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The Spirit Of 1776 Is Not Dead. It Has Only Been Slumbering. The Body Of The American People Is Substantially Republican. But Their Virtuous Feelings Have Been Played On By Some Fact With More Fiction; They Have Been The Dupes Of Artful Maneuvers, And Made For A Moment To Be Willing Instruments In Forging Chains For Themselves. But Times And Truth Dissipated The Delusion, And Opened Their Eyes.

-Thomas Jefferson

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The Spirit Of 1776

Thomas Jefferson

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The Spirit Of 1776 Is Not Dead. It Has Only Been Slumbering. The Body Of The American People Is Substantially Republican. But Their Virtuous Feelings Have Been Played On By Some Fact With More Fiction; They Have Been The Dupes Of Artful Maneuvers, And Made For A Moment To Be Willing Instruments In Forging Chains For Themselves. But Times And Truth Dissipated The Delusion, And Opened Their Eyes.

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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.

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.

Civil Officials Have No Business Meddling In Private Religious Affairs.

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

I Could Think Of No Worse Example For Nations Abroad, Who For The First Time Were Trying To Put Free Electoral Procedures Into Effect, Than That Of The United States Wrangling Over The Results Of Our Presidential Election, And Even Suggesting That The Presidency Itself Could Be Stolen By Thievery At The Ballot Box.

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.

[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.

"it Astonishes Me To Find... [that So Many] Of Our Countrymen... Should Be Contented To Live Under A System Which Leaves To Their Governors The Power Of Taking From Them The Trial By Jury In Civil Cases, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce, The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Of Yoking Them With A Standing Army. This Is A Degeneracy In The Principles Of Liberty... Which I [would Not Have Expected For At Least] Four Centuries."

The Greeks By Their Laws, And The Romans By The Spirit Of Their People, Took Care To Put Into The Hands Of Their Rulers No Such Engine Of Oppression As A Standing Army. Their System Was To Make Every Man A Soldier, And Oblige Him To Repair To The Standard Of His Country Whenever That Was Reared. This Made Them Invincible; And The Same Remedy Will Make Us So.

All, Too, Will Bear In Mind This Sacred Principle, That Though The Will Of The Majority Is In All Cases To Prevail, That Will To Be Rightful Must Be Reasonable; That The Minority Possess Their Equal Rights, Which Equal Law Must Protect, And To Violate Would Be Oppression.

Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind. . . . We Might As Well Require A Man To Wear The Coat Which Fitted Him When A Boy As Civilized Society To Remain Forever Under The Regimen Of Their Barbarous Ancestors.

Truth Will Do Well Enough If Left To Shift For Herself.

I Think It Is A Great Error To Consider A Heavy Tax On Wines As A Tax On Luxury. On The Contrary, It Is A Tax On The Health Of Our Citizens.

The Banks Themselves Were Doing Business On Capitals Three-fourths Of Which Were Fictitious. This Fictitious Capital... Is Now To Be Lost, And To Fall On Somebody; It Must Take On Those Who Have Property To Meet It, And Probably On The Less Cautious Part, Who, Not Aware Of The Impending Catastrophe, Have Suffered Themselves To Contract, Or To Be In Debt, And Must Now Sacrifice Their Property Of A Value Many Times The Amount Of The Debt. We Have Been Truly Sowing The Wind, And Are Now Reaping The Whirlwind.

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 Several States Composing The United States Of America Are Not United On The Principle Of Unlimited Submission To Their General Government

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.

Chemistry Is Yet, Indeed, A Mere Embryon. Its Principles Are Contested; Experiments Seem Contradictory; Their Subjects Are So Minute As To Escape Our Senses; And Their Result Too Fallacious To Satisfy The Mind. It Is Probably An Age Too Soon To Propose The Establishment Of A System.

If I Had To Choose Between Government Without Newspapers, And Newspapers Without Government, I Wouldn't Hesitate To Choose The Latter

To Every Obstacle Oppose Patience, Perseverance And Soothing Language.

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.

Truth Will Do Well Enough If Left To Shift For Herself. She Seldom Has Received Much Aid From The Power Of Great Men To Whom She Is Rarely Known And Seldom Welcome. She Has No Need Of Force To Procure Entrance Into The Minds Of Men.

The Only Thing A Man Can Take Beyond This Lifetime Is His Ethics.

Coffee - The Favorite Drink Of The Civilized World.

In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.

