Background Image

...

The True Theory Of Our Constitution Is Surely The Wisest And Best, That The States Are Independent As To Everything Within Themselves, And United As To Everything Respecting Foreign Affairs. Let The General Government Be Reduced To Foreign Concerns Only, And Let Our Affairs Be Disentangled From Those Of All Other Nations, Except As To Commerce, Which The Merchants Will Manage The Better, The More They Are Left Free To Manage For Themselves, And Our General Government May Be Reduced To A Very Simple Organization, And A Very Inexpensive One; A Few Plain Duties To Be Performed By A Few Servants.

-Thomas Jefferson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The True Theory Of

Thomas Jefferson

...

The True Theory Of Our Constitution Is Surely The Wisest And Best, That The States Are Independent As To Everything Within Themselves, And United As To Everything Respecting Foreign Affairs. Let The General Government Be Reduced To Foreign Concerns Only, And Let Our Affairs Be Disentangled From Those Of All Other Nations, Except As To Commerce, Which The Merchants Will Manage The Better, The More They Are Left Free To Manage For Themselves, And Our General Government May Be Reduced To A Very Simple Organization, And A Very Inexpensive One; A Few Plain Duties To Be Performed By A Few Servants.

Views: 9

Topic

More From Thomas Jefferson

Truth Is Certainly A Branch Of Morality And A Very Important One To Society.

We Must Use A Good Deal Of Economy In Our Wood, Never Cutting Down New, Where We Can Make The Old Do.

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

If Thinking Men Would Have The Courage To Think For Themselves, And To Speak What They Think, It Would Be Found They Do Not Differ In Religious Opinions As Much As Is Supposed.

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

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.

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

Tyranny Of The Majority

The Contest Is Not Between Us And Them, But Between Good And Evil, And If Those Who Would Fight Evil Adopt The Ways Of Evil, Evil Wins.

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.

Too Old To Plant Trees For My Own Gratification, I Shall Do It For My Posterity.

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.

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

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

Action Will Delineate And Define You.

Knowing Who You Are

Inspirational Team

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

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

Let Those Flatter, Who Fear: It Is Not An American Art. To Give Praise Where It Is Not Due, Might Be Well From The Venal, But Would Ill Beseem Those Who Are Asserting The Rights Of Human Nature.

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.

Our [virginia's] Act For Freedom Of Religion Is Extremely Applauded. The Ambassadors And Ministers Of The Several Nations Of Europe Resident At This Court Have Asked Me Copies Of It To Send To Their Sovereigns, And It Is Inserted At Full Length In Several Books Now In The Press; Among Others, In The New Encyclopédie. I Think It Will Produce Considerable Good Even In Those Countries Where Ignorance, Superstition, Poverty And Oppression Of Body And Mind In Every Form, Are So Firmly Settled On The Mass Of The People, That Their Redemption From Them Can Never Be Hoped.

Men Of Energy Of Character Must Have Enemies; Because There Are Two Sides To Every Question, And Taking One With Decision, And Acting On It With Effect, Those Who Take The Other Will Of Course Be Hostile In Proportion As They Feel That Effect.

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.

I Hold The Precepts Of Jesus As Delivered By Himself, To Be The Most Pure, Benevolent And Sublime Which Have Ever Been Preached To Man.

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.

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.

In The Environment, Every Victory Is Temporary, Every Defeat Permanent.

A Generation May Bind Itself As Long As Its Majority Continues In Life; When That Has Disappeared, Another Majority Is In Place, Holds All The Rights And Powers Their Predecessors Once Held, And May Change Their Laws And Institutions To Suit Themselves. Nothing Then Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Inalienable Rights Of Man.

If We Are To Guard Against Ignorance And Remain Free, It Is The Responsibility Of Every American To Be Informed.

Believing With You That Religion Is A Matter Which Lies Solely Between Man And His God, That He Owes Account To None Other For His Faith Or His Worship, That The Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only, And Not Opinions, I Contemplate With Sovereign Reverence That Act Of The Whole American People Which Declared That Their Legislature Should 'make No Law Respecting An Establishment Of Religion, Or Prohibiting The Free Exercise Thereof,' Thus Building A Wall Of Separation Between Church And State.

[the People] Are In Truth The Only Legitimate Proprietors Of The Soil And Government.

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

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

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.

