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The Division Into Whig And Tory Is Founded In The Nature Of Men; The Weakly And Nerveless, The Rich And The Corrupt, Seeing More Safety And Accessibility In A Strong Executive; The Healthy, Firm, And Virtuous, Feeling Confidence In Their Physical And Moral Resources, And Willing To Part With Only So Much Power As Is Necessary For Their Good Government; And, Therefore, To Retain The Rest In The Hands Of The Many, The Division Will Substantially Be Into Whig And Tory.

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Division Into Whig

Thomas Jefferson

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The Division Into Whig And Tory Is Founded In The Nature Of Men; The Weakly And Nerveless, The Rich And The Corrupt, Seeing More Safety And Accessibility In A Strong Executive; The Healthy, Firm, And Virtuous, Feeling Confidence In Their Physical And Moral Resources, And Willing To Part With Only So Much Power As Is Necessary For Their Good Government; And, Therefore, To Retain The Rest In The Hands Of The Many, The Division Will Substantially Be Into Whig And Tory.

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

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

I Prefer Dangerous Freedom Over Peaceful Slavery.

I Don't Want Them To Kill No Hog . . . . I Want A Man To Go To That Chair, On His Own Two Feet.

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.

I Am An Epicurean. I Consider The Genuine (not The Imputed) Doctrines Of Epicurus As Containing Everything Rational In Moral Philosophy Which Greece And Rome Have Left Us.

We May Consider Each Generation As A Distinct Nation, With A Right, By The Will Of Its Majority, To Bind Themselves, But None To Bind The Succeeding Generation, More Than The Inhabitants Of Another Country.

It Is Not The Policy Of The Government In America To Give Aid To Works Of Any Kind. They Let Things Take Their Natural Course Without Help Or Impediment, Which Is Generally The Best Policy.

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

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

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

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.

I Do Not Believe War The Most Certain Means Of Enforcing Principles. Those Peaceable Coercions Which Are In The Power Of Every Nation, If Undertaken In Concert And In Time Of Peace, Are More Likely To Produce The Desired Effect.

We Could In The United States Make As Great A Variety Of Wines As Are Made In Europe, Not Exactly Of The Same Kinds, But Doubtless As Good.

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.

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

Each Generation Has A Right To Choose For Itself The Form Of Government It Believes Most Promotive Of Its Happiness.

I Deplore With You The Putrid State Into Which Our Newspapers Have Passed, And The Malignity, The Vulgarity, And Mendacious Spirit Of Those Who Write For Them. ... This Has In A Great Degree Been Produced By The Violence And Malignity Of Party Spirit.

I Do Not Agree That An Age Of Pleasure Is No Compensation For A Moment Of Pain.

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

Every Human Being Must Be Viewed According To What It Is Good For. For Not One Of Us, No, Not One, Is Perfect. And Were We To Love None Who Had Imperfection, This World Would Be A Desert For Our Love.

We See The Wisdom Of Solon's Remark, That No More Good Must Be Attempted Than The Nation Can Bear.

The Human Character, We Believe, Requires In General Constant And Immediate Control To Prevent Its Being Biased From Right By The Seductions Of Self-love.

Paper Is Poverty, It Is Only The Ghost Of Money, And Not Money Itself.

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

I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude

No Government Should Be Without Critics. If Its Intentions Are Good Then It Has Nothing To Fear From Criticism.

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

I Considered The British As Our Natural Enemies, And As The Only Nation On Earth Who Wished Us Ill From The Bottom Of Their Souls. And I Am Satisfied That Were Our Continent To Be Swallowed Up By The Ocean, Great Britain Would Be In A Bonfire From One End To The Other.

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

The Oppressed Should Rebel, And They Will Continue To Rebel And Raise Disturbance Until Their Civil Rights Are Fully Restored To Them And All Partial Distinctions, Exlusions, And Incapacitations Are Removed.

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

One Loves To Possess Arms, Though They Hope Never To Have Occasion For Them.

