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The Purse Of The People Is The Real Seat Of Sensibility. Let It Be Drawn Upon Largely, And They Will Then Listen To Truths Which Could Not Excite Them Through Any Other Organ.

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Purse Of The

Thomas Jefferson

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The Purse Of The People Is The Real Seat Of Sensibility. Let It Be Drawn Upon Largely, And They Will Then Listen To Truths Which Could Not Excite Them Through Any Other Organ.

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A Single Good Government Becomes... A Blessing To The Whole Earth, Its Welcome To The Oppressed Restraining Within Certain Limits The Measure Of Their Oppressions. But Should Even This Be Counteracted By Violence On The Right Of Expatriation, The Other Branch Of Our Example Then Presents Itself For Imitation: To Rise On Their Rulers And Do As We Have Done.

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.

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.

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?

A Share In The Sovereignty Of The State, Which Is Exercised By The Citizens At Large, In Voting At Elections Is One Of The Most Important Rights Of The Subject, And In A Republic Ought To Stand Foremost In The Estimation Of The Law.

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.

Men Are Disposed To Live Honestly, If The Means Of Doing So Are Open To Them.

[if] The Nature Of ... Government [were] A Subordination Of The Civil To The Ecclesiastical Power, I [would] Consider It As Desperate For Long Years To Come. Their Steady Habits [will] Exclude The Advances Of Information, And They [will] Seem Exactly Where They [have Always Been]. And There [the] Clergy Will Always Keep Them If They Can. [they] Will Follow The Bark Of Liberty Only By The Help Of A Tow-rope.

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

It Must Be Observed That Our Revenues Are Raised Almost Wholly On Imported Goods.

If We Suffer Ourselves To Be Frightened From Our Post By Mere Lying, Surely The Enemy Will Use That Weapon; For What One So Cheap To Those Of Whose System Of Politics Morality Makes No Part?

We Have Counted The Cost Of This Contest, And Find Nothing So Dreadful As Voluntary Slavery.-honor, Justice, And Humanity, Forbid Us Tamely To Surrender That Freedom Which We Received From Our Gallant Ancestors, And Which Our Innocent Posterity Have A Right To Receive From Us. We Cannot Endure The Infamy And Guilt Of Resigning Succeeding Generations To That Wretchedness Which Inevitably Awaits Them, If We Basely Entail Hereditary Bondage Upon Them.

If The Happiness Of The Mass Of Mankind Can Be Secured At The Expense Of A Little Tempest Now And Then, Or Even Of A Little Blood, It Will Be A Precious Purchase.

Though Written Constitutions May Be Violated In Moments Of Passion Or Delusion, Yet They Furnish A Text To Which Those Who Are Watchful May Again Rally And Recall The People; They Fix Too For The People The Principles Of Their Political Creed.

To Your Request Of My Opinion Of The Manner In Which A Newspaper Should Be Conducted, So As To Be Most Useful, I Should Answer, "by Restraining It To True Facts & Sound Principles Only." Yet I Fear Such A Paper Would Find Few Subscribers. It Is A Melancholy Truth, That A Suppression Of The Press Could Not More Completely Deprive The Nation Of It's Benefits, Than Is Done By It's Abandoned Prostitution To Falsehood.

We Lay It Down As A Fundamental, That Laws, To Be Just, Must Give A Reciprocation Of Right; That, Without This, They Are Mere Arbitrary Rules Of Conduct, Founded In Force, And Not In Conscience.

The Love Of Justice And The Love Of Country Plead Equally The Cause Of These People, And It Is A Moral Reproach To Us That They Should Have Pleaded It So Long In Vain.

I Think We Have More Machinery Of Government Than Is Necessary, Too Many Parasites Living On The Labor Of The Industrious.

I Hope We Shall . . . Crush In [its] Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Monied Corporations.

In The Fevered State Of Our Country, No Good Can Ever Result From Any Attempt To Set One Of These Fiery Zealots To Rights, Either In Fact Or Principle. They Are Determined As To The Facts They Will Believe, And The Opinions On Which They Will Act. Get By Them, Therefore, As You Would By An Angry Bull; It Is Not For A Man Of Sense To Dispute The Road With Such An Animal.