The Functionaries Of Public Power Rarely Strengthen In Their Dispositions To Abridge It, And An Unorganized Call For Timely Amendment Is Not Likely To Prevail Against An Organized Opposition To It. We Are Always Told That Things Are Going On Well; Why Change Them? 'chi Sta Bene, No Si Mueve,' Said The Italian, 'let Him Who Stands Well, Stand Still.' This Is True; And I Verily Believe They Would Go On Well With Us Under An Absolute Monarch, While Our Present Character Remains, Of Order, Industry And Love Of Peace, And Restrained As He Would Be, By The Proper Spirit Of The People.

Congress Errs In Too Much Talking, How Can It Be Otherwise, In A Body To Which The People Send One Hundred And Fifty Lawyers, Whose Trade It Is To Question Everything, Yield Nothing, And Talk By The Hour?

The Application Requisite To The Duties Of The Office I Hold [governor Of Virginia] Is So Excessive, And The Execution Of Them After All So Imperfect, That I Have Determined To Retire From It At The Close Of The Present Campaign.

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.

History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government.

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.

Our Duty To Ourselves, To Posterity, And To Mankind, Call On Us By Every Motive Which Is Sacred Or Honorable, To Watch Over The Safety Of Our Beloved Country During The Troubles Which Agitate And Convulse The Residue Of The World, And To Sacrifice To That All Personal And Local Considerations.

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 Best Defense Of Democracy Is An Informed Electorate.

I Am For Freedom Of Religion, And Against All Maneuvers To Bring About A Legal Ascendency Of One Sect Over Another.

Our Ancient Laws Expressly Declare That Those Who Are But Delegates Themselves Shall Not Delegate To Others Powers Which Require Judgment And Integrity In Their Exercise.

A System Of General Instruction, Which Shall Reach Every Description Of Our Citizens, From The Richest To The Poorest, As It Was The Earliest, So Will It Be The Latest, Of All The Public Concerns In Which I Shall Permit Myself To Take An Interest.

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.

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

I Tolerate With The Utmost Latitude The Right Of Others To Differ From Me In Opinion Without Imputing To Them Criminality.

With All The Defects In Our Constitution, Whether General Or Particular, The Comparison Of Our Government With Those Of Europe, Is Like A Comparison Of Heaven With Hell. England, Like The Earth, May Be Allowed To Take The Intermediate Station.

It Is A Principle That The Right To A Thing Gives A Right To The Means Without Which It Could Not Be Used, That Is To Say, That The Means Follow Their End.

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

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

A Bill Of Rights Is What The People Are Entitled To Against Every Government, And What No Just Government Should Refuse, Or Rest On Inference.

My Most Earnest Wish Is To See The Republican Element Of Popular Control Pushed To The Maximum Of Its Practicable Exercise. I Shall Then Believe That Our Government May Be Pure And Perpetual.

I Am Never Tempted To Pray But When A Warm Feeling For My Friends Comes Athwart My Heart.

Travelling. ... When Men Of Sober Age Travel, They Gather Knowlege Which They May Apply Usefully For Their Country

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.

Certainly, No Power To Prescribe Any Religious Exercise, Or To Assume Authority In Religious Discipline, Has Been Delegated To The General Government.

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

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.

Our Part Is To Pursue With Steadiness What Is Right, Turning Neither To Right Nor Left For The Intrigues Or Popular Delusions Of The Day, Assured That The Public Approbation Will In The End Be With Us.

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

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

The Truth Is That The Want Of Common Education With Us Is Not From Our Poverty, But From The Want Of An Orderly System. More Money Is Now Paid For The Education Of A Part Than Would Be Paid For That Of The Whole If Systematically Arranged.

The Clergy Believe That Any Power Confided In Me Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes, And They Believe Rightly.

No Freeman Shall Be Debarred The Use Of Arms.

Second Amendment

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.

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

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

Laws ... Proportionate And Mild Should Never Be Dispensed With. Let Mercy Be The Character Of The Law-giver, But Let The Judge Be A Mere Machine.

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

If The Body Be Feeble, The Mind Will Not Be Strong.

Planting Is One Of My Great Amusements, And Even Of Those Things Which Can Only Be For Posterity, For A Septuagenary Has No Right To Count On Any Thing But Annuals.

The More A Subject Is Understood, The More Briefly It May Be Explained.

I Was Dupedby The Secretary Of The Treasury [alexander Hamilton], And Made A Fool For Forwarding His Schemes, Not Then Sufficiently Understood By Me; And Of All The Errors Of My Political Life, This Has Occasioned The Deepest Regret.