You Have Not Been Mistaken In Supposing My Views And Feeling To Be In Favor Of The Abolition Of War. Of My Dispos[i]tion To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself, The World Has Had Proofs, And More, Perhaps, Than It Has Approved. I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Dispos[i]tion To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

I Own That I Am Not A Friend To A Very Energetic Government. It Is Always Oppressive.

Action Will Delineate And Define You.

Knowing Who You Are

Inspirational Team

Having Labored Faithfully In Establishing The Right Of Self-government, We See In The Rising Generation, Into Whose Hands It Is Passing, That Purity Of Principle And Energy Of Character Which Will Protect And Preserve It Through Their Day, And Deliver It Over To Their Sons As They Receive It From Their Fathers.

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

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

And Where Else Will [hume,] This Degenerate Son Of Science, This Traitor To His Fellow Men, Find The Origin Of Just Powers, If Not In The Majority Of The Society? Will It Be In The Minority? Or In An Individual Of That Minority?

Take Care That You Never Spell A Word Wrong. Always Before You Write A Word, Consider How It Is Spelled, And, If You Do Not Remember, Turn To A Dictionary. It Produces Great Praise To A Lady To Spell Well. To His Daughter Martha

I Prefer To Be Remembered For What I Have Done For Others, Not What Others Have Done For Me.

The Spirit Of The Times May Alter, Will Alter. Our Rulers Will Become Corrupt, Our People Careless... From The Conclusion Of This War We Shall Be Going Downhill. It Will Not Then Be Necessary To Resort Every Moment To The People For Support. They Will Be Forgotten, Therefore, And Their Rights Disregarded. They Will Forget Themselves, But In The Sole Faculty Of Making Money, And Will Never Think Of Uniting To Affect A Due Respect For Their Rights. The Shackles, Therefore, Will Be Made Heavier And Heavier, Till Our Rights Shall Revive Or Expire In A Convulsion.

Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences.

Take Painsto Write A Neat Round, Plain Hand, And You Will Find It A Great Convenience Through Life To Write A Small And Compact Hand As Well As A Fair And Legible One.

Take Things Always By Their Smooth Handle.

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.

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

Ambition Is A Tricky Little Animal To Tame. It Is Very Skillful At Concealing Itself From Its Master.

There Are Two Subjects, Indeed, Which I Shall Claim A Right To Further As Long As I Breathe: The Public Education, And The Sub-division Of Counties Into Wards. I Consider The Continuance Of Republican Government As Absolutely Hanging On These Two Hooks.

When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground.

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.

I Have Recently Been Examining All The Known Superstitions Of The World And Do Not Find In Our Particular Superstition [christianity] One Redeeming Feature.

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

I Have Great Confidence In The Common Sense Of Mankind In General.

I Am For A Government Rigorously Frugal & Simple, Applying All The Possible Savings Of The Public Revenue To The Discharge Of The National Debt; And Not For A Multiplication Of Officers & Salaries Merely To Make Partisans, & For Increasing, By Every Device, The Public Debt, On The Principle Of Its Being A Public Blessing.

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

Separation Of Church And State

Of Distinction By Birth Or Badge, [americans] Had No More Idea Than They Had Of The Mode Of Existence In The Moon Or Planets. They Had Heard Only That There Were Such, And Knew That They Must Be Wrong.

Inalienable Rights

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

It Is Better To Have No Ideas Than False Ones.

In A Government Bottomed On The Will Of All, The... Liberty Of Every Individual Citizen Becomes Interesting To All.

With Your Talents And Industry, With Science, And That Steadfast Honesty Which Eternally Pursues Right, Regardless Of Consequences, You May Promise Yourself Every Thing-but Health, Without Which There Is No Happiness. An Attention To Health Then Should Take Place Of Evey Other Object. The Time Necessary To Secure This By Active Exercises, Should Be Devoted To It In Preference To Every Other Pursuit.

