Proportion To His General Tax-rate. This Would Throw On Wealth The Education Of The Poor.

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

I Deem It The Duty Of Every Man To Devote A Certain Portion Of His Income For Charitable Purposes; And That It Is His Further Duty To See It So Applied And To Do The Most Good For Which It Is Capable.

Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be.

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

Bigotry Is The Disease Of Ignorance, Of Morbid Minds; Enthusiasm Of The Free And Buoyant. Education And Free Discussion Are The Antidotes Of Both.

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.

We Love And We Value Peace; We Know Its Blessings From Experience. We Abhor The Follies Of War, And Are Not Untried In Its Distresses And Calamities.

We Are Destined To Be A Barrier Against The Return Of Ignorance And Barbarism. Old Europe Will Have To Lean On Our Shoulders, And To Hobble Along By Our Side, Under The Monkish Trammels Of Priests And Kings, As She Can. What A Colossus Shall We Be When The Southern Continent Comes Up To Our Mark! What A Stand Will It Seem As A Ralliance For The Reason And Freedom Of The Globe!

I Duly Acknowledge That I Have Gone Through A Long Life, With Fewer Circumstances Of Affliction Than Are The Lot Of Most Men. Uninterrupted Health, A Competence For Every Reasonable Want, Usefulness To My Fellow-citizens, A Good Portion Of Their Esteem, No Complaint Against The World Which Has Sufficiently Honored Me, And Above All, A Family Which Has Blessed Me By Their Affections, And Never By Their Conduct Given Me A Moment's Pain.

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

Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.

Government Is Being Founded On Opinion, The Opinion Of The Public, Even When It Is Wrong, Ought To Be Respected To A Certain Degree.

Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law. We Must Resist At All Costs Any Attempt To Regulate Our Individual Freedoms And To Legislate Our Personal Moralities.

None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army. To Keep Ours Armed And Disciplined Is Therefore At All Times Important.

Nothing Is So Disgusting To Our Sex As Want Of Cleanliness And Delicacy In Yours.

Blest Is That Nation Whose Silent Course Of Happiness Furnishes Nothing For History To Say.

Lay Down True Principles And Adhere To Them Inflexibly. Do Not Be Frightened Into Their Surrender By The Alarms Of The Timid, Or The Croakings Of Wealth Against The Ascendency Of The People.

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

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.

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong.

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.

We Must Be Contented To Amuse, When We Cannot Inform.

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

My Religious Reading Has Long Been Confined To The Moral Branch Of Religion, Which Is The Same In All Religions; While In That Branch Which Consists Of Dogmas, All Differ[.

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

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

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

The Tax Which Will Be Paid For The Purpose Of Education Is Not More Than The Thousandth Part Of What Will Be Paid To Kings, Priests And Nobles Who Will Rise Up Among Us If We Leave The People In Ignorance

The Parent Storms, The Child Looks On, Catches The Lineaments Of Wrath, Puts On The Same Airs In The Circle Of Smaller Slaves, Gives A Loose To The Worst Of Passions, And Thus Nursed, Educated And Daily Exercised In Tyranny, Cannot But Be Stamped By It With Odious Peculiarities.

A Free Government Is Of All Others The Most Energetic.

Free Government

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

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.

Never Suppose That In Any Possible Situation Or Under Any Circumstances That It Is Best For You To Do A Dishonorable Thing However Slightly So It May Appear To You... Encourage All Your Virtuous Dispositions, And Exercise Them Whenever An Opportunity Arises, Being Assured That They Will Gain Strength By Exercise ... And That Exercise Will Make Them Habitual.

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.

Let Those Flatter, Who Fear: It Is Not An American Art. To Give Praise Where It Is Not Due, Might Be Well From The Venal, But Would Ill Beseem Those Who Are Asserting The Rights Of Human Nature.

The Contradictory Experiments Of Chemists Leave Us At Liberty To Conclude What We Please. My Conclusion Is, That Art Has Not Yet Invented Sufficient Aids To Enable Such Subtle Bodies [air, Light, &c.] To Make A Well-defined Impression On Organs As Blunt As Ours; That It Is Laudable To Encourage Investigation But To Hold Back Conclusion.

. . . In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment.

Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

The Constitution On Which Our Union Rests, Shall Be Administered By Me [as President] According To The Safe And Honest Meaning Contemplated By The Plain Understanding Of The People Of The United States At The Time Of Its Adoption - A Meaning To Be Found In The Explanations Of Those Who Advocated, Not Those Who Opposed It, And Who Opposed It Merely Lest The Construction Should Be Applied Which They Denounced As Possible.

One Man With Courage Is A Majority.

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.

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

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

One Imputation In Particular Has Been Repeated Till It Seems As If Some At Least Believed It: That I Am An Enemy To Commerce. They Admit Me A Friend Of Agriculture, And Suppose Me An Enemy To The Only Means Of Disposing Of Its Produce.

It Look Like The Lord Just Work For Wite Folks Cause Ever Sens I Wasn Nothin But A Litle Boy I Been On My On Haulin Water To The Fiel On That Ol Water Cart Wit All Them Dime Bukets An That Dipper Just Hittin An Old Dorthy Just Trottin And Trottin An Me Up Their Hittin Her Wit That Rope.