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.

Experience Has Already Shown That The Impeachment The Constitution Has Provided Is Not Even A Scarecrow.

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

The Sheep Are Happier Of Themselves, Than Under The Care Of Wolves.

‎we Must Make Our Choice Between Economy And Liberty Or Confusion And Servitude...if We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements...if We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

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

Difference Of Opinion Leads To Inquiry, And Inquiry To The Truth.

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

By Making This Wine Known To The Public, I Have Rendered My Country As Great A Service As If I Had Enabled It To Pay Back The National Debt.

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.

Without Books, I Would Certainly Die.

I Am Sure The Man Who Powders Most, Perfumes Most, Embroiders Most, And Talks Most Nonsense, Is Most Admired. Though To Be Candid, There Are Some Who Have Too Much Good Sense To Esteem Such Monkey-like Animals As These, In Whose Formation, As The Saying Is, The Tailors And Barbers Go Halves With God Almighty.

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

Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be.

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.

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

A Little Patience, And We Shall See The Reign Of Witches Pass Over, Their Spells Dissolve, And The People, Recovering Their True Sight, Restore Their Government To Its True Principles. It Is True That In The Meantime We Are Suffering Deeply In Spirit, And Incurring The Horrors Of A War And Long Oppressions Of Enormous Public Debt...if The Game Runs Sometime 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.

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

Convinced That The Republican Is The Only Form Of Government Which Is Not Eternally At Open Or Secret War With The Rights Of Mankind, My Prayers & Efforts Shall Be Cordially Distributed To The Support Of That We Have So Happily Established. It Is Indeed An Animating Thought That, While We Are Securing The Rights Of Ourselves & Our Posterity, We Are Pointing Out The Way To Struggling Nations Who Wish, Like Us, To Emerge From Their Tyrannies Also. Heaven Help Their Struggles, And Lead Them, As It Has Done Us, Triumphantly Thro' Them.

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

Mind Your Own Business

Slavery Is An Abomination And Must Be Loudly Proclaimed As Such, But I Own That I Nor Any Other Man Has Any Immediate Solution To The Problem.

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

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

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

A Good Cause Is Often Injured More By Ill-timed Efforts Of Its Friends Than By The Arguments Of Its Enemies. Persuasion, Perseverance And Patience Are The Best Advocates On Questions Depending On The Will Of Others.

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.

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

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

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

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

It Is Between Fifty And Sixty Years Since I Read It (i.e. The Book Of Revelations), And I Then Considered It Merely The Ravings Of A Maniac, No More Worthy Nor Capable Of Explanation Than The Incoherence Of Our Own Nightly Dreams.

The Result Of Your Fifty Or Sixty Years Of Religious Reading In The Four Words: 'be Just And Good,' Is That In Which All Our Enquiries Must End.

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.

That Ideas Should Freely Spread From One To Another Over The Globe, For The Moral And Mutual Instruction Of Man, And Improvement Of His Condition, Seems To Have Been Peculiarly And Benevolently Designed By Nature, When She Made Them, Like Fire, Expansible Over All Space, Without Lessening Their Density In Any Point, And Like The Air In Which We Breathe, Move, And Have Our Physical Being, Incapable Of Confinement Or Exclusive Appropriation.

Earnestly Recommended To All Officers And Soldiers, Diligently To Attend Divine Services.

The Construction Applied . . . To Those Parts Of The Constitution Of The United States Which Delegate Congress A Power . . . Ought Not To Be Construed As Themselves To Give Unlimited Powers, Nor A Part To Be So Taken As To Destroy The Whole Residue Of That Instrument.

The Smell Rewards The Care.

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

Second Amendment

We Believe No More In Bonaparte's Fighting Merely For The Liberties Of The Seas Than In Great Britain's Fighting For The Liberties Of Mankind. The Object Is The Same, To Draw To Themselves The Power, The Wealth And The Resources Of Other Nations.

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.

While Wading Through The Whimsies, The Puerilities, And Unintelligible Jargon Of This Work [plato's Republic], I Laid It Down Often To Ask Myself How It Could Have Been That The World Should Have So Long Consented To Give Reputation To Such Nonsense As This?

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.

Our Constitution... Has Not Left The Religion Of Its Citizens Under The Power Of Its Public Functionaries, Were It Possible That Any Of These Should Consider A Conquest Over The Conscience Of Men Either Attainable Or Applicable To Any Desirable Purpose.