Those Who Labor In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God.

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

Were It Left To Me To Decide Whether We Should Have A Government Without Newspapers, Or Newspapers Without A Government, I Should Not Hesitate A Moment To Prefer The Latter. But I Should Mean That Every Man Should Receive Those Papers And Be Capable Of Reading Them.

I Have Learnt To Expect That It Will Rarely Fall To The Lot Of Imperfect Man To Retire From This Station With The Reputation And The Favor Which Bring Him Into It.

As Government Grows, Freedom Recedes.

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

The Patriot, Like The Christian, Must Learn To Bear Revilings And Persecutions As A Part Of His Duty; And In Proportion As The Trial Is Severe, Firmness Under It Becomes More Requisite And Praiseworthy. It Requires, Indeed, Self-command. But That Will Be Fortified In Proportion As The Calls For Its Exercise Are Repeated.

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

Let The Eye Of Vigilance Never Be Closed.

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.

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

Second Amendment

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

The Protection Of Our Citizens, The Spirit And Honor Of Our Country, Require That Force Should Be Interposed To A Certain Degree.

The Constitution Is A Mere Thing Of Wax In The Hands Of The Judiciary, Which They May Twist And Shape Into Any Form They Please.

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

It [appears] That However Certain Forms Of Government Are Better Calculated Than Others To Protect Individuals In The Free Exercise Of Their Natural Rights, And Are At The Same Time Themselves Better Guarded Against Degeneracy, Yet Experience [has] Shown That, Even Under The Best Forms, Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.

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

We Might Have Been A Free And Great People Together.

The Christian Priesthood, Finding The Doctrines Of Christ Leveled To Every Understanding, And Too Plain To Need Explanation, Saw, In The Mysticism Of Plato, Materials With Which They Might Build Up An Artificial System Which Might, From It's Indistinctness, Admit Everlasting Controversy, Give Employment For Their Order, And Introduce It To Profit, Power And Pre-eminence.

An Elective Despotism Was Not The Government We Fought For, But One Which Should Not Only Be Founded On True Free Principles, But In Which The Powers Of Government Should Be So Divided And Balanced Among General Bodies Of Magistracy, As That No One Could Transcend Their Legal Limits Without Being Effectually Checked And Restrained By The Others.

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.

The Variety Of Opinions Leads To Questions. Questions Lead To Truth.

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.

The Qualifications For Self-government In Society Are Not Innate. They Are The Result Of Habit And Long Training.

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

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

Bad Relationship

Free Men Do Not Ask Permission To Bear Arms

There Is No Justification For Taking Away Individuals' Freedom In The Guise Of Public Safety.

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.

Let The Farmer Forevermore Be Honored In His Calling; For They Who Labor In The Earth Are The Chosen People Of God.

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.

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

I Have Been Long Sensible That While I Was Endeavoring To Render Our Country The Greatest Of All Services, That Of Regenerating The Public Education, And Placing Our Rising Generation On The Level Of Our Sister States (which They Have Proudly Held Heretofore), I Was Discharging The Odious Function Of A Physician Pouring Medicine Down The Throat Of A Patient Insensible Of Needing It.

The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others.

Still Less Let It Be Proposed That Our Properties Within Our Own Territories Shall Be Taxed Or Regulated By Any Power On Earth But Our Own.

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

Our Legislators Are Not Sufficiently Apprized Of The Rightful Limits Of Their Power; That Their True Office Is To Declare And Enforce Only Our Natural Rights And Duties, And To Take None Of Them From Us.

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.

I Do Not Know Whether You Are Fond Of Chemical Reading. There Are Some Things In This Science Worth Reading.

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

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

A Society That Will Trade A Little Liberty For A Little Order Will Lose Both, And Deserve Neither.

There Is A Fulness Of Time When Men Should Go, And Not Occupy Too Long The Ground To Which Others Have A Right To Advance.

