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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.

-Thomas Jefferson

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Though Written Constitutions May

Thomas Jefferson

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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.

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

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.

One Insult Pocketed Soon Produces Another.

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

An Hereditary Aristocracy... Will Change The Form Of Our Governments From The Best To The Worst In The World.

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

The Law For Religious Freedom... [has]put Down The Aristocracy Of The Clergy And Restored To The Citizen The Freedom Of The Mind.

We Love And We Value Peace; We Know Its Blessings From Experience. We Abhor The Follies Of War, And Are Not Untried In Its Distresses And Calamities.

It Is Rare That The Public Sentiment Decides Immorally Or Unwisely, And The Individual Who Differs From It Ought To Distrust And Examine Well His Own Opinion.

I Can Scarcely Contemplate A More Incalculable Evil Than The Breaking Of The Union Into Two Or More Parts.

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.

The God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty. Can The Liberties Of A Nation Be Secure When We Have Removed A Conviction That These Liberties Are The Gift Of God?

No Man Complains Of His Neighbor For Ill Management Of His Affairs, For An Error In Sowing His Land, Or Marrying His Daughter, For Consuming His Substance In Taverns ... In All These He Has Liberty; But If He Does Not Frequent The Church, Or Then Conform In Ceremonies, There Is An Immediate Uproar.

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

We Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little.

Every Christian Sect Gives A Great Handle To Atheism By Their General Dogma That, Without A Revelation, There Would Not Be Sufficient Proof Of The Being Of God.

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

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.

The Bulk Of Mankind Are Schoolboys Through Life.

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

[f]alsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.

By A Declaration Of Rights, I Mean One Which Shall Stipulate Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce Against Monopolies, Trial By Juries In All Cases, No Suspensions Of The Habeas Corpus, No Standing Armies. These Are Fetters Against Doing Evil Which No Honest Government Should Decline.

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

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

Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

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

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

No Generation Has A Right To Contract Debts Greater Than Can Be Paid Off During The Course Of Its Own Existence.

Every Nation Has A Right To Govern Itself Internally Under What Forms It Pleases, And To Change These Forms At Its Own Will.

I Consider The Foundation Of The Constitution As Laid On This Ground That 'all Powers Not Delegated To The United States, By The Constitution, Nor Prohibited By It To The States, Are Reserved To The States Or To The People.' To Take A Single Step Beyond The Boundaries Thus Specially Drawn Around The Powers Of Congress, Is To Take Possession Of A Boundless Field Of Power Not Longer Susceptible Of Any Definition.

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.

Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

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

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.

Self-love . . . Is The Sole Antagonist Of Virtue, Leading Us Constantly By Our Propensities To Self-gratification In Violation Of Our Moral Duties To Others.

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

Mind Your Own Business

Having Labored Faithfully In Establishing The Right Of Self-government, We See In The Rising Generation, Into Whose Hands It Is Passing, That Purity Of Principle And Energy Of Character Which Will Protect And Preserve It Through Their Day, And Deliver It Over To Their Sons As They Receive It From Their Fathers.

When You Are Doubting Whether A Thing Is Worth The Trouble Of Going To See, Recollect That You Will Never Again Be So Near It. You May Repent Not Having Seen It, But You Can Never Repent Having Seen It.

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

Should Things Go Wrong At Any Time, The People Will Set Them To Rights By The Peaceable Exercise Of Their Elective Rights.

Knowledge Is Power...knowled Ge Is Safety...knowle Dge Is Happiness.

Knowledge Is Power

Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law. We Must Resist At All Costs Any Attempt To Regulate Our Individual Freedoms And To Legislate Our Personal Moralities.

Don't Talk About What You Have Done Or What You Are Going To Do.

Wisdom I Know Is Social. She Seeks Her Fellows. But Beauty Is Jealous, And Illy Bears The Presence Of A Rival.