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

An Industrious Farmer Occupies A More Dignified Place In The Scale Of Beings...than A Lazy Lounger...too Proud To Work, And Drawing Out A Miserable Existence By Eating On That Surplus Of Other Men's Labor.

What Justice Would There Be To Take This Life? Justice, Gentlemen? Why, I Would Just As Soon Put A Hog In The Electric Chair As This.

Wine From Long Habit Has Become An Indispensable For My Health

I Believe That Banking Institutions Are More Dangerous To Our Liberties Than Standing Armies.

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

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

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

Force Cannot Give Right.

I Set Out On This Ground Which I Suppose To Be Self-evident, That The Earth Belongs In Usufruct To The Living. . . . We Seem Not To Perceive That, By The Law Of Nature, One Generation Is To Another As One Independent Nation Is To Another. . . . The Earth Belongs Always To The Living Generations.

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

The Equal Rights Of Man And The Happiness Of Every Individual Are Now Acknowledged To Be The Only Legitimate Objects Of Government.

No Man Will Labor For Himself Who Can Make Another Labor For Him.

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.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident, That All Men Are Created Equal, That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Inalienable Rights, Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, That To Secure These Rights Governments Are Instituted Among Men. We...solemnly Publish And Declare, That These Colonies Are And Of A Right Ought To Be Free And Independent States...and For The Support Of This Declaration, With A Firm Reliance On The Protection Of Divine Providence, We Mutually Pledge Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.

Pursuit Of Happiness

Where The Preamble Declares, That Coercion Is A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion, An Amendment Was Proposed By Inserting "jesus Christ," So That It Would Read "a Departure From The Plan Of Jesus Christ, The Holy Author Of Our Religion;" The Insertion Was Rejected By The Great Majority, In Proof That They Meant To Comprehend, Within The Mantle Of Its Protection, The Jew And The Gentile, The Christian And Mohammedan, The Hindoo And Infidel Of Every Denomination.

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.

We Exist, And Are Quoted, As Standing Proofs That A Government, So Modeled As To Rest Continually On The Will Of The Whole Society, Is A Practicable Government.

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.

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

In A Republican Nation Whose Citizens Are To Be Led By Reason And Persuasion And Not By Force, The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance.

A Superintending Power To Maintain The Universe In Its Course And Order.

In Every Free And Deliberating Society, There Must, From The Nature Of Man, Be Opposite Parties, And Violent Dissensions And Discords; And One Of These, For The Most Part, Must Prevail Over The Other For A Longer Or Shorter Time.

Bank-paper Must Be Suppressed, And The Circulating Medium Must Be Restored To The Nation To Whom It Belongs.

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.

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

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

Ignorance Of The Law Is No Excuse In Any Country. If It Were, The Laws Would Lose Their Effect, Because It Can Always Be Pretended.

Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace

National Defense

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.

Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

It Is Comfortable To See The Standard Of Reason At Length Erected, After So Many Ages, During Which The Human Mind Has Been Held In Vassalage By Kings, Priests, And Nobles; And It Is Honorable For Us To Have Produced The First Legislature Who Had The Courage To Declare That The Reason Of Man May Be Trusted With The Formation Of His Own Opinions.

The Constitution Has Erected No Such Single Tribunal, Knowing That To Whatever Hands Confided, With The Corruption's Of Time And Party, Its Members Would Become Despots.

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

It Be Urged That The Wild And Uncultivated Tree, Hitherto Yielding Sour And Bitter Fruit Only, Can Never Be Made To Yield Better; Yet We Know That The Grafting Art Implants A New Tree On The Savage Stock, Producing What Is Most Estimable In Kind And Degree. Education, In Like Manner, Engrafts A New Man On The Native Stock, And Improves What In His Nature Was Vicious And Perverse Into Qualities Of Virtue And Social Worth.

Only A Government That Is Afraid Of Its Citizens Tries To Control Them.

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

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.