We Have Already Given In Example One Effectual Check To The Dog Of War By Transferring The Power Of Letting Him Loose From The Executive To The Legislative Body

In Matters Of Style, Swim With The Current; In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.

Men Of High Learning And Abilities Are Few In Every Country; And By Taking In Those Who Are Not So, The Able Part Of The Body Have Their Hands Tied By The Unable.

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.

It Is Not To Be Understood That I Am With Him (jesus Christ) In All His Doctrines. I Am A Materialist; He Takes The Side Of Spiritualism; He Preaches The Efficacy Of Repentance Toward Forgiveness Of Sin; I Require A Counterpoise Of Good Works To Redeem It.

He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It The Second Time.

Do Not Neglect Your Music. It Will Be A Companion Which Will Sweeten Many Hours Of Life To You.

Resort Is Had To Ridicule Only When Reason Is Against Us.

My Theory Has Always Been, That If We Are To Dream, The Flatteries Of Hope Are As Cheap, And Pleasanter, Than The Gloom Of Despair.

No Man Will Ever Bring Out Of That Office The Reputation Which Carries Him Into It. The Honeymoon Would Be As Short In That Case As In Any Other, And Its Moments Of Ecstasy Would Be Ransomed By Years Of Torment And Hatred.

That Paper Money Has Some Advantages Is Admitted. But That Its Abuses Also Are Inevitable And, By Breaking Up The Measure Of Value, Makes A Lottery Of All Private Property, Cannot Be Denied.

If You Are Obliged To Neglect Any Thing, Let It Be Your Chemistry. It Is The Least Useful And The Least Amusing To A Country Gentleman Of All The Ordinary Branches Of Science.

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.

Never Buy What You Do Not Want, Because It Is Cheap; It Will Be Dear To You.

The Impious Presumption Of Legislators And Rulers, Civil As Well As Ecclesiastical, Who, Being Themselves But Fallible And Uninspired Men, Have Assumed Dominion Over The Faith Of Others, Setting Up Their Own Opinions And Modes Of Thinking As The Only True And Infallible, And As Such Endeavoring To Impose Them On Others, Hath Established And Maintained False Religions Over The Greatest Part Of The World And Through All Time.

If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't More People Happy?

My God! How Little Do My Countrymen Know What Precious Blessings They Are In Possession Of, And Which No Other People On Earth Enjoy!

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

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.

Some Men Look At Constitutions With Sanctimonious Reverence, And Deem Them Like The Ark Of The Covenant, Too Sacred To Be Touched. They Ascribe To The Men Of The Preceding Age A Wisdom More Than Human, And Suppose What They Did To Be Beyond Amendment.

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

I Extremely Believe In Luck, And I Discovered More Hard Work, Your Luck As Much

If You Have Any Duty Which Must Be Done, And It Seems Disagreeable, Do It Promptly And Have It Over.

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.

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

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

[if A Book Were] Very Innocent, And One Which Might Be Confided To The Reason Of Any Man; Not Likely To Be Much Read If Let Alone, But If Persecuted, It Will Be Generally Read. Every Man In The United States Will Think It A Duty To Buy A Copy, In Vindication Of His Right To Buy And To Read What He Pleases.

I Am Anxious To See The Doctrine Of One God Commenced In Our State. But The Population Of My Neighborhood Is Too Slender, And Is Too Much Divided Into Other Sects To Maintain Any One Preacher Well. I Must Therefore Be Contented To Be An Unitarian By Myself, Although I Know There Are Many Around Me Who Would Become So, If Once They Could Hear The Questions Fairly Stated.

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.

The Last Hope Of Human Liberty In This World Rests On Us. We Ought, For So Dear A Stake, To Sacrifice Every Attachment & Every Enmity.

[t]o Preserve The Republican Form And Principles Of Our Constitution And Cleave To The Salutary Distribution Of Powers Which That [the Constitution] Has Established . . . Are The Two Sheet Anchors Of Our Union. If Driven From Either, We Shall Be In Danger Of Foundering.

Distribution Of Power

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

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

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.

