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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?

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Natural Aristocracy I

Thomas Jefferson

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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?

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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.

I Am Satisfied, And Sufficiently Occupied With The Things Which Are, Without Tormenting Or Troubling Myself About Those Which May Indeed Be, But Of Which I Have No Evidence.

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

Unalienable Rights

Inalienable Rights

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.

Laws That Forbid The Carrying Of Arms . . . Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes . . . Such Laws Make Things Worse For The Assaulted And Better For The Assailants; They Serve Rather To Encourage Than To Prevent Homicides, For An Unarmed Man May Be Attacked With Greater Confidence Than An Armed Man.

The People Cannot Be All, And Always, Well Informed. The Part Which Is Wrong Will Be Discontented, In Proportion To The Importance Of The Facts They Misconceive. If They Remain Quiet Under Such Misconceptions, It Is Lethargy, The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty. And What Country Can Preserve Its Liberties, If Its Rulers Are Not Warned From Time To Time, That This People Preserve The Spirit Of Resistance? Let Them Take Arms.

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

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

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

Under The Law Of Nature, All Men Are Born Free, Every One Comes Into The World With A Right To His Own Person, Which Includes The Liberty Of Moving And Using It At His Own Will. This Is What Is Called Personal Liberty, And Is Given Him By The Author

It Is Better To Have No Ideas Than False Ones.

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.

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

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

The Elective Franchise, If Guarded As The Ark Of Our Safety, Will Peaceably Dissipate All Combinations To Subvert A Constitution, Dictated By The Wisdom, And Resting On The Will Of The People.

An Honest Man Can Feel No Pleasure In The Exercise Of Power Over His Fellow Citizens.

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

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

The Relations Which Exist Between Man And His Maker, And The Duties Resulting From Those Relations, Are The Most Interesting And Important To Every Human Being And The Most Incumbent On His Study And Investigation.

The Office Of Reformer Of The Superstitions Of A Nation Is Ever Dangerous.

The Same Prudence Which In Private Life Would Forbid Our Paying Our Own Money For Unexplained Projects, Forbids It In The Dispensation Of The Public Moneys.

When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty.

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.

[emigrants] Will Bring With Them The Principles Of The Governments They Leave, Imbibed In Their Early Youth; Or, If Able To Throw Off, It Will Be In Exchange For An Unbounded Licentiousness, Passing, As Is Usual, From One Extreme To Another. It Would Be A Miracle Were They To Stop Precisely At The Point Of Temperate Liberty.

Government As Well As Religion Has Furnished Its Schisms, Its Persecutions And Its Devices For Fattening Idleness On The Earnings Of The People.

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.

I Have Learned To Be Less Confident In The Conclusions Of Human Reason, And Give More Credit To The Honesty Of Contrary Opinions.

Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace

National Defense

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

The Most Effectual Means Of Preventing The Perversion Of Power Into Tyranny Are To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts Which History Exhibits, That Possessed Thereby Of The Experience Of Other Ages And Countries, They May Be Enabled To Know Ambition Under All Its Shapes, And Prompt To Exert Their Natural Powers To Defeat Its Purposes.

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.

And Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences, Whether We Consider Its Subjects As Furnishing The Principal Subsistence Of Life To Man And Beast, Delicious Varieties For Our Tables, Refreshments From Our Orchards, The Adornments Of Our Flower-borders, Shade And Perfume Of Our Groves, Materials For Our Buildings, Or Medicaments For Our Bodies.

The Earth Belongs To The Living. No Man Can, By Natural Right, Oblige The Lands He Occupied Or The Persons Who Succeed Him In That Occupation, To The Payment Of Debts Contracted By Him. For If He Could, He Might, During His Own Life, Eat Up The Use Of The Lands For Several Generations To Come, And Then The Lands Would Belong To The Dead, And Not To The Living. No Generation Can Contract Debts Greater Than May Be Paid During The Course Of Its Own Existence.