The Advocate Of Religious Freedom Is To Expect Neither Peace Nor Forgiveness From [the Clergy].

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

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

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

The Trifling Economy Of Paper, As A Cheaper Medium, Or Its Convenience For Transmission, Weighs Nothing In Opposition To The Advantages Of The Precious Metals It Is Liable To Be Abused, Has Been, Is, And Forever Will Be Abused, In Every Country In Which It Is Permitted.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle.

Freedom Of The Press

Religious Institutions That Use Government Power In Support Of Themselves And Force Their Views On Persons Of Other Faiths, Or Of No Faith, Undermine All Our Civil Rights. Moreover, State Support Of An Established Religion Tends To Make The Clergy Unresponsive To Their Own People, And Leads To Corruption Within Religion Itself. Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State,' Therefore, Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

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.

Trial By Jury Is Part Of The Bright Constellation Which Leads To Peace, Liberty And Safety.

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.

Dependence Begets Subservience And Venality, Suffocates The Germ Of Virtue, And Prepares Fit Tools For The Designs Of Ambition.

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

May It Be To The World... To Assume The Blessings And Security Of Self-government.

Delay Is Preferable To Error.

One Had Rather Have No Opinion Than A False One.

The Reason That Christianity Is The Best Friend Of Government Is Because Christianity Is The Only Religion That Changes The Heart.

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.

Anarchy [is] Necessarily Consequent To Inefficiency.

The Day Is Not Distant When We Must Bear And Adopt [the Abolition Of Slavery], Or Worse Will Follow.

Abolition Of Slavery

The Second Office In The Government Is Honorable And Easy; The First Is But A Splendid Misery.

Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be.

A First Attempt To Recover The Right Of Self Government May Fail, So May A Second, A Third, Etc. But As A Younger And More Instructed Race Comes On, The Sentiment Becomes More And More Intuitive, And A Fourth, A Fifth, Or Some Subsequent One Of The Ever Renewed Attempts Will Ultimately Succeed... To Attain All This, However, Rivers Of Blood Must Yet Flow, And Years Of Desolation Pass Over; Yet The Object Is Worth Rivers Of Blood And Years Of Desolation. For What Inheritance So Valuable Can Man Leave To His Posterity?

Legislators Cannot Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property... Another Means Of Silently Lessening The Inequality Of Property Is To Exempt All From Taxation Below A Certain Point, And To Tax The Higher Portions Of Property In Geometrical Progression As They Rise. Whenever There Is In Any Country, Uncultivated Lands And Unemployed Poor, It Is Clear That The Laws Of Property Have Been So Far Extended As To Violate Natural Right.

We Are Firmly Convinced, And We Act On That Conviction, That With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties, And History Bears Witness To The Fact That A Just Nation Is Trusted On Its Word When Recourse Is Had To Armaments And Wars To Bridle Others.

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

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 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.

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.

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

All Persons Shall Have Full And Free Liberty Of Religious Opinion; Nor Shall Any Be Compelled To Frequent Or Maintain Any Religious Institution.

He Alone Who Walks Strict And Upright, And Who, In Matters Of Opinion, Will Be Contented That Others Should Be As Free As Himself And Acquiesce When His Opinion Is Freely Overruled, Will Attain His Object In The End.

The History Of His Present Majesty, Is A History Of Unremitting Injuries And Usurpationsall Of Which Have In Direct Object The Establishment Of An Absolute Tyranny Over These States. To Prove This, Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World, For The Truth Of Which We Pledge A Faith Yet Unsullied By Falsehood.

The Bible Is The Cornerstone Of Liberty.

Among The Values Of Classical Learning I Estimate The Luxury Of Reading The Greek & Roman Authors In All The Beauties Of Their Originals ... I Think Myself More Indebted To My Father For This, Than For All The Other Luxuries His Cares And Affections Have Placed Within My Reach.

Whenever The People Are Well-informed, They Can Be Trusted With Their Own Government.