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

Bad Relationship

Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far. The Europeans Value Themselves On Having Subdued The Horse To The Uses Of Man; But I Doubt Whether We Have Not Lost More Than We Have Gained, By The Use Of This Animal.

The Concentrating Of Powers In The Same Hands Is Precisely The Definition Of Despotic Government. It Will Be No Alleviation That These Powers Will Be Exercised By A Plurality Of Hands, And Not By A Single One.

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

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.

To Be Really Useful, We Must Keep Pace With The State Of Society, And Not Dishearten It By Attempts At What Its Population, Means, Or Occupations Will Fail In Attempting.

I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Power Of The Society But The People Themselves.

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.

The Best Commentary On The Principles Of Government Which Has Ever Been Written.

I Hope We Shall Prove How Much Happier For Man The Quaker Policy Is, And That The Life Of The Feeder Is Better Than That Of The Fighter; And It Is Some Consolation That The Desolation By These Maniacs Of One Part Of The Earth Is The Means Of Improving It In Other Parts. Let The Latter Be Our Office, And Let Us Milk The Cow, While The Russian Holds Her By The Horns, And The Turk By The Tail.

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

Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given To You By God.

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.

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

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

[states And The Federal Government Are] Coordinate Departments Of One Simple And Integral Whole... The One Is The Domestic, The Other The Foreign Branch Of The Same Government.

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.

He Has Waged Cruel War Against Human Nature Itself, Violating It’s Most Sacred Rights Of Life & Liberty In The Persons Of A Distant People Who Never Offended Him, Captivating & Carrying Them Into Slavery In Another Hemisphere, Or To Incur Miserable Death In Their Transportation Thither. This Piratical Warfare, The Opprobrium Of Infidel Powers, Is The Warfare Of The Christian King Of Great Britain. Determined To Keep Open A Market Where Men Should Be Bought & Sold, He Has Prostituted His Negative For Suppressing Every Legislative Attempt To Prohibit Or To Restrain This Execrable Commerce...

I Have Ever Deemed It More Honorable And More Profitable, Too, To Set A Good Example Than To Follow A Bad One.

Men As Well As Rivers Grow Crooked By Following The Path Of Least Resistance.

If [god] Has Made It A Law In The Nature Of Man To Pursue His Own Happiness, He Has Left Him Free In The Choice Of Place As Well As Mode, And We May Safely Call On The Whole Body Of English Jurists To Produce The Map On Which Nature Has Traced For Each Individual The Geographical Line Which She Forbids Him To Cross In Pursuit Of Happiness.

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

Stock Dealers And Banking Companies, By The Aid Of A Paper System, Are Enriching Themselves To The Ruin Of Our Country, And Swaying The Government By Their Possession Of The Printing Presses, Which Their Wealth Commands And By Any Other Means, Not Always Honorable To The Character Of Our Countrymen.

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

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Democracy.

Choice By The People Themselves Is Not Generally Distinguished For Its Wisdom.

Nothing Can Be Believed But What One Sees, Or Has From An Eye Witness.

I Have So Much Confidence In The Good Sense Of Man, And His Qualifications For Self-government, That I Am Never Afraid Of The Issue Where Reason Is Left Free To Exert Her Force.

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

No Man Has Greater Confidence Than I Have In The Spirit Of The People, To A Rational Extent. Whatever They Can, They Will.

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

Let Our Countrymen Know That The People Alone Can Protect Us Against These Evils Of Misgovernment.

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

For Themselves They Fought, For Themselves They Conquered, And For Themselves Alone They Have They Have Right To Hold.

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

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.

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

Never Trust A Man Who Won't Accept That There Is More Than One Way To Spell A Word Paraphrased

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

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.

His [calvin's] Religion Was Demonism. If Ever Man Worshiped A False God, He Did. The Being Described In His Five Points Is ... A Demon Of Malignant Spirit. It Would Be More Pardonable To Believe In No God At All, Than To Blaspheme Him By The Atrocious Attributes Of Calvin

Well Aware That The Opinions And Belief Of Men Depend Not On Their Own Will, But Follow Involuntarily The Evidence Proposed To Their Minds; That Almighty God Hath Created The Mind Free, And Manifested His Supreme Will That Free It Shall Remain By Making It Altogether Insusceptible Of Restraint; That All Attempts To Influence It By Temporal Punishments, Or Burthens, Or By Civil Incapacitations, Tend Only To Beget Habits Of Hypocrisy And Meanness, And Are A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion.