The Fumes Of The Most Disordered Imaginations Were Recorded In Their Religious Code, As Special Communications Of The Deity; And As It Could Not But Happen That, In The Course Of Ages, Events Would Now And Then Turn Up To Which Some Of These Vague Rhapsodies Might Be Accommodated By The Aid Of Allegories, Figures, Types, And Other Tricks Upon Words, They Have Not Only Preserved Their Credit With The Jews Of All Subsequent Times, But Are The Foundation Of Much Of The Religions Of Those Who Have Schismatised From Them.

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

When The People Are Afraid Of The Government, That's Tyranny. But When The Government Is Afraid Of The People, That's Liberty.

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

Almighty God Hath Created The Mind Free. All Attempts To Influence It By Temporal Punishments Or Burthens...are A Departure From The Plan Of The Holy Author Of Our Religion...no Man Shall Be Compelled To Frequent Or Support Religious Worship Or Ministry Or Shall Otherwise Suffer On Account Of His Religious Opinions Or Belief, But All Men Shall Be Free To Profess And By Argument To Maintain, Their Opinions In Matters Of Religion. I Know But One Code Of Morality For Men Whether Acting Singly Or Collectively.

I Have No Ambition To Govern Men; It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

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

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

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

France, Freed From That Monster, Bonaparte, Must Again Become The Most Agreeable Country On Earth. It Would Be The Second Choice Of All Whose Ties Of Family And Fortune Give A Preference To Some Other One, And The First Choice Of All Not Under Those Ties.

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

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.

The Religion Of Jesus Is Founded In The Unity Of God, And This Principle Chiefly Gave It Triumph Over The Rabble Of Heathen Gods Then Acknowledged. Thinking Men Of All Nations Rallied Readily To The Doctrine Of One Only God, And Embraced It With The Pure-morals Which Jesus Inculcated.

He Who Knows Best Knows How Little He Knows.

Having Always Observed That Public Works Are Much Less Advantageously Managed Than The Same Are By Private Hands, I Have Thought It Better For The Public To Go To Market For Whatever It Wants Which Is To Be Found There; For There Competition Brings It Down To The Minimum Value.

Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science, By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight. But The Enormities Of The Times In Which I Have Lived, Have Forced Me To Take A Part In Resisting Them, And To Commit Myself On The Boisterous Ocean Of Political Passions.

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

Forgive And Forget

How Much Pain They Have Cost Us, The Evils Which Have Never Happened.

Shake Hands With Pain, Give Greeting Unto Grief, Those Angels In Disguise, And Thy Glad Soul From Height To Height, From Star To Shining Star, Shall Climb And Claim Blest Immortality.

There Is... An Artificial Aristocracy Founded On Wealth And Birth, Without Either Virtue Or Talents... The Artificial Aristocracy Is A Mischievous Ingredient In Government, And Provision Should Be Made To Prevent Its Ascendency.

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

The Rights [to Religious Freedom] Are Of The Natural Rights Of Mankind, And ... If Any Act Shall Be ... Passed To Repeal [an Act Granting Those Rights] Or To Narrow Its Operation, Such Act Will Be An Infringement Of Natural Right.

Paul Was The First Corrupter Of The Doctrines Of Jesus.

If Ever We Are Constrained To Lift The Hatchet Against Any Tribe, We Will Never Lay It Down Till That Tribe Is Exterminated, Or Driven Beyond The Mississippi... In War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy Them All.

American Indian

Never Spend Your Money Before You Have Earned It.

In Matters Of Religion, I Have Considered That Its Free Exercise Is Placed By The Constitution Independent Of The Powers Of The General Government. I Have Therefore Undertaken On No Occasion To Prescribe The Religious Exercises Suited To It; But Have Left Them As The Constitution Found Them, Under The Direction And Discipline Of State Or Church Authorities Acknowledged By The Several Religious Societies.

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.

My Reason For Fixing Them In Office For A Term Of Years, Rather Than For Life, Was That They Might Have An Idea That They Were At A Certain Period To Return Into The Mass Of The People And Become The Governed Instead Of The Governors Which Might Still Keep Alive That Regard To The Public Good That Otherwise They Might Perhaps Be Induced By Their Independence To Forget.