If Nature Has Made Any One Thing Less Susceptible Than All Others Of Exclusive Property, It Is The Action Of The Thinking Power Called An Idea... No One Possesses The Less, Because Every Other Possess The Whole Of It. He Who Receives An Idea From Me, Receives Instruction Himself Without Lessening Mine; As He Who Lights His Taper At Mine, Receives Light Without Darkening Me.

Having Seen The People Of All Other Nations Bowed Down To The Earth Under The Wars And Prodigalities Of Their Rulers, I Have Cherished Their Opposites, Peace, Economy, And Riddance Of Public Debt, Believing That These Were The High Road To Public As Well As Private Prosperity And Happiness.

Does The Government Fear Us? Or Do We Fear The Government? When The People Fear The Government, Tyranny Has Found Victory. The Federal Government Is Our Servant, Not Our Master!

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

Force Is The Vital Principle And Immediate Parent Of Despotism.

The Germ Of Dissolution Of Our Federal Government Is In The Constitution Of The Federal Judiciary; An Irresponsible Body, (for Impeachment Is Scarcely A Scare-crow) Working Like Gravity By Night And By Day, Gaining A Little Today And A Little Tomorrow, And Advancing Its Noiseless Step Like A Thief, Over The Field Of Jurisdiction, Until All Shall Be Usurped From The States, And The Government Of All Be Consolidated Into One.

Where The Law Of The Majority Ceases To Be Acknowledged, There Government Ends; The Law Of The Strongest Takes Its Place, And Life And Property Are His Who Can Take Them.

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.

Congress Has Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Only Those Specifically Enumerated.

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

By Oft Repeating An Untruth, Men Come To Believe It Themselves.

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 Advance It Therefore As A Suspicion Only, That The Blacks, Whether Originally A Distinct Race, Or Made Distinct By Time And Circumstances, Are Inferior To The Whites In The Endowments Of Both Body And Mind.

Certain Teachings In The Bible Are As Diamonds In A Dung-heap.

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

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

The Only Security Of All Is In A Free Press.

Freedom Of The Press

The Judiciary Of The United States Is The Subtle Corps Of Sappers And Miners Constantly Working Under Ground To Undermine The Foundations Of Our Confederated Fabric. They Are Construing Our Constitution From A Co-ordination Of A General And Special Government To A General And Supreme One Alone.

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.

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

It Is Of Great Importance To Set A Resolution, Not To Be Shaken, Never To Tell An Untruth. There Is No Vice So Mean, So Pitiful, So Contemptible; And He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second And A Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual.

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

Unalienable Rights

Inalienable Rights

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

Nothing Is More Certainly Written In The Book Of Fate Than That These People Are To Be Free.

The Care Of Human Life And Happiness, And Not Their Destruction, Is The First And Only Object Of Good Government.

Let Those Flatter Who Fear; It Is Not An American Art .

The Liberty Of The Whole Earth Was Depending On The Issue Of The Contest, And Was Ever Such A Prize Won With So Little Innocent Blood?

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

Man Was Destined For Society. His Morality Therefore Was To Be Formed To This Object. He Was Endowed With A Sense Of Right And Wrong Merely Relative To This. This Sense Is As Much A Part Of His Nature As The Sense Of Hearing, Seeing, Feeling; It Is The True Foundation Of Morality... The Moral Sense, Or Conscience, Is As Much A Part Of Man As His Leg Or Arm. It Is Given To All Human Beings In A Stronger Or Weaker Degree, As Force Of Members Is Given Them In A Greater Or Less Degree. It May Be Strengthened By Exercise, As May Any Particular Limb Of The Body.

A Walk About Paris Will Provide Lessons In History, Beauty, And In The Point Of Life.

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.

To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. We Must Make Our Election Between Economy And Liberty, Or Profusion And Servitude.

Government Debt

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.

Religions Are All Alike- Founded Upon Fables And Mythologies.