It Is Wonderful How Much May Be Done If We Are Always Doing.

My General Plan Would Be To Make The States One As To Everything Connected With Foreign Nations And Several As To Everything Purely Domestic.

I Do Not Pretend That Language Is Science. It Isan Instrument For The Attainment Of Science.

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

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

Though The Will Of The Majority Is In All Cases To Prevail, That Will, To Be Rightful, Must Be Reasonable.

Tyranny Of The Majority

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

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

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 Wish To See This Beverage Become Common Instead Of The Whiskey Which Kills Sone-third Of Our Citizens And Ruins Their Families.

A Community Of Small Farmers... Land Property Owners, Will Be The Only Assurance That The Freedom Our Republic Offers Will Be Guaranteed To Each And Every Citizen.

In Every Country And In Every Age, The Priest Has Been Hostile To Liberty.

How Soon The Labor Of Men Would Make A Paradise Of The Earth Were It Not For Misgovernment And A Diversion Of His Energies To Selfish Interests.

Independence Can Be Trusted Nowhere But With The People In Mass. They Are Inherently Independent Of All But Moral Law.

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

It Is A Happy Circumstance In Human Affairs That Evils Which Are Not Cured In One Way Will Cure Themselves In Some Other.

The Chief Purpose Of Government Is To Protect Life. Abandon That And You Have Abandoned All.

Enlighten The People Generally, And Tyranny And Oppressions Of Body And Mind Will Vanish Like Evil Spirits At The Dawn Of Day.

To Take From One Because It Is Thought That His Own Industry And That Of His Father's Has Acquired Too Much, In Order To Spare To Others, Who, Or Whose Fathers Have Not Exercised Equal Industry And Skill, Is To Violate Arbitrarily The First Principle Of Association-the Guarantee To Every One Of A Free Exercise Of His Industry And The Fruits Acquired By It.

A Well Informed Citizenry Is The Best Defense Against Tyranny.

No Man Has Done Everything He Can Who Has Done Only His Best.

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

I Have Done For My Country And For All Mankind, All That I Could Do, And I Now Resign My Soul, Without Fear, To My God - My Daughter To My Country.

If There Is A Gratification Which I Envy Any People In This World It Is To Your Country [italy] Its Music. This Is The Favorite Passion Of My Soul, And Fortune Has Cast My Lot In A Country Where It Is In A State Of Deplorable Barbarism.

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

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

An Enemy Generally Says And Believes What He Wishes.

Experience Hath Shewn, That Even Under The Best Forms Of Government Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time, And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.

Democracies Have

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.

The Habeas Corpus Secures Every Man Here, Alien Or Citizen, Against Everything Which Is Not Law, Whatever Shape It May Assume.

Ridicule Is The Only Weapon Which Can Be Used Against Unintelligible Propositions.

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

I Like The Power Given The Legislature To Levy Taxes, And For That Reason Solely Approve Of The Greater House Being Chosen By The People Directly.

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

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.

The Governor Would Serve A Five-year Term And Be Ineligible For Reelection.

Political Interest [can] Never Be Separated In The Long Run From Moral Right.

Whether I Retire To Bed Early Or Late, I Rise With The Sun.

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.

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

To Compel A Man To Furnish Contributions Of Money For The Propagation Of Opinions Which He Disbelieves And Abhors Is Sinful And Tyrannical...a Wise And Frugal Government...shall Not Take From The Mouth Of Labor The Bread It Has Earned...congress Has Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare But Only Those Specifically Enumerated...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?

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

The Question Whether The Judges Are Invested With Exclusive Authority To Decide On The Constitutionality Of A Law Has Been Heretofore A Subject Of Consideration With Me In The Exercise Of Official Duties. Certainly There Is Not A Word In The Constitution Which Has Given That Power To Them More Than To The Executive Or Legislative Branches.