When I Contemplate The Immense Advances In Science And Discoveries In The Arts Which Have Been Made Within The Period Of My Life, I Look Forward With Confidence To Equal Advances By The Present Generation, And Have No Doubt They Will Consequently Be As Much Wiser Than We Have Been As We Than Our Fathers Were, And They Than The Burners Of Witches.

I Am Convinced That Those Societies (such As The Native American Peoples) Which Live Without Government Enjoy In Their General Mass An Infinitely Greater Degree Of Happiness Than Those Who Live Under The European Governments. Among The Former, Public Opinion Is In The Place Of Law, & Restrains Morals As Powerfully As Laws Ever Did Anywhere. Among The Latter, Under Pretence Of Governing They Have Divided Their Nations Into Two Classes, Wolves & Sheep. I Do Not Exaggerate.

Native American

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

Everyone Must Act According To The Dictates Of His Own Reason.

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

Take Not From The Mouth Of Labor The Bread It Has Earned.

Libertarian Party

Democracies Have

Political Dissension Is Doubtless A Less Evil Than The Lethargy Of Despotism: But Still It Is A Great Evil, And It Would Be As Worthy The Efforts Of The Patriot As Of The Philosopher, To Exclude Its Influence If Possible, From Social Life. The Good Are Rare Enough At Best. There Is No Reason To Subdivide Them By Artificial Lines. But Whether We Shall Ever Be Able So Far To Perfect The Principles Of Society As That Political Opinions Shall, In Its Intercourse, Be As Inoffensive As Those Of Philosophy, Mechanics, Or Any Other, May Well Be Doubted.

Political Opinions

[all Religious Sects] Dread The Advance Of Science As Witches Do The Approach Of Daylight; And Scowl On The Fatal Harbinger Announcing The Subversion Of The Duperies In Which They Live.

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

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

Pride Costs Us More Than Hunger, Thirst, And Cold.

Hunger And Thirst

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.

The Failure Of One Thing Is Repaired By The Success Of Another.

It Is More Dangerous That Even A Guilty Person Should Be Punished Without The Forms Of Law Than That He Should Escape.

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.

The Commotions That Have Taken Place In America, As Far As They Are Yet Known To Me, Offer Nothing Threatening. They Are A Proof That The People Have Liberty Enough, And I Could Not Wish Them Less Than They Have. If The Happiness Of The Mass Of The People 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. 'malo Libertatem Periculosam Quam Quietem Servitutem.' Let Common Sense And Common Honesty Have Fair Play, And They Will Soon Set Things To Rights.

The Equal Rights Of Man And The Happiness Of Every Individual Are Now Acknowledged To Be The Only Legitimate Objects Of Government.

War Has Been Avoided From A Due Sense Of The Miseries, And The Demoralization It Produces, And Of The Superior Blessings Of A State Of Peace And Friendship With All Mankind.

[an] Act Of The Congress Of The United States... Which Assumes Powers... Not Delegated By The Constitution, Is Not Law, But Is Altogether Void And Of No Force.

Without Books, I Would Certainly Die.

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

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

The Bloom Of Monticello Is Chilled By My Solitude.

Those Characters Wherein Fear Predominates Over Hope May Apprehend Too Much From...instances Of Irregularity. They May Conclude Too Hastily That Nature Has Formed Man Insusceptible Of Any Other Government Than That Of Force, A Conclusion Not Founded In Truth Nor Experience.

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.

We Must Train And Classify The Whole Of Our Male Citizens, And Make Military Instruction A Regular Part Of Collegiate Education.

If There Be Any Among Us Who Wish To Dissolve The Union Or To Change Its Republican Form, Let Them Stand Undisturbed, As Monuments Of The Safety With Which Error Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

Our Cause Is Just. Our Union Is Perfect. ... With Hearts Fortified ... We Most Solemnly, Before God And The World, Declare That... We Will, In Defiance Of Every Hazard, With Unabating Firmness And Perseverence, Employ For The Preservation Of Our Liberties; Being With One Mind Resolved To Die Freemen Rather Than To Live Slaves.

