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The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple And Tend All To The Happiness Of Man, That There Is Only One God And God Is Perfect. That God And Man Are One. That To Love God With All Your Heart, And Your Neighbor As Yourself, Is The Sum Of Religion. These Are The Great Points On Which I Endeavor To Reform And Live My Life.

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Doctrines Of Jesus

Thomas Jefferson

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The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple And Tend All To The Happiness Of Man, That There Is Only One God And God Is Perfect. That God And Man Are One. That To Love God With All Your Heart, And Your Neighbor As Yourself, Is The Sum Of Religion. These Are The Great Points On Which I Endeavor To Reform And Live My Life.

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Let Us, Then, Fellow Citizens, Unite With One Heart And One Mind. Let Us Restore To Social Intercourse That Harmony And Affection Without Which Liberty And Even Life Itself Are But Dreary Things. And Let Us Reflect That Having Banished From Our Land That Religious Intolerance Under Which Mankind So Long Bled, We Have Yet Gained Little If We Counternance A Political Intolerance As Despotic, As Wicked, And Capable Of A Bitter And Bloody Persecutions.

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

The Metaphysical Insanities Of Athanasius, Of Loyola, And Of Calvin, Are, To My Understanding, Mere Lapses Into Polytheism, Differing From Paganism Only By Being More Unintelligible.

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

Should [reformers] Attempt More Than The Established Habits Of The People Are Ripe For, They May Lose All And Retard Indefinitely The Ultimate Object Of Their Aim.

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.

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.

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.

Specie [gold And Silver Coin] Is The Most Perfect Medium Because It Will Preserve Its Own Level; Because, Having Intrinsic And Universal Value, It Can Never Die In Our Hands, And It Is The Surest Resource Of Reliance In Time Of War.

The Authors Of The Gospels Were Unlettered And Ignorant Men And The Teachings Of Jesus Have Come To Us Mutilated, Misstated And Unintelligible.

The Selfish Spirit Of Commerce, Which Knows No Country, And Feels No Passion Or Principle But That Of Gain.

Happiness Is Not Being Pained In Body Or Troubled In Mind.

[the Federal Convention] Is Really An Assembly Of Demigods.

If The Children Are Untaught, Their Ignorance And Vices Will In Future Life Cost Us Much Dearer In Their Consequences Than It Would Have Done In Their Correction By A Good Education.

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.

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

Whiskey Claims To Itself Alone The Exclusive Office Of Sot-making.

I Am Not Myself Apt To Be Alarmed At Innovations Recommended By Reason. That Dread Belongs To Those Whose Interests Or Prejudices Shrink From The Advance Of Truth And Science.

‎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.

The Introduction Of So Powerful An Agent As Steam [to A Carriage On Wheels] Will Make A Great Change In The Situation Of Man.

This Ball Of Liberty, I Believe Most Piously, Is Now So Well In Motion That It Will Roll Round The Globe. At Least The Enlightened Part Of It, For Light & Liberty Go Together.

[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.

It Would Not Be For The Public Good To Have [a Majority In Congress Of One Party] Greater [than] Two To One.

The Soil Is The Gift Of God To The Living.

The Dominion Which The Banking Institutions Have Obtained Over The Minds Of Our Citizens...must Be Broken, Or It Will Break Us.

Rogueries, Absurdities And Untruths Were Perpetrated Upon The Teachings Of Jesus By A Large Band Of Dupes And Importers Led By Paul, The First Great Corrupter Of The Teaching Of Jesus.

Let Us In Education Dream Of An Aristocracy Of Achievement Arising Out Of A Democracy Of Opportunity

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

If We Move In Mass, Be It Ever So Circuitously, We Shall Attain Our Object; But If We Break Into Squads, Everyone Pursuing The Path He Thinks Most Direct, We Become An Easy Conquest To Those Who Can Now Barely Hold Us In Check.