The Future Inhabitants Of [both] The Atlantic And Mississippi States Will Be Our Sons. We Think We See Their Happiness In Their Union, And We Wish It. Events May Prove Otherwise; And If They See Their Interest In Separating Why Should We Take Sides? God Bless Them Both, And Keep Them In Union If It Be For Their Good, But Separate Them If It Be Better.

The Greatest Honor Of A Man Is In Doing Good To His Fellow Men, Not In Destroying Them.

Difference Of Opinion Is Advantageous In Religion. The Several Sects Perform The Office Of A Censor - Over Each Other.

Every Government Degenerates When Trusted To The Rulers Of The People Alone. The People Themselves Are Its Only Safe Depositories.

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.

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

Freedom Of The Press

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

Government Debt

[i]n Great-britain It Is Said That Their Constitution Relies On The House Of Commons For Honesty, And The Lords For Wisdom; Whichwould Be A Rational Reliance If Honesty Were To Be Bought With Money, And If Wisdom Were Hereditary.

Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To Our God Alone. I Enquire After No Man's And Trouble None With Mine; Nor Is It Given To Us In This Life To Know Whether Yours Or Mine, Our Friend's Or Our Foe's, Are Exactly The Right.

But, You May Ask, If The Two Departments [i.e., Federal And State] Should Claim Each The Same Subject Of Power, Where Is The Common Umpire To Decide Ultimately Between Them? In Cases Of Little Importance Or Urgency, The Prudence Of Both Parties Will Keep Them Aloof From The Questionable Ground; But If It Can Neither Be Avoided Nor Compromised, A Convention Of The States Must Be Called To Ascribe The Doubtful Power To That Department Which They May Think Best.

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.

We May Say With Truth And Meaning, That Governments Are More Or Less Republican, As They Have More Or Less Of The Element Of Popular Election And Control In Their Composition; And Believing As I Do, That The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depository Of Their Own Rights And Especially That The Evils Flowing From The Duperies Of The People Are Less Injurious Than Those From The Egoism Of Their Agents, I Am A Friend To That Composition Of Government Which Has In It The Most Of This Ingredient.

Sometimes It Is Said That Man Cannot Be Trusted With The Government Of Himself. Can He, Then Be Trusted With The Government Of Others? Or Have We Found Angels In The Form Of Kings To Govern Him? Let History Answer This Question.

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.

Legislators Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property, Only Taking Care To Let Their Subdivisions Go Hand In Hand With The Natural Affections Of The Human Mind.

Our Wish Is That...[there Be] Maintained That State Of Property, Equal Or Unequal, Which Results To Every Man From His Own Industry Or That Of His Fathers.

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

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.

We Prefer War In All Cases To Tribute Under Any Form And To Any People Whatever.

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 Most Uninformed Mind With A Healthy Body Is Happier Than The Wisest Valetudinarian.

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.

The Private Buildings [of Virginia] Are Very Rarely Constructed Of Stone Or Brick; Much The Greatest Proportion Being Of Scantlingand Boards, Plastered With Lime. It Is Impossible To Devise Things More Ugly, Uncomfortable, And Happily More Perishable.

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

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.

Leave All The Afternoon For Exercise And Recreation, Which Are As Necessary As Reading. I Will Rather Say More Necessary Because Health Is Worth More Than Learning.

But This Momentous Question, Like A Fire Bell In The Night, Awakened And Filled Me With Terror.

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

Above All Things, Lose No Occasion Of Exercising Your Dispositions To Be Grateful, To Be Generous, To Be Charitable, To Be Humane, To Be True, Just, Firm, Orderly, Courageous, Etc. Consider Every Act Of This Kind As An Exercise Which Will Strengthen Your Moral Faculties And Increase Your Worth.

His System Of Morality Was The Most Benevolent And Sublime Probably That Has Been Ever Taught, And Consequently More Perfect Than Those Of Any Of The Ancient Philosophers... He Was The Most Innocent, The Most Benevolent, The Most Eloquent And Sublime Character That Ever Has Been Exhibited To Man.

Above All Things I Hope The Education Of The Common People Will Be Attended To; Convinced That On Their Good Sense We May Rely With Most Security For The Preservation Of A Due Degree Of Liberty.

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.

It Takes Time To Persuade Men To Do Even What Is For Their Own Good.

Mind Your Own Business

Motherhood Is The Keystone Of The Arch Of Matrimonial Happiness.

An Informed Citizenry Is At The Heart Of A Dynamic Democracy.