The Persons And Property Of Our Citizens Are Entitled To The Protection Of Our Government In All Places Where They May Lawfully Go.

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.

The Most Effective Means Of Preventing Tyranny Is To Illuminate, As Far As Practicable, The Minds Of The People At Large, And More Especially To Give Them Knowledge Of Those Facts.

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

I Like To See The People Awake And Alert.

The Christian Religion Is The Best Religion That Has Ever Been Given To Man

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.

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

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.

What Are The Objects Of An Useful American Education? Classical Knowlege, Modern Languages & Chiefly French, Spanish, & Italian; Mathematics; Natural Philosophy; Natural History; Civil History; Ethics.

Free Men Do Not Ask Permission To Bear Arms

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.

As For What Is Not True, You Will Always Find Abundance In The Newspapers.

May [our Declaration Of Independence] Be To The World, What I Believe It Will Be (to Some Parts Sooner, To Others Later, But Finally To All), The Signal Of Arousing Men To Burst The Chains Under Which Monkish Ignorance And Superstition Had Persuaded Them To Bind Themselves, And To Assume The Blessings And Security Of Self-government... All Eyes Are Opened, Or Opening, To The Rights Of Man.

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

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

We Discover In The Gospels A Groundwork Of Vulgar Ignorance, Of Things Impossible, Of Superstition, Fanaticism And Fabrication .

Trade Liberty For Safety Or Money And You'll End Up With Neither. Liberty, Like A Grain Of Salt, Easily Dissolves. The Power Of Questioning - Not Simply Believing - Has No Friends. Yet Liberty Depends On It.

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.

Error Indeed Has Often Prevailed By The Assistance Of Power Or Force. Truth Is The Proper And Sufficient Antagonist To Error.

If The Wise Be The Happy Man... He Must Be Virtuous Too; For, Without Virtue, Happiness Cannot Be. This Then Is The True Scope Of All Academical Emulation.

Those Who Live By Mystery & Charlatanerie, Fearing You Would Render Them Useless By Simplifying The Christian Philosophy - The Most Sublime And Benevolent, But Most Perverted System That Ever Shone On Man - Endeavored To Crush Your Well-earned & Well-deserved Fame.

Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To God Alone.

Bank-paper Must Be Suppressed, And The Circulating Medium Must Be Restored To The Nation To Whom It Belongs.

Peace, Commerce And Honest Friendship With All Nations; Entangling Alliances With None.

I, Place Economy Among The First & Most Important Republican Virtues, & Public Debt As The Greatest Of The Dangers To Be Feared

We Figure Great Careers Aren't Made. They're Experienced.

Man ... Feels That He Is A Participator In The Government Of Affairs Not Merely At An Election, One Day In The Year, But Every Day.

Music...this Is The Favorite Passion Of My Soul.

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

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

This Formidable Censor Of The Public Functionaries [the Press], By Arraigning Them At The Tribunal Of Public Opinion, Produces Reform Peaceably, Which Must Otherwise Be Done By Revolution. It Is Also The Best Instrument For Enlightening The Mind Of Man And Improving Him As A Rational, Moral, And Social Being.

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

I Shall Often Go Wrong Through Defect Of Judgment. When Right, I Shall Often Be Thought Wrong By Those Whose Positions Will Not Command A View Of The Whole Ground. I Ask Your Indulgence For My Own Errors, Which Will Never Be Intentional, And Your Support Against The Errors Of Others, Who May Condemn What They Would Not If Seen In All Its Parts.

Laws Are Made For Men Of Ordinary Understanding And Should, Therefore, Be Construed By The Ordinary Rules Of Common Sense. Their Meaning Is Not To Be Sought For In Metaphysical Subtleties Which May Make Anything Mean Everything Or Nothing At Pleasure.