The Opinions Of Men Are Not The Object Of Civil Government, Nor Under Its Jurisdiction; That To Suffer The Civil Magistrate To Intrude His Powers Into The Field Of Opinion And To Restrain The Profession Or Propagation Of Principles On Supposition Of Their Ill Tendency Is A Dangerous Falacy, Which At Once Destroys All Religious Liberty...

If Any State In The Union Will Declare That It Prefers Separation... To A Continuance In Union... I Have No Hesitation In Saying, 'let Us Separate.

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

The Right To Use A Thing Comprehends A Right To The Means Necessary To Its Use, And Without Which It Would Be Useless.

I Have Sometimes Asked Myself Whether My Country Is The Better For My Having Lived At All? I Do Not Know That It Is. I Have Been The Instrument Of Doing The Following Things; But They Would Have Been Done By Others; Some Of Them, Perhaps, A Little Better.

The Way To Have Good And Safe Government Is Not To Trust It All To One, But To Divide It Among The Many, Distributing To Everyone Exactly The Functions In Which He Is Competent ... It Is By Dividing And Subdividing These Republics From The Great National One Down Through All Its Subordinations Until It Ends In The Administration Of Everyman's Farm By Himself, By Placing Under Everyone What His Own Eye May Superintend, That All Will Be Done For The Best.

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

The Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.

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.

If I Could Not Go To Heaven With But A Party, I Would Not Go There At All. Therefore, I Am Not Of The Party Of Federalists. But I Am Much Further From That Of The Anti-federalists.

Free Government Is Founded In Jealousy, And Not In Confidence; It Is Jealousy, And Not Confidence, Which Prescribes Limited Constitutions, To Bind Down Those Whom We Are Obliged To Trust With Power.

I Agree With You That It Is The Duty Of Every Good Citizen To Use All The Opportunities, Which Occur To Him, For Preserving Documents Relating To The History Of Our Country.

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

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

Force Is The Vital Principle And Immediate Parent Of Despotism.

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

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.

You Have Lived Longer Than I Have And Perhaps May Have Formed A Different Judgment On Better Grounds; But My Observations Do Not Enable Me To Say I Think Integrity The Characteristic Of Wealth. In General I Believe The Decisions Of The People, In A Body, Will Be More Honest And More Disinterested Than Those Of Wealthy Men.

One War, Such As That Of Our Revolution, Is Enough For One Life.

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

It Is Too Late In The Day For Men Of Sincerity To Pretend They Believe In The Platonic Mysticisms That Three Are One, And One Is Three; And Yet That The One Is Not Three, And The Three Are Not One.

I Sincerely Join You In Abjuring All Political Connection With Every Foreign Power; And Tho I Cordially Wish Well To The Progress Of Liberty In All Nations, And Would Forever Give It The Weight Of Our Countenance, Yet They Are Not To Be Touched Without Contamination From Their Other Bad Principles. Commerce With All Nations, Alliance With None, Should Be Our Motto.

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.

For A People Who Are Free, And Who Mean To Remain So, A Well-organized And Armed Militia Is Their Best Security.

The Bible Is The Cornerstone Of Liberty.

Man, Once Surrendering His Reason, Has No Remaining Guard Against Absurdities The Most Monstrous. . . .

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

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.

Being Myself A Warm Zealot For The Attainment & Enjoiment By All Mankind Of As Much Liberty As Each May Exercise Without Injury To The Equal Liberty Of His Fellow Citizens, I Have Lamented That In France The Endeavors To Obtain This Should Have Been Attended With The Effusion Of So Much Blood.

My Great Wish Is To Go On In A Strict But Silent Performance Of My Duty; To Avoid Attracting Notice, And To Keep My Name Out Of The Newspapers.

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

We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt.

Government Welfare

Government Debt

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.

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

That Liberty [is Pure] Which Is To Go To All, And Not To The Few Or The Rich Alone.

Inalienable Rights

One Man With Courage Is A Majority.

The Monopoly Of A Single Bank Is Certainly An Evil. The Multiplication Of Them Was Intended To Cure It; But It Multiplied An Influence Of The Same Character With The First, And Completed The Supplanting The Precious Metals By A Paper Circulation. Between Such Parties The Less We Meddle The Better.

Equal Rights For All, Special Privileges For None

The Reward Of Esteem, Respect And Gratitude [is] Due To Those Who Devote Their Time And Efforts To Render The Youths Of Every Successive Age Fit Governors For The Next.