Informed Citizenry

Truth Can Stand By Itself...if There Be But One Right [religion], And [christianity] That One, We Should Wish To See The Nine Hundred And Ninety-nine Wandering Sects Gathered Into The Fold Of Truth.

No Nation Was Ever Drunk When Wine Was Cheap.

Are We To Have A Censor Whose Imprimatur Shall Say What Books May Be Sold, And What We May Buy? And Who Is Thus To Dogmatize Religious Opinions For Our Citizens? Whose Foot Is To Be The Measure To Which Ours Are All To Be Cut Or Stretched? Is A Priest To Be Our Inquisitor, Or Shall A Layman, Simple As Ourselves, Set Up His Reason As The Rule Of What We Are To Read, And What We Must Believe?

The Happiness Of The Domestic Fireside Is The First Boon Of Heaven; And It Is Well It Is So, Since It Is That Which Is The Lot Of The Mass Of Mankind.

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.

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.

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

But Friendship Is Precious, Not Only In The Shade, But In The Sunshine Of Life, And Thanks To A Benevolent Arrangement The Greater Part Of Life Is Sunshine.

A Government Is Republican In Proportion As Every Member Composing It Has His Equal Voice In The Direction Of Its Concerns, Not Indeed In Person, Which Would Be Impracticable Beyond The Limits Of A City Or Small Township, But By Representatives Chosen By Himself And Responsible To Him At Short Periods.

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.

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.

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

A Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another Candle.

Founding Fathers Democracy

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

Still We Did Not Expect To Be Without Rubs And Difficulties; And We Have Had Them. First The Detention Of Western Posts: Then The Coalition Of Pilnitz, Outlawing Our Commerce With France, And The British Enforcement Of The Outlawry. In Your Day French Depredations; In Mine English, And The Berlin And Milan Decrees: Now The English Orders Of Council, And The Piracies They Authorize. When These Shall Be Over, It Will The Impressment Of Our Seamen, Or Something Else; And So We Have Gone On, And So We Shall Go On, Puzzled And Prospering Beyond Example In The History Of Man.

You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts.

Trial By Jury Is Part Of That Bright Constellation Which Has Gone Before Us And Guided Our Steps Through An Age Of Revolution And Reformation.

We Are Not Immortal Ourselves, My Friend; How Can We Expect Our Enjoyments To Be So? We Have No Rose Without Its Thorn; No Pleasure Without Alloy. It Is The Law Of Our Existence; And We Must Acquiesce.

I Have Ever Deemed It Fundamental For The United States Never To Take Active Part In The Quarrels Of Europe.... They Are Nations Of Eternal War.

Men Of Quality Are Not Threatened By Women Of Equality

If The Book Be False In Its Facts, Disprove Them; If False In Its Reasoning, Refute It. But, For God's Sake, Let Us Freely Hear Both Sides, If We Choose.

Political Differences

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle Grateful That They Are Not Worse Rather Than The Rough Handle, Bitter That They Are Not Better.

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.

Nothing Is So Engaging As The Little Domestic Cares Into Which You Appear To Be Entering, And As To Reading It Is Useful For Onlyfilling Up The Chinks Of More Useful And Healthy Occupations.

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

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

The Art Of Life Is The Art Of Avoiding Pain; And He Is The Best Pilot, Who Steers Clearest Of The Rocks And Shoals With Which It Is Beset.

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

Separation Of Church And State

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

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

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

He [washington] Has Often Declared To Me That He Considered Our New Constitution As An Experiment On The Practicability Of Republican Government, And With What Dose Of Liberty Man Could Be Trusted For His Own Good; That He Was Determined The Experiment Should Have A Fair Trial, And Would Lose The Last Drop Of His Blood In Support Of It. And These Declarations He Repeated To Me The Oftener And The More Pointedly.

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

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

The Best Defense Of Democracy Is An Informed Electorate.

The Bible Makes The Best People In The World.

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.

. . . In The Full Tide Of Successful Experiment.

The Only Orthodox Object Of The Institution Of Government Is To Secure The Greatest Degree Of Happiness Possible To The General Mass Of Those Associated Under It.

It Is My Disposition To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself.

What Has Destroyed Liberty And The Rights Of Man In Every Government Which Has Ever Existed Under The Sun? The Generalizing And Concentrating All Cares And Power Into One Body, No Matter Whether Of The Autocrats Of Russia Or France, Or Of The Aristocrats Of A Venetian Senate.