I Am For Relying For Internal Defense On Our Militia Solely Till Actual Invasion, And For Such A Naval Force Only As May Protect Our Coasts And Harbors From Such Depredations As We Have Experienced; And Not For A Standing Army In Time Of Peace Which May Overawe The Public Sentiment; Nor For A Navy Which, By Its Own Expenses And The Eternal Wars In Which It Will Implicate Us, Will Grind Us With Public Burthens And Sink Us Under Them.

Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.

Secular Society

The Earth Belongs To The Living, Not To The Dead.

Among The Most Inestimable Of Our Blessings Is That ... Of Liberty To Worship Our Creator In The Way We Think Most Agreeable To His Will; A Liberty Deemed In Other Countries Incompatible With Good Government And Yet Proved By Our Experience To Be Its Best Support.

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

Religious Freedom

To Every Obstacle Oppose Patience, Perseverance And Soothing Language.

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

The Whole Body Of The Nation Is The Sovereign Legislative, Judiciary, And Executive Power For Itself. The Inconvenience Of Meeting To Exercise These Powers In Person, And Their Inaptitude To Exercise Them, Induce Them To Appoint Special Organs To Declare Their Legislative Will, To Judge And To Execute It. It Is The Will Of The Nation Which Makes The Law Obligatory.

The Declaration Of Rights [bill Of Rights] Is, Like All Other Human Blessings, Alloyed With Some Inconveniences And Not Accomplishing Fully Its Object. But The Good In This Instance Vastly Outweighs The Evil.

If Ever This Vast Country Is Brought Under A Single Government, It Will Be One Of The Most Extensive Corruption, Indifferent And Incapable Of A Wholesome Care Over So Wide A Spread Of Surface. This Will Not Be Borne, And You Will Have To Choose Between Reform And Revolution. If I Know The Spirit Of This Country, The One Or The Other Is Inevitable.

Why Suspend The Habeas Corpus In Insurrections And Rebellions? Examine The History Of England. See How Few Of The Cases Of The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Law Have Been Worthy Of That Suspension. They Have Been Either Real Treasons, Wherein The Parties Might As Well Have Been Charged At Once, Or Sham Plots, Where It Was Shameful They Should Ever Have Been Suspected. Yet For The Few Cases Wherein The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Has Done Real Good, That Operation Is Now Become Habitual And The Minds Of The Nation Almost Prepared To Live Under Its Constant Suspension.

If The Game Runs Sometimes Against Us At Home We Must Have Patience Till Luck Turns, And Then We Shall Have An Opportunity Of Winning Back The Principles We Have Lost, For This Is A Game Where Principles Are At Stake.

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

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

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.

By... [selecting] The Youths Of Genius From Among The Classes Of The Poor, We Hope To Avail The State Of Those Talents Which Nature Has Sown As Liberally Among The Poor As The Rich, But Which Perish Without Use If Not Sought For And Cultivated.

I Am Sure The Man Who Powders Most, Perfumes Most, Embroiders Most, And Talks Most Nonsense, Is Most Admired. Though To Be Candid, There Are Some Who Have Too Much Good Sense To Esteem Such Monkey-like Animals As These, In Whose Formation, As The Saying Is, The Tailors And Barbers Go Halves With God Almighty.

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

By A Declaration Of Rights, I Mean One Which Shall Stipulate Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce Against Monopolies, Trial By Juries In All Cases, No Suspensions Of The Habeas Corpus, No Standing Armies. These Are Fetters Against Doing Evil Which No Honest Government Should Decline.

Question Boldly Even The Existence Of God.

Existence Of God

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

I Like The Dreams Of The Future Better Than The History Of The Past.

I Am Entirely Persuaded That The Agitations Of The Public Mind Advance Its Powers, And That At Every Vibration Between The Points Of Liberty And Despotism, Something Will Be Gained For The Former. As Men Become Better Informed, Their Rulers Must Respect Them The More.

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

Bad Relationship

Every Man, And Every Body Of Men On Earth, Possesses The Right Of Self-government. They Receive It With Their Being From The Hand Of Nature. Individuals Exercise It By Their Single Will; Collections Of Men By That Of Their Majority; For The Law Of The Majority Is The Natural Law Of Every Society Of Men.

I, Place Economy Among The First & Most Important Republican Virtues, & Public Debt As The Greatest Of The Dangers To Be Feared

Every Generation Needs A New Revolution.

Famous Inspirational

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

That Government That Governs Least Governs Best.

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

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

If We Are Made In Some Degree For Others, Yet In A Greater Are We Made For Ourselves. It Were Contrary To Feeling And Indeed Ridiculous To Suppose That A Man Had Less Rights In Himself Than One Of His Neighbors, Or Indeed All Of Them Put Together. This Would Be Slavery, And Not That Liberty Which The Bill Of Rights Has Made Inviolable, And For The Preservation Of Which Our Government Has Been Charged.

When The Subject Is Strong, Simplicity Is The Only Way To Treat It.

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself And Your Country More Than Yourself.

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