Secular Society

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

But With Respect To Future Debt; Would It Not Be Wise And Just For That Nation To Declare In The Constitution They Are Forming That Neither The Legislature, Nor The Nation Itself Can Validly Contract More Debt, Than They May Pay Within Their Own Age, Or Within The Term Of 19 Years.

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.

Of All The Systems Of Morality, Ancient Or Modern Which Have Come Under My Observation, None Appears To Me So Pure As That Of Jesus....i Am A Real Christian, That Is To Say, A Disciple Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.

Man Is Not Made For The State But The State For Man And It Derives Its Just Powers Only From The Consent Of The Governed.

I Believe We May Lessen The Danger Of Buying And Selling Votes, By Making The Number Of Voters Too Great For Any Means Of Purchase. I May Further Say That I Have Not Observed Men's Honesty To Increase With Their Riches.

Printers Shall Be Liable To Legal Prosecution For Printing And Publishing False Facts Injurious To The Party Prosecuting: But They Shall Be Under No Other Restraint.

God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion.

Second Amendment

Laws Provide Against Injury From Others; But Not From Ourselves.

Democracies Have

He Who Knows Best Knows How Little He Knows.

This Doctrine ['that The Condition Of Man Cannot Be Ameliorated, That What Has Been Must Ever Be, And That To Secure Ourselves Where We Are We Must Tread With Awful Reverence In The Footsteps Of Our Fathers']is The Genuine Fruit Of The Alliance Between Church And State, The Tenants Of Which Finding Themselves But Too Well In Their Present Condition, Oppose All Advances Which Might Unmask Their Usurpations And Monopolies Of Honors, Wealth And Power, And Fear Every Change As Endangering The Comforts They Now Hold.

If Your Letters Are As Long As The Bible, They Will Appear Short To Me. Only Let Them Be Brim Full Of Affection.

It Is A Problem, Not Clear In My Mind, That [a Society Without Government, As Among Our Indians] Is Not The Best. But I Believe It To Be Inconsistent With Any Great Degree Of Population.

To Draw Around The Whole Nation The Strength Of The General Government As A Barrier Against Foreign Foes... Is [one Of The] Functions Of The General Government On Which [our Citizens] Have A Right To Call.

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

Who Will Govern The Governors? There Is Only One Force In The Nation That Can Be Depended Upon To Keep The Government Pure And The Governors Honest, And That Is The People Themselves. They Alone, If Well Informed, Are Capable Of Preventing The Corruption Of Power, And Of Restoring The Nation To Its Rightful Course If It Should Go Astray. They Alone Are The Safest Depository Of The Ultimate Powers Of Government.

A Private Central Bank Issuing The Public Currency Is A Greater Menace To The Liberties Of The People Than A Standing Army. We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

Law Is Often The Tyrant's Will, And Always So When It Violates The Right Of An Individual.

Inalienable Rights

Public Employment Contributes Neither To Advantage Nor Happiness. It Is But Honorable Exile From One's Family And Affairs.

The Sentiments Of Men Are Known Not Only By What They Receive, But What They Reject Also.

A Man Has A Right To Use A Saw, An Axe, A Plane, Separately; May He Not Combine Their Uses On The Same Piece Of Wood? He Has A Right To Use His Knife To Cut His Meat, A Fork To Hold It; May A Patentee Take From Him The Right To Combine Their Use On The Same Subject? Such A Law, Instead Of Enlarging Our Conveniences, As Was Intended, Would Most Fearfully Abridge Them, And Crowd Us By Monopolies Out Of The Use Of The Things We Have.

Light And Liberty Go Together.

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.... Reason And Persuasion Are The Only Practicable Instruments. To Make Way For These, Free Inquiry Must Be Indulged.... Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To The Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them.

Difference Of Opinion Leads To Enquiry, And Enquiry To Truth; And I Am Sure...we Both Value Too Much The Freedom Of Opinion Sanctioned By Our Constitution, Not To Cherish Its Exercise Even Where In Opposition To Ourselves.

The Example Of Changing A Constitution By Assembling The Wise Men Of The State, Instead Of Assembling Armies, Will Be Worth As Much To The World As The Former Examples We Had Give Them. The Constitution, Too, Which Was The Result Of Our Deliberation, Is Unquestionably The Wisest Ever Yet Presented To Men.