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

I Do Verily Believe That If The Principle Were To Prevail Of A Common Law Being In Force In The United States (which Principle Possesses The General Government At Once Of All The Powers Of The State Governments, And Reduces Us To A Single Consolidated Government), It Would Become The Most Corrupt Government On The Earth.

Well, Page, I Do Wish The Devil Had Old Cooke, For I Am Sure I Never Was So Tired Of An Old Dull Scoundrel In My Life ... But The Old-fellows Say We Must Read To Gain Knowledge; And Gain Knowledge To Make Us Happy And Be Admired. Mere Jargon! Is There Any Such Thing As Happiness In This World? No.

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

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

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.

Men Possessing Minds Of The First Order And Who Have Had Opportunities Of Being Known And Of Acquiring The General Confidence Do Not Abound In Any Country Beyond The Wants Of The Country.

There Are Other Places At Which ... The Laws Have Said There Shall Be Towns; But Nature Has Said There Shall Not, And They Remain Unworthy Of Enumeration.

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

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

The Principle Of The Constitution Is That Of A Separation Of Legislative, Executive And Judiciary Functions, Except In Cases Specified. If This Principle Be Not Expressed In Direct Terms, It Is Clearly The Spirit Of The Constitution, And It Ought To Be So Commented And Acted On By Every Friend Of Free Government.

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

The Most Fortunate Of Us, In Our Journey Through Life, Frequently Meet With Calamities And Misfortunes Which May Greatly Afflict Us; And, To Fortify Our Minds Against The Attacks Of These Calamities And Misfortunes, Should Be One Of The Principal Studies And Endeavors Of Our Lives.

The Small Landholders Are The Most Precious Part Of A State.

What Has Been The Effect Of Coercion? To Make One Half The World Fools, And The Other Half Hypocrites. To Support Roguery And Error All Over The Earth.... [instead] Reason And Persuasion Are The Only Practicable Instruments. To Make Way For These, Free Enquiry Must Be Indulged; And How Can We Wish Others To Indulge It While We Refuse It Ourselves?

I Am A Real Christian, That Is To Say, A Cisciple Of The Doctrines Of Jesus. I Have Little Doubt That Our Whole Country Will Soon Be Rallied To The Unity Of Our Creator.

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

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

Yet By Such Worthless Beings Is A Great Nation To Be Governed And Even Made To Deify Their Old King Because He Is Only A Fool And A Maniac, And To Forgive And Forget His Having Lost To Them A Great And Flourishing Empire.

Forgive And Forget

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

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

It Is So Difficult To Draw A Clear Line Of Separation Between The Abuse And The Wholesome Use Of The Press, That As Yet We Have Found It Better To Trust The Public Judgment, Rather Than The Magistrate, With The Discrimination Between Truth And Falsehood. And Hitherto The Public Judgment Has Performed That Office With Wonderful Correctness.

Ministers Of The Gospel Are Excluded [from Serving As Visitors Of The County Elementary Schools] To Avoid Jealousy From The Other Sects, Were The Public Education Committed To The Ministers Of A Particular One; And With More Reason Than In The Case Of Their Exclusion From The Legislative And Executive Functions.

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

My Affections Were First For My Own Country, Then, Generally, For All Mankind

It Is Better To Tolerate The Rare Instance Of A Parent Refusing To Let His Child Be Educated, Than To Shock The Common Feelings And Ideas By Forcible Asportation And Education Of The Infant Against The Will Of The Father.

I Am Sure That In Estimating Every Man's Value Either In Private Or Public Life, A Pure Integrity Is The Quality We Take First Into Calculation, And That Learning And Talents Are Only The Second.

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

The States Should Be Watchful To Note Every Material Usurpation On Their Rights; To Denounce Them As They Occur In The Most Peremptory Terms; To Protest Against Them As Wrongs To Which Our Present Submission Shall Be Considered, Not As Acknowledgments Or Precedents Of Rights, But As A Temporary Yielding To The Lesser Evil, Until Their Accumulation Shall Overweigh That Of Separation.