To Compel A Man To Furnish Funds For The Propagation Of Ideas He Disbelieves And Abhors Is Sinful And Tyrannical.

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

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

Separation Of Church And State

It Is Strangely Absurd To Suppose That A Million Of Human Beings, Collected Together, Are Not Under The Same Moral Laws Which Bind Each Of Them Separately.

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

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People. Enable Them To See That It Is Their Interest To Preserve Peace And Order, And They Will Preserve Them.

With Those Who Wish To Think Amiss Of Me, I Have Learnt To Be Perfectly Indifferent: But Where I Know A Mind To Be Ingenuous, Andto Need Only Truth To Set It To Rights, I Cannot Be As Passive.

Long Accustomed To The Use Of European Manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] Are As Incapable Of Returning To Their Habits Of Skinsand Furs As We Are, And Find Their Wants The Less Tolerable As They Are Occasioned By A War [the American Revolution] The Event Of Which Is Scarcely Interesting To Them.

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

Nothing Is Troublesome That We Do Willingly.

What We Learn To Do, We Learn By Doing.

The Wisdom Of Our Ages And The Blood Of Our Heroes Has Been Devoted To The Attainment Of Trial By Jury. It Should Be The Creed Of Our Political Faith.

I See No Comfort In Outliving One's Friends, And Remaining A Mere Monument Of The Times Which Are Past.

Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be.

...it Is Impossible, I Say, For The Human Mind Not To Believe That There Is In All This Design, Cause, And Effect Up To An Ultimate Cause-a Fabricator Of All Things, From Matter And Motion-their Preserver And Regulator While Permitted To Exist In Their Present Forms-and Their Regenerator Into New And Other Forms.

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

The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom And Happiness Of Man. . . . [are] The Sole Objects Of All Legitimate Government. A Plaque With This Quotation, With The First Phrase Omitted, Is In The Stairwell Of The Pedestal Of The Statue Of Liberty.

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

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.

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.

Never Was So Much False Arithmetic Employed On Any Subject, As That Which Has Been Employed To Persuade Nations That It Is In Their Interest To Go To War.

I Do Believe That General Washington Had Not A Firm Confidence In The Durability Of Our Government. He Was Naturally Distrustful Of Men, And Inclined To Gloomy Apprehensions; And I Was Ever Persuaded That A Belief That We Must At Length End In Something Like A British Constitution, Had Some Weight In His Adoption Of The Ceremonies Of Levees, Birthdays, Pompous Meetings With Congress, And Other Forms Of The Same Character, Calculated To Prepare Us Gradually For A Change Which He Believed Possible, And To Let It Come On With As Little Shock As Might Be To The Public Mind.

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

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.

No Stile Of Writing Is So Delightful As That Which Is All Pith, Which Never Omits A Necessary Word, Nor Uses An Unnecessary One.

The Mass Of Our Citizens May Be Divided Into Two Classes -- The Laboring And The Learned. The Laboring Will Need The First Grade Of Education To Qualify Them For Their Pursuits And Duties; The Learned Will Need It As A Foundation For Further Acquirements.

An Enlightened Citizenry Is Indispensable For The Proper Functioning Of A Republic. Self-government Is Not Possible Unless The Citizens Are Educated Sufficiently To Enable Them To Exercise Oversight. It Is Therefore Imperative That The Nation See To It That A Suitable Education Be Provided For All Its Citizens.

When All Government ...in Little As In Great Things... Shall Be Drawn To Washington As The Center Of All Power; It Will Render Powerless The Checks Provided Of One Government On Another, And Will Become As Venal And Oppressive As The Government From Which We Separated.

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.

To Unequal Privileges Among Members Of The Same Society The Spirit Of Our Nation Is, With One Accord, Adverse.

Inalienable Rights

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

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.

Letters Are Not The First, But The Last Step In The Progression From Barbarism To Civilisation.

Speeches That Are Measured By The Hour Will Die With The Hour.