Every Christian Sect Gives A Great Handle To Atheism By Their General Dogma That, Without A Revelation, There Would Not Be Sufficient Proof Of The Being Of God.

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

I Have Nothing But Contempt For Anyone Who Can Spell A Word In Only One Way.

No Person Shall Be Restrained Of His Liberty But By Regular Process From A Court Of Justice, Authorized By A General Law. . . . On Complaint Of An Unlawful Imprisonment To Any Judge Whatsoever, He Shall Have The Prisoner Immediately Brought Before Him And Shall Discharge Him If His Imprisonment Be Unlawful. The Officer In Whose Custody The Prisoner Is Shall Obey The Order Of The Judge, And Both Judge And Officer Shall Be Responsible Civilly And Criminally For A Failure Of Duty Herein.

The Rational And Peaceable Instrument Of Reform, The Suffrage Of The People.

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

Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven, And You Are Answerable For, Not The Rightness, But The Uprightness Of The Decision

The Sickly, Weakly, Timid Man Fears The People, And Is A Tory By Nature. The Healthy, Strong And Bold Cherishes Them, And Is Formed A Whig By Nature.

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

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.

It Is Rare That The Public Sentiment Decides Immorally Or Unwisely, And The Individual Who Differs From It Ought To Distrust And Examine Well His Own Opinion.

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.

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

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

We Act Not For Ourselves But For The Whole Human Race. The Event Of Our Experiment Is To Show Whether Man Can Be Trusted With Self - Government.

For The Power Given To Congress By The Constitution Does Not Extend To The Internal Regulation Of The Commerce Of A State (that Is To Say, Of The Commerce Between Citizen And Citizen,) Which Remain Exclusively With Its Own Legislature; But To Its External Commerce Only, That Is To Say, Its Commerce With Another State, Or With Foreign Nations, Or With The Indian Tribes.

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.

The People Are The Ultimate Guardians Of Their Own Liberties. In Every Government On Earth Is Some Trace Of Human Weakness, Some Germ Of Corruption And Degeneracy . . . Every Government Degenerates When Trusted To The Rulers Of The People Alone.

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.

Everything Yields To Diligence.

Motivational Work

Resolved ... That It Would Be A Dangerous Delusion Were A Confidence In The Men Of Our Choice To Silence Our Fears For The Safety Of Our Rights: That Confidence Is Everywhere The Parent Of Despotism - Free Government Is Founded In Jealousy, And Not In Confidence.

Doubts And Jealousies Often Beget The Facts They Fear.

I Believe In Both A Creative And Personal God, A Divinely Ordered Universe, That Man Has An Innate Moral Sense, And That Jesus Was A Great Moral Teacher, Perhaps The Greatest The World Has Witnessed.

The Natural Aristocracy I Consider As The Most Precious Gift Of Nature For The Instruction, The Trusts, And Government Of Society. And Indeed It Would Have Been Inconsistent In Creation To Have Formed Man For The Social State, And Not To Have Provided Virtue And Wisdom Enough To Manage The Concerns Of The Society. May We Not Even Say That That Form Of Government Is The Best Which Provides The Most - For A Pure Selection Of These Natural Aristoi Into The Offices Of Government?

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

Public Offices Were Not Made For Private Convenience.

The Plough Is To The Farmer What The Wand Is To The Sorcerer. Its Effect Is Really Like Sorcery.

When Once A Republic Is Corrupted, There Is No Possibility Of Remedying Any Of The Growing Evils But By Removing The Corruption And Restoring Its Lost Principles; Every Other Correction Is Either Useless Or A New Evil.

It Is Surely Time For Men To Think For Themselves, And To Throw Off The Authority Of Names So Artificially Magnified.

I Have Come To A Resolution Myself As I Hope Every Good Citizen Will, Never Again To Purchase Any Article Of Foreign Manufacture Which Can Be Had Of American Make, Be The Difference Of Price What It May.

No Occupation Is So Delightful To Me As The Culture Of The Earth, And No Culture Comparable To That Of The Garden.