I Rejoice When I Hear Of Young Men Of Virtue And Talents, Worthy To Receive And Likely To Preserve The Splendid Inheritance Of Self- Government, Which We Have Acquired And Shaped For Them.

Peace, That Glorious Moment In Time When Everyone Stops And Reloads.

Moments In Time

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

I Am A Christian In The Only Sense In Which He Wished Anyone To Be: Sincerely Attached To His Doctrines In Preference To All Others.

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

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.

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.

I Have A Right To Nothing Which Another Has A Right To Take Away.

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

Excessive Taxation . . . Will Carry Reason & Reflection To Every Man's Door, And Particularly In The Hour Of Election.

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

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

No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.

Our Citizens May Be Deceived For Awhile, And Have Been Deceived; But As Long As The Presses Can Be Protected, We May Trust To Them For Light.

We Are Afraid Of The Known And Afraid Of The Unknown. That Is Our Daily Life And In That There Is No Hope, And Therefore Every Form Of Philosophy, Every Form Of Theological Concept, Is Merely An Escape From The Actual Reality Of What Is. All Outward Forms Of Change Brought About By Wars, Revolutions, Reformations, Laws And Ideologies Have Failed Completely To Change The Basic Nature Of Man And Therefore Of Society.

The Greatest Calamity Which Could Befall Us Would Be Submission To A Government Of Unlimited Powers.

But The Fact Being Once Established, That The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood, I Leave To Others To Restore It To Its Strength, By Recalling It Within The Pale Of Truth. Within That, It Is A Noble Institution, Equally The Friend Of Science And Of Civil Liberty.

Scenes Are Now To Take Place As Will Open The Eyes Of Credulity And Of Insanity Itself, To The Dangers Of A Paper Medium Abandoned To The Discretion Of Avarice And Of Swindlers.

[t]he True Key For The Construction Of Everything Doubtful In A Law Is The Intention Of The Law-makers. This Is Most Safely Gathered From The Words, But May Be Sought Also In Extraneous Circumstances Provided They Do Not Contradict The Express Words Of The Law.

When, In Short, We Shall Have Unlearned Everything Which Has Been Taught Since His [jesus'] Day, And Got Back To The Pure And Simple Doctrines He Inculcated, We Shall Then Be Truly And Worthily His Disciples: And My Opinion Is That If Nothing Had Ever Been Added To What Flowed Purely From His Lips, The Whole World Would At This Day Have Been Christian.

A Little Rebellion Now And Then Is A Good Thing. Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God. In Order To Flourish, The Tree Of Liberty Needs The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants.

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

The Principles On Which We Engaged, Of Which The Charter Of Our Independence Is The Record, Were Sanctioned By The Laws Of Our Being, And We But Obeyed Them In Pursuing Undeviatingly The Course They Called For. It Issued Finally In That Inestimable State Of Freedom Which Alone Can Ensure To Man The Enjoyment Of His Equal Rights.

I Am Not An Advocate For Frequent Changes In Laws And Constitutions. But Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind. As That Becomes More Developed, More Enlightened, 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. We Might As Well Require A Man To Wear Still The Coat Which Fitted Him When A Boy As Civilized Society To Remain Ever Under The Regimen Of Their Barbarous Ancestors.

Religions Are All The Same...based Upon Legends And Fantasies

My Heart Trembles When I Reflect That God Is Just

Taxes Should Be Proportioned To What May Be Annually Spared By The Individual.

Paper Money Is Liable To Be Abused, Has Been, Is, And Forever Will Be Abused, In Every Country In Which It Is Permitted.

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.

If The Question [before Justices Of The Peace] Relate To Any Point Of Public Liberty, Or If It Be One Of Those In Which The Judges May Be Suspected Of Bias, The Jury Undertake To Decide Both Law And Fact.