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.

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.

Were We Directed From Washington When To Sow And When To Reap, We Should Soon Want Bread.

If A Nation Expects To Be Ignorant And Free, It Expects What Never Was And Never Will Be ... The People Cannot Be Safe Without Information. When The Press Is Free, And Every Man Is Able To Read, All Is Safe.

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.

I Am Tired Of A Life Of Contention, And Of Being The Personal Object For The Hatred Of Every Man, Who Hates The Present State Of Things.

I Leave To Others The Sublime Delights Of Riding In The Storm, Better Pleased With Sound Sleep & A Warmer Berth Below It Encircled, With The Society Of Neighbors, Friends & Fellow Laborers Of The Earth Rather Than With Spies & Sycophants ... I Have No Ambition To Govern Men. It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

A Morsel Of Genuine History Is A Thing So Rare As To Be Always Valuable.

Is Uniformity Of Opinion Desirable? No More Than That Of Face And Stature.

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

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

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

Our Business Is To Have Great Credit And To Use It Little.

The Diffusion Of Information And The Arraignment Of All Abuses At The Bar Of Public Reason, I Deem [one Of] The Essential Principles Of Our Government, And Consequently [one Of] Those Which Ought To Shape Its Administration.

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

Our People Shall Be Free

When An Instrument Admits Two Constructions, The One Safe, The Other Dangerous, The One Precise, The Other Indefinite, I Prefer That Which Is Safe And Precise.

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

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!

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

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.

Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God.

An Equal Application Of Law To Every Condition Of Man Is Fundamental.

An Acre Of The Best Ground For Hemp, Is To Be Selected And Sewn In Hemp And Be Kept For A Permanent Hemp Patch.

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.

I May Grow Rich By An Art I Am Compelled To Follow; I May Recover Health By Medicines I Am Compelled To Take Against My Own Judgment; But I Cannot Be Saved By A Worship I Disbelieve And Abhor.

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

The Olive Tree Is Surely The Richest Gift Of Heaven. I Can Scarcely Expect Bread.

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

Not To Find Out New Principles, Or New Arguments, Never Before Thought Of . . . But To Place Before Mankind The Common Sense Of The Subject, In Terms So Plain And Firm As To Command Their Assent, And To Justify Ourselves In The Independent Stand We Are Compelled To Take.

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.

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

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.

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.

I Have Seen Enough Of One War Never To Wish To See Another.

Wine From Long Habit Has Become An Indispensable For My Health

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

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.

My Heart Trembles When I Reflect That God Is Just

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

An Informed Citizenry Is The Only True Repository Of The Public Will.

Informed Citizens

Informed Citizenry

It Should Be Our Endeavor To Cultivate The Peace And Friendship Of Every Nation, Even Of That Which Has Injured Us Most.

Be Polite To All, But Intimate With Few.

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

In Reviewing The History Of The Times Through Which We Have Passed, No Portion Of It Gives Greater Satisfaction Or Reflection, Than That Which Represents The Efforts Of The Friends Of Religious Freedom And The Success With Which They Are Crowned.

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

The Power Of Declaring War Being With The Legislature, The Executive Should Do Nothing Necessarily Committing Them To Decide For War In Preference Of Non-intercourse, Which Will Be Preferred By A Great Many.

Our Minds And Hearts Are Free To Believe Everything Or Nothing At All - And It Is Our Duty To Protect And Perpetuate This Sacred Culture Of Freedom.

Newspapers . . . Serve As Chimnies To Carry Off Noxious Vapors And Smoke.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

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

Inalienable Rights

And Say, Finally, Whether Peace Is Best Preserved By Giving Energy To The Government Or Information To The People. This Last Is The Most Legitimate Engine Of Government. Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of People. Enable Them To See That It Is Their Interest To Preserve Peace And Order, And They Will Preserve Them. And It Requires No Very High Degree Of Education To Convince Them Of This. They Are The Only Sure Reliance For The Preservation Of Our Liberty.