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

While Old Men Feel Sensibly Enough Their Own Advance In Years, They Do Not Sufficiently Recollect It In Those Whom They Have Seenyoung.

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

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

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

The Christian God Is A Being Of Terrific Character - Cruel, Vindictive, Capricious And Unjust.

He Has Erected A Multitude Of New Offices, And Sent Hither Swarms Of Officers To Harass Our People And Eat Out Their Substance.

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

Informed Citizens

Informed Citizenry

All Authority Belongs To The People... In Questions Of Power Let No More Be Heard Of Confidence In Man, But Bind Him Down From Mischief With Chains Of The Constitution.

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

[oppose] With Manly Firmness [any] Invasions On The Rights Of The People.

Industry, Commerce And Security Are The Surest Roads To The Happiness And Prosperity Of People.

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.

We Must Be Contented To Amuse, When We Cannot Inform.

Who Then Can So Softly Bind Up The Wound Of Another As He Who Has Felt The Same Wound Himself.

I Deem It The Duty Of Every Man To Devote A Certain Portion Of His Income For Charitable Purposes; And That It Is His Further Duty To See It So Applied And To Do The Most Good For Which It Is Capable.

Those Who Wish To Be Ignorant And Free, Believe In Something That Never Was And Never Shall Be.

I Have Examined All Of The Known Superstitions Of The World And I Do Not Find Our Superstitions Of Christianity One Redeeming Feature. They Are All Founded On Fables And Mythology. Christianity Has Made One-half Of The World Fools And The Other Half Hypocrites

The Time To Guard Against Corruption And Tyranny Is Before They Shall Have Gotten Hold Of Us. It Is Better To Keep The Wolf Out Of The Fold, Than To Trust To Drawing His Teeth And Talons After He Shall Have Entered.

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. I Knew That Age Well; I Belonged To And Labored With It. It Deserved Well Of Its Country. It Was Very Like The Present, But Without The Experience Of The Present; And Forty Years Of Experience In Government Is Worth A Century Of Book-reading; And This They Would Say Themselves, Were They To Rise From The Dead.

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.

I Do Verily Believe That A Single, Consolidated Government Would Become The Most Corrupt Government On The Earth.

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 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.

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

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 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 Value Peace, And I Should Unwillingly See Any Event Take Place Which Would Render War A Necessary Resource.

Victory And Defeat Are Each Of The Same Price.

Victory And Defeat

If We Did A Good Act Merely From Love Of God And A Belief That It Is Pleasing To Him, Whence Arises The Morality Of The Atheist? ...their Virtue, Then, Must Have Had Some Other Foundation Than The Love Of God.

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

Second Amendment

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

The Legislative Powers Of Government Reach Actions Only And Not Opinions.

The Issue Today Is The Same As It Has Been Throughout All History, Whether Man Shall Be Allowed To Govern Himself Or Be Ruled By A Small Elite.

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

When Great Evils Happen, I Am In The Habit Of Looking Out For What Good May Arise From Them As Consolations To Us, And Providence Has In Fact So Established The Order Of Things, As That Most Evils Are The Means Of Producing Some Good.

Light And Liberty Go Together.

History Has Informed Us That Bodies Of Men As Well As Individuals Are Susceptible Of The Spirit Of Tyranny.

I Apprehend... That The Total Abandonment Of The Principle Of Rotation In The Offices Of President And Senator Will End In Abuse.

Men Of Quality Are Not Threatened By Women Of Equality

The Country Is Headed Toward A Single And Splendid Government Of An Aristocracy Founded On Banking Institutions And Moneyed Incorporations And If This Tendency Continues It Will Be The End Of Freedom And Democracy, The Few Will Be Ruling...i Hope We Shall...crush In Its Birth The Aristocracy Of Our Moneyed Corporations Which Dare Already To Challenge Our Government To Trial And Bid Defiance To The Laws Of Our Country. I Sincerely Believe That Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies.

It Is Neither Wealth Nor Splendor; But Tranquility And Occupation Which Give You Happiness.

A Cold-blooded, Calculation, Unprincipled, Usurper, Without A Virtue, No Statesman, Knowing Nothing Of Commerce, Political Economy, Or Civil Government, And Supplying Ignorance By Bold Presumption.

Knowing Nothing

Trending Author

Eva Gabrielsson

Kristin Cavallari

Emile M. Cioran

Peter Diamandis

Category