The Uniform Tenor Of A Man's Life Furnishes Better Evidence Of What He Has Said Or Done On Any Particular Occasion Than The Word Of Any Enemy.

I Have Often Thought That Nothing Would Do More Extensive Good At Small Expense Than The Establishment Of A Small Circulating Library In Every County, To Consist Of A Few Well-chosen Books, To Be Lent To The People Of The Country Under Regulations As Would Secure Their Safe Return In Due Time.

Questions Of Natural Right Are Triable By Their Conformity With The Moral Sense And Reason Of Man.

Inalienable Rights

Reading, Reflection And Time Have Convinced Me That The Interests Of Society Require The Observation Of Those Moral Precepts Only In Which All Religions Agree (for All Forbid Us To Steal, Murder, Plunder, Or Bear False Witness), And That We Should Not Intermeddle With The Particular Dogmas In Which All Religions Differ, And Which Are Totally Unconnected With Morality.

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.

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

There Is Preparing, I Hope, Under The Auspices Of Heaven, A Way For A Total Emancipation.

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

A Departure From Principle In One Instance Becomes A Precedent For A Second; That Second For A Third; And So On, Till The Bulk Of The Society Is Reduced To Be Mere Automatons Of Misery, To Have No Sensibilities Left But For Sin And Suffering.

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

The Eyes Of Our Citizens Are Not Sufficiently Open To The True Cause Of Our Distress. They Ascribe Them To Everything But Their True Cause, The Banking System

The Majority, Oppressing An Individual, Is Guilty Of A Crime, Abuses Its Strength, And By Acting On The Law Of The Strongest Breaks Up The Foundations Of Society.

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.

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

If We Can But Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labours Of The People, Under The Pretence Of Taking Care Of Them, They Must Become Happy.

I Hope Our Wisdom Will Grow With Our Power, And Teach Us, That The Less We Use Our Power The Greater It Will Be.

I Steer My Bark With Hope In The Head, Leaving Fear Astern. My Hopes Indeed Sometimes Fail, But Not Oftener Than The Forebodings Of The Gloomy.

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.

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 Do Not Take A Single Newspaper, Nor Read One A Month, And I Feel Myself Infinitely The Happier For It.

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

One Insult Pocketed Soon Produces Another.

[t]he Dignity Of Parliament It Seems Can Brook No Opposition To It's Power. Strange That A Set Of Men Who Have Made Sale Of Theirvirtue To The Minister Should Yet Talk Of Retaining Dignity!

If We Believe That He [jesus Christ]really Countenanced The Follies, The Falsehoods, And The Charlatanisms, Which His Biographers [writers Of The New Testament]father Upon Him, And Admit The Misconstructions, Interpolations, And Theorizations Of The Fathers Of The Early And The Fanatics Of The Latter Ages, The Conclusion Would Be Irresistible By Every Sound Mind That He Was An Impostor.

The Late Rebellion In Massachusetts Has Given More Alarm Than I Think It Should Have Done. Calculate That One Rebellion In Thirteen States In The Course Of Eleven Years, Is But One For Each State In A Century And A Half. No Country Should Be So Long Without One. Nor Will Any Degree Of Power In The Hands Of Government Prevent Insurrections.

When A Man Assumes A Public Trust He Should Consider Himself A Public Property.

The Multiplication Of Public Offices, Increase Of Expense Beyond Income, Growth And Entailment Of A Public Debt Are Indications Soliciting The Employment Of The Pruning Knife.

Government Debt

Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Person Under Protection Of Habeas Corpus; And Trial By Juries Impartially Selected, These Principles Form The Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us, And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.

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

I Do Not Find In Orthodox Christianity One Redeeming Feature.

Politics Is Such A Torment That I Advise Everyone I Love Not To Mix With It.

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

Be A Listener Only, Keep Within Yourself, And Endeavor To Establish With Yourself The Habit Of Silence, Especially In Politics.