Nothing Can Now Be Believed Which Is Seen In A Newspaper. Truth Itself Becomes Suspicious By Being Put Into That Polluted Vehicle... Perhaps An Editor Might Begin A Reformation In Some Such Way As This. Divide His Paper Into Four Chapters, Heading The 1st, Truths. 2d, Probabilities. 3d, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The First Chapter Would Be Very Short.

It Is An Encouraging Observation That No Good Measure Was Ever Proposed Which, If Duly Pursued, Failed To Prevail In The End.

My Religious Reading Has Long Been Confined To The Moral Branch Of Religion, Which Is The Same In All Religions; While In That Branch Which Consists Of Dogmas, All Differ[.

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

He, Who Steadily Observes Those Moral Precepts In Which All Religions Concur, Will Never Be Questioned At The Gates Of Heaven As To The Dogmas In Which They All Differ.

We Generally Learn Languages For The Benefit Of Reading The Books Written In Them

Our Liberty Depends On The Freedom Of The Press, And That Cannot Be Limited Without Being Lost.

Truth Between Candid Minds Can Never Do Harm.

The Influence Over Government Must Be Shared Among All The People. If Every Individual Which Composes Their Mass Participates Of The Ultimate Authority, The Government Will Be Safe, Because The Corrupting Of The Whole Mass Will Exceed Any Private Resources Of Wealth, And Public Ones Cannot Be Provided But By Levies On The People. In This Case Every Man Would Have To Pay His Own Price.

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.

The Value Of Science To A Republican People, The Security It Gives To Liberty By Enlightening The Minds Of Its Citizens, The Protection It Affords Against Foreign Power, The Virtue It Inculcates, The Just Emulation Of The Distinction It Confers On Nations Foremost In It; In Short, Its Identification With Power, Morals, Order And Happiness (which Merits To It Premiums Of Encouragement Rather Than Repressive Taxes), Are Considerations [that Should] Always [be] Present And [bear] With Their Just Weight.

It Is Better To Have No Ideas Than False Ones.

Whenever You Do A Thing, Act As If All The World Were Watching.

A True Patriot Will Defend His Country From Its Government.

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

The Bible Makes The Best People In The World.

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

There Is Not A Sprig Of Grass That Shoots Uninteresting To Me.

If Once The People Become Inattentive To The Public Affairs, You And I, And Congress And Assemblies, Judges And Governors, Shall All Become Wolves. It Seems To Be The Law Of Our General Nature, In Spite Of Individual Exceptions.

Agreeable Society Is The First Essential In Constituting The Happiness And Of Course The Value Of Our Existence.

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

I See,... And With The Deepest Affliction, The Rapid Strides With Which The Federal Branch Of Our Government Is Advancing Towards The Usurpation Of All The Rights Reserved To The States, And The Consolidation In Itself Of All Powers, Foreign And Domestic; And That, Too, By Constructions Which, If Legitimate, Leave No Limits To Their Power... It Is But Too Evident That The Three Ruling Branches Of [the Federal Government] Are In Combination To Strip Their Colleagues, The State Authorities, Of The Powers Reserved By Them, And To Exercise Themselves All Functions Foreign And Domestic.

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.

Your Sect [the Jews] By Its Sufferings Has Furnished A Remarkable Proof Of The Universal Point Of Religious Insolence, Inherent In Every Sect, Disclaimed By All While Feeble And Practised By All When In Power. Our Laws Have Applied The Only Antidote To This Vice, Protecting Our Religions, As They Do Our Civil Rights, By Putting All On Equal Footing. But More Remains To Be Done.

Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far.

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

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

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

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.

The Dead Should Not Rule The Living

The Abolition Of Domestic Slavery Is The Great Object Of Desire In Those Colonies, Where It Was Unhappily Introduced In Their Infant State.

A Rising Nation, Spread Over A Wide And Fruitful Land, Traversing All The Seas With The Rich Production Of Their Industry.

I Endeavor To Keep Their Attention Fixed On The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom & Happiness Of Man.

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.

The Only Foundation For Useful Education In A Republic Is To Be Laid In Religion.

The People Are The Ultimate Guardians Of Their Own Liberties. In Every Government On Earth Is Some