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

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

So, Ask The Travelled Inhabitant Of Any Nation, In What Country On Earth Would You Rather Live? — Certainly, In My Own, Where Are All My Friends, My Relations, And The Earliest And Sweetest Affections And Recollections Of My Life. Which Would Be Your Second Choice? France.

[my] Pillar Of Support Through Life.... I Can Say Conscientiously That I Do Not Know In The World A Man Of Purer Integrity, More Dispassionate, Disinterested, And Devoted To Genuine Republicanism; Nor Could I In The Whole Scope Of America And Europe Point Out An Abler Head.

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

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

The Day Will Come When The Mystical Generation Of Jesus, By The Supreme Being As His Father, In The Womb Of A Virgin, Will Be Classed With The Fable Of The Generation Of Minerva In The Brain Of Jupiter.

Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoted To Exercise.

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

Education Is Here Placed Among The Articles Of Public Care, Not That It Would Be Proposed To Take Its Ordinary Branches Out Of The Hands Of Private Enterprise, Which Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal, But A Public Institution Can Alone Supply Those Sciences Which, Though Rarely Called For, Are Yet Necessary To Complete The Circle, All The Parts Of Which Contribute To The Improvement Of The Country, And Some Of Them To Its Preservation.

The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.

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.

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.

The Art Of Printing Secures Us Against The Retrogradation Of Reason And Information.

An Individual, Thinking Himself Injured, Makes More Noise Than A State.

You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts. But It Is An Enthusiasm Of Which I Am Not Ashamed, As Its Object Is To Improve The Taste Of My Countrymen, To Increase Their Reputation, To Reconcile To Them The Respect Of The World, And Procure Them Its Praise.

The Constitution Has Divided The Powers Of Government Into Three Branches, Legislative, Executive And Judiciary, Lodging Each With A Distinct Magistracy. The Legislative It Has Given Completely To The Senate And House Of Representatives. It Has Declared That The Executive Powers Shall Be Vested In The President, Submitting Special Articles Of It To A Negative By The Senate, And It Has Vested The Judiciary Power In The Courts Of Justice, With Certain Exceptions Also In Favor Of The Senate.

From Candlelight To Early Bedtime, I Read.

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

I See,... And With The Deepest Affliction, The Rapid Strides With Which The Federal Branch Of Our Government Is Advancing Towards The Usurpation Of All The Rights Reserved To The States, And The Consolidation In Itself Of All Powers, Foreign And Domestic; And That, Too, By Constructions Which, If Legitimate, Leave No Limits To Their Power... It Is But Too Evident That The Three Ruling Branches Of [the Federal Government] Are In Combination To Strip Their Colleagues, The State Authorities, Of The Powers Reserved By Them, And To Exercise Themselves All Functions Foreign And Domestic.

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

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

History By Apprising Them [the People] Of The Past Will Enable Them To Judge Of The Future. . . . It Will Qualify Them As Judges Of The Actions And Designs Of Men: It Will Enable Them To Know Ambition Under Every Disguise It May Assume; And Knowing It, To Defeat Its Views.

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.

The Present Generation Has The Same Right Of Self-government Which The Past One Has Exercised For Itself.

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.

A Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another Candle.

Founding Fathers Democracy

Our Country Is Now Taking So Steady A Course As To Show By What Road It Will Pass To Destruction, To Wit: By Consolidation Of Power First, And Then Corruption, Its Necessary Consequence.

There Is Not In The British Empire A Man Who More Cordially Loves A Union With Great Britain Than I Do. But By The God That Made Me, I Will Cease To Exist Before I Yield To A Connection On Such Terms As The British Parliament Propose.

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

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

If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free, In A State Of Civilization, It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be.

Many Of The Opposition [to The New Federal Constitution] Wish To Take From Congress The Power Of Internal Taxation. Calculation Has Convinced Me That This Would Be Very Mischievous.

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Alberto Giacometti

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