Man Once Surrendering His Reason, Has No Remaining Guard Against Absurdities The Most Monstrous, And Like A Ship Without Rudder, Is The Sport Of Every Wind. With Such Persons, Gullibility, Which They Call Faith, Takes The Helm From The Hand Of Reason, And The Mind Becomes A Wreck.

...let Us Save What Remains; Not By Vaults And Locks Which Fence Them From The Public Eye And Use In Consigning Them To The Waste Of Time, But By Such A Multiplication Of Copies, As Shall Place Them Beyond The Reach Of Accident.

Our Public Credit Is Good, But The Abundance Of Paper Has Produced A Spirit Of Gambling In The Funds, Which Has Laid Up Our Ships At The Wharves As Too Slow Instruments Of Profit, And Has Even Disarmed The Hand Of The Tailor Of His Needle And Thimble. They Say The Evil Will Cure Itself. I Wish It May; But I Have Rarely Seen A Gamester Cured, Even By The Disasters Of His Vocation.

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

Students Of Reading, Writing And Common Arithmetick . . . Graecian [greek], Roman, English And American History . . . Should Be Rendered . . . Worthy To Receive, And Able To Guard The Sacred Deposit Of The Rights And Liberties Of Their Fellow Citizens.

Taxes Should Be Continued By Annual Or Biennial Reeactments, Because A Constant Hold, By The Nation, Of The Strings Of The Public Purse Is A Salutary Restraint From Which An Honest Government Ought Not Wish, Nor A Corrupt One To Be Permitted, To Be Free.

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

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

Only Aim To Do Your Duty, And Mankind Will Give You Credit Where You Fail.

A Room Without Books Is Like A Life Without Meaning.

Our Fellow-citizens Think They Have A Right To Full Information, In A Case Of Such Great Concernment To Them. It Is Their Sweat Which Is To Earn All The Expenses Of The War, And Their Blood Which Is To Flow In Expiation Of The Causes Of It.

I Feel Much Alarmed At The Prospect Of Seeing General Jackson President. He Is The Most Unfit Man I Know For Such A Place.

No Other Depositories Of Power [but The People Themselves] Have Ever Yet Been Found, Which Did Not End In Converting To Their Own Profit The Earnings Of Those Committed To Their Charge.

It Is Every Americans' Right And Obligation To Read And Interpret The Constitution For Himself.

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

I Have Ever Judged Of The Religion Of Others By Their Lives. For It Is In Our Lives, And Not From Our Works, That Our Religion Must Be Read.

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

We 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.

Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law.

Christian Creeds And Doctrines, The Clergy's Own Fatal Inventions, Through All The Ages Has Made Of Christendom A Slaughterhouse, And Divided It Into Sects Of Inextinguishable Hatred For One Another.

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.

Friendship Is But Another Name For An Alliance With The Follies And The Misfortunes Of Others. Our Own Share Of Miseries Is Sufficient: Why Enter Then As Volunteers Into Those Of Another?

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

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

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

Establish The Eternal Truth That Acquiescence Under Insult Is Not The Way To Escape War.

Resisting Tyranny Is Obeying God

Public Offices Were Not Made For Private Convenience.

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

I Really Look With Commiseration Over The Great Body Of My Fellow Citizens Who, Reading Newspapers, Live And Die In The Belief That They Have Known Something Of What Has Been Passing In Their Times.

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong.

[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.

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.

And Even Should The Cloud Of Barbarism And Despotism Again Obscure The Science And Libraries Of Europe, This Country Remains To Preserve And Restore Light And Liberty To Them.

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.

Leave No Authority Existing Not Responsible To The People.

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 View Great Cities As Pestilential To The Morals, The Health, And The Liberties Of Man.