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

No Freeman Shall Be Debarred The Use Of Arms.

Second Amendment

If I Am To Meet With A Disappointment, The Sooner I Know It, The More Of Life I Shall Have To Wear It Off.

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

The Care Of Every Man's Soul Belongs To Himself. But What If He Neglect The Care Of It? Well What If He Neglect The Care Of His Health Or His Estate, Which Would More Nearly Relate To The State. Will The Magistrate Make A Law That He Not Be Poor Or Sick? Laws Provide Against Injury From Others; But Not From Ourselves. God Himself Will Not Save Men Against Their Wills.

A Nation's Best Defense Is An Educated Citizenry

Against Us Are All Timid Men Who Prefer The Calm Of Despotism To The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty We Are Likely To Preserve The Liberty We Have Obtained Only By Unremitting Labors And Perils.

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

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.

I Have Much Confidence That We Shall Proceed Successfully For Ages To Come. My Hope Of Its Duration Is Built Much On The Enlargement Of The Resources Of Life Going Hand In Hand With The Enlargement Of Territory.

God Has Formed Us Moral Agents... That We May Promote The Happiness Of Those With Whom He Has Placed Us In Society, By Acting Honestly Towards All, Benevolently To Those Who Fall Within Our Way, Respecting Sacredly Their Rights, Bodily And Mental, And Cherishing Especially Their Freedom Of Conscience, As We Value Our Own.

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.

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error.

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

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

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.

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.

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

All The World Would Be Christian If They Were Taught The Pure Gospel Of Christ!.

There Is No Act, However Virtuous, For Which Ingenuity May Not Find Some Bad Motive.

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.

The Opinions Of Men Should Not Be The Object Of Any Government. Our Civil Rights Are No More Dependent On Our Religious Beliefs Than They Are Dependent Upon Our Thoughts About Geometry Or Physics!

In The Spring He Will Attend Your Botanical Course. His Natural Turn Is Very Strongly To The Objects Of Your Two Courses Of Lectures, And I Hope You Will Have Reason To Be Contended With His Capacity & Character.

What All Agree Upon Is Probably Right; What No Two Agree In Most Probably Is Wrong.

Positive Atheism

Do You Want To Know Who You Are? Don't Ask. Act! Action Will Delineate And Define You.

I Wish It Were Possible To Obtain A Single Amendment To Our Constitution. I Would Be Willing To Depend On That Alone For The Reduction Of The Administration Of Our Government; I Mean An Additional Article Taking From The Federal Government The Power Of Borrowing.

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

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

When Tyranny Becomes Law, Rebellion Becomes Duty.

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.

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

It Is While We Are Young That The Habit Of Industry Is Formed. If Not Then, It Never Is Afterwards. The Fortune Of Our Lives Therefore Depends On Employing Well The Short Period Of Our Youth.

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

Besides The Comfort Of Knowlege, Every Science Is Auxiliary To Every Other.

Neither Believe Nor Reject Any Thing Because Any Other Person, Or Description Of Persons Have Rejected Or Believed It. Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven.

Without Books, I Would Certainly Die.

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.

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

Can The Liberties Of A Nation Be Thought Secure When We Have Remover Their Only Firm Basis, A Conviction In The Minds Of The People That These Liberties Are The Gift Of God? That They Are Not To Be Violated But With His Wrath? Indeed, I Tremble For My Country When I Reflect That God Is Just; That His Justice Cannot Sleep Forever.

It Is Left... To The Juries, If They Think The Permanent Judges Are Under Any Bias Whatever In Any Cause, To Take On Themselves To Judge The Law As Well As The Fact. They Never Exercise This Power But When They Suspect Partiality In The Judges; And By The Exercise Of This Power They Have Been The Firmest Bulwarks Of English Liberty.

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

Democracy Is 51% Of The People Taking Away The Rights Of The Other 49%.

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

I Cannot Live Without Books.

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