Error Is To Be Pitied And Pardoned: It Is The Weakness Of Human Nature. But Vice Is A Foul Blemish, Not Pardonable In Any Character.

Adore God. Reverence And Cherish Your Parents. Love Your Neighbor As Yourself, And Your Country More Than Yourself. Be Just. Be True. Murmur Not At The Ways Of Providence. So Shall The Life Into Which You Have Entered Be The Portal To One Of Eternal And Ineffable Bliss.

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.

In A Free Society With A Government Based On Reason, It Is Inevitable That There Will Be No Uniform Opinion About Important Issues. Those Accustomed To Suppression And Control By Governmental Authority See This As Leading Only To Chaos. But A Government Of The People Requires Difference Of Opinion In Order To Discover Truth And To Take Advantage Of The Opportunity That Only Understanding Brings.

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

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

The Man Who Would Choose Security Over Freedom Deserves Neither.

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.

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

I Considered 4 Of These Bills [of The Revised Code Of Virginia] As Forming A System By Which Every Fibre Would Be Eradicated Of Antient Or Future Aristocracy; And A Foundation Laid For A Government Truly Republican.

Inspirational Quotes On: Honesty, Simplicity, Secret, Universe, Modesty, Peace Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom.

There Is Nothing More Unequal Than The Equal Treatment Of Unequal People.

Equal Treatment

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

The Right Of Self-government Does Not Comprehend The Government Of Others.

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

Our Judges Are As Honest As Other Men And Not More So. They Have, With Others, The Same Passions For Party, For Power, And The Privilege Of Their Corps.

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.

The Only True Corrective Of Constitutional Abuses Is Education.

Were I To Be The Founder Of A New Sect, I Would Call Them Apiarians, And, After The Example Of The Bee, Advise Them To Extract The Honey Of Every Sect. My Fundamental Principle Would Be ... That We Are To Be Saved By Our Good Works Which Are Within Our Power, And Not By Our Faith Which Is Not Within Our Power.

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.

Sir,-your Letter Of February The 18th Came To Hand On The 1st Instant; And The Request Of The History Of My Physical Habits Would Have Puzzled Me Not A Little, Had It Not Been For The Model With Which You Accompanied It, Of Doctor Rush's Answer To A Similar Inquiry. I Live So Much Like Other People, That I Might Refer To Ordinary Life As A History Of My Own. Like My Friend The Doctor, I Have Lived Temperately, Eating Very Little Animal Food, And That Not As An Aliment, So Much As A Condiment For The Vegetables, Which Constitute My Principle Diet.

The Darker The Berry, The Sweeter The Juice.

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

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

Life Is Of No Value But As It Brings Gratifications. Among The Most Valuable Of These Is Rational Society. It Informs The Mind, Sweetens The Temper, Chears Our Spirits, And Promotes Health.

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

The Flames Kindled On The Fourth Of July, 1776, Have Spread Over Too Much Of The Globe To Be Extinguished By The Feeble Engines Of Despotism; On The Contrary, They Will Consume These Engines And All Who Work Them.

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

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.

Fix Reason Firmly In Her Seat, And Call On Her Tribunal For Every Fact, Every Opinion. Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God

It Is As Useless To Argue With Those Who Have Renounced The Use Of Reason As To Administer Medication To The Dead.

Bodily Decay Is Gloomy In Prospect, But Of All Human Contemplations The Most Abhorrent Is Body Without Mind.

[t]he Opinion Which Gives To The Judges The Right To Decide What Laws Are Constitutional And What Not, Not Only For Themselves, In Their, Own Sphere Of Action, But For The Legislature And Executive Also In Their Spheres, Would Make The Judiciary A Despotic Branch.

Honesty And Interest Are As Intimately Connected In The Public As In The Private Code Of Morality.

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

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

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Muhammad Ali Jinnah

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