Where Everyman Is Participator In The Government Of Affairs, Not Merely At An Election One Day In The Year But Everyday, He Will Let The Heart Be Torn Out Of His Body Sooner Than His Power Be Wrested From Him By A Caesar Or A Bonaparte.

Power Is Not Alluring To Pure Minds.

Music, Drawing, Books, Invention & Exercise Will Be So Many Resources To You Against Ennui.

The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple And Tend All To The Happiness Of Man, That There Is Only One God And God Is Perfect. That God And Man Are One. That To Love God With All Your Heart, And Your Neighbor As Yourself, Is The Sum Of Religion. These Are The Great Points On Which I Endeavor To Reform And Live My Life.

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

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

An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens . . . There Has Never Been A Moment Of My Life In Which I Should Have Relinquished For It The Enjoyments Of My Family, My Farm, My Friends And Books.

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

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 Hocus-pocus Phantasm Of A God, Like Another Cerberus, With One Body And Three Heads, Had Its Birth And Growth In The Blood Of Thousands And Thousands Of Martyrs.

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

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

The Study Of The Law Is Useful In A Variety Of Points Of View. It Qualifies A Man To Be Useful To Himself, To His Neighbors, & To The Public.

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.

The Reflections That The Boys Of This Age Are To Be The Men Of The Next; That They Should Be Prepared To Receive The Holy Charge Which We Are Cherishing To Deliver Over To Them; That In Establishing An Institution Of Wisdom For Them, We Secure It To All Our Future Generations; That In Fulfilling This Duty, We Bring Home To Our Own Bosoms The Sweet Consolation Of Seeing Our Sons Rising Under A Luminous Tuition, To Destinies Of High Promise; These Are Considerations Which Will Occur To All.

Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

A Country Whose Buildings Are Of Wood, Can Never Increase In Its Improvements To Any Considerable Degree.... Whereas When Buildings Are Of Durable Materials, Every New Edifice Is An Actual And Permanent Acquisition To The State, Adding To Its Value As Well As To Its Ornament.

My Confidence Is That There Will For A Long Time Be Virtue And Good Sense Enough In Our Countrymen To Correct Abuses.

[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.

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

Unmerited Abuse Wounds, While Unmerited Praise Has Not The Power To Heal.

It Is To Them I Look, To The Rising Generation, And Not To The One Now In Power, For These Great Reformations I.e., Emancipation Of Slaves And Settlement Of The Virginia Constitution On A Firmer And More Permanent Basis.

The Policy Of The American Government Is To Leave Their Citizens Free, Neither Restraining Nor Aiding Them In Their Pursuits.

If A Due Participation Of Office Is A Matter Of Right, How Are Vacancies To Be Obtained? Those By Death Are Few; By Resignation, None.

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.

Say Nothing Of My Religion. It Is Known To God And Myself Alone.

Now I Will Avow, That I Then Believed And Now Believe That Those General Principles Of Christianity Are As Eternal And Immutable As The Existence And Attributes Of God; And That Those Principles Of Liberty Are As Unalterable As Human Nature And Our Terrestrial, Mundane System.

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

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

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

The Natural Cause Of The Human Mind Is Certainly From Credulity To Skepticism.

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

Idleness Begets Ennui, Ennui The Hypochondriac, And That A Diseased Body. No Laborious Person Was Ever Yet Hysterical.

Everything Is Useful Which Contributes To Fix The Principles And Practices Of Virtue.

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

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

It Is An Axiom In My Mind That Our Liberty Can Never Be Safe But In The Hands Of The People Themselves, And That Too Of The People With A Certain Degree Of Instruction. This It Is The Business Of The State To Effect, And On A General Plan.

The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood.

It Is A Misnomer To Call A Government Republican In Which A Branch Of The Supreme Power Is Independent Of The Nation.

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

Nothing But A Necessity Invincible By Any Other Means Can Justify ... A Prostitution Of Laws, Which Constitute The Pillars Of Our Whole System Of Jurisprudence.

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