It Is (our) Duty . . . To Pay Especial Attention To The Principles Of Government Which Shall Be Inculcated Therein (at The University), And To Provide That None Shall Be Inculcated Which Are Incompatible With Those On Which The Constitutions Of This State, And Of The United States Were Genuinely Based, In The Common Opinion; And For This Purpose It May Be Necessary To Point Out Specially Where These Principles Are To Be Found Legitimately Developed.

To Consider Judges As The Ultimate Arbiters Of All Constitutional Questions Is A Very Dangerous Doctrine Indeed, And One Which Would Place Us Under The Despotism Of An Oligarchy.

Every Citizen Should Be A Soldier. This Was The Case With The Greeks And Romans, And Must Be That Of Every Free State.

Private Enterprise Manages So Much Better All The Concerns To Which It Is Equal.

God Grant That Men Of Principle Shall Be Our Principal Men.

Books May Be Classed From The Faculties Of The Mind

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

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.

A Free People [claim] Their Rights As Derived From The Laws Of Nature, And Not As The Gift Of Their Chief Magistrate.

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

...we Are All Federalists,and We Are All Republicans.

The Spirit Of This Country Is Totally Adverse To A Large Military Force.

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.

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

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.

Hindsight Is An Exact Science. Hold Fast To Your Dreams, For It Dreams Die, Life Is A Broken-winged Bird That Cannot Fly. How Much Pain They Have Cost Us, The Evils Which Have Never Happened.

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

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

The Ocean ... Like The Air, Is The Common Birth-right Of Mankind.

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

Difficulties Indeed Sometimes Arise; But Common Sense And Honest Intentions Will Generally Steer Through Them.

The Same Political Parties Which Now Agitiate The Us Have Existed Through All Time. And In Fact The Terms Of Whig And Tory Belong To Natural As Well As To Civil History. They Denote The Temper And Constitution And Mind Of Different Individuals.

I Think By Far The Most Important Bill In Our Whole Code Is That For The Diffusion Of Knowlege Among The People. No Other Sure Foundation Can Be Devised For The Preservation Of Freedom, And Happiness.

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

The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Always Take Hold Of Things By The Smooth Handle.

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

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

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.

But Every Difference Of Opinion Is Not A Difference Of Principle. We Have Been Called By Different Names Brethren Of The Same Principle. We Are All Republicans, We Are All Federalists.

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.

It Is Unfortunate That The Efforts Of Mankind To Recover The Freedom Of Which They Have Been So Long Deprived, Will Be Accompanied With Violence, With Errors, And Even With Crimes. But While We Weep Over The Means, We Must Pray For The End.

Errors Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

Money, Not Morality, Is The Principle Commerce Of Civilized Nations.

My Opinion Is That There Would Never Have Been An Infidel, If There Had Never Been A Priest. The Artificial Structures They Have Built On The Purest Of All Moral Systems, For The Purpose Of Deriving From It Pence And Power, Revolts Those Who Think For Themselves, And Who Read In That System Only What Is Really There.

It Should Be Remembered, As An Axiom Of Eternal Truth In Politics, That Whatever Power In Any Government Is Independent, Is Absolute Also.

It Is A Cruel Thought, That, When We Feel Ourselves Standing On The Firmest Ground In Every Respect, The Cursed Arts Of Our Secret Enemies, Combining With Other Causes, Should Effect, By Depreciating Our Money, What The Open Arms Of A Powerful Enemy Could Not.

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.

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.

That The Enthusiasm Which Characterizes Youth Should Lift Its Parricide Hands Against Freedom And Science Would Be Such A Monstrous Phenomenon As I Cannot Place Among Possible Things In This Age And Country.

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

Inalienable Rights

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.

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.

We Owe Gratitude To France, Justice To England, Good Will To All, And Subservience To None ... It Was By The Sober Sense Of Our Citizens That We Were Safely And Steadily Conducted From Monarchy To Republicanism, And It Is By The Same Agency Alone We Can Be Kept From Falling Back.

To Constrain The Brute Force Of The People, The European Governments Deem It Necessary To Keep Them Down By Hard Labor, Poverty And Ignorance, And To Take From Them, As From Bees, So Much Of Their Earnings, As That Unremitting Labor Shall Be Necessary To Obtain A Sufficient Surplus To Sustain A Scanty And Miserable Life.

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.

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

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

The Man Who Reads Nothing At All Is Better Educated Than The Man Who Reads Nothing But Newspapers.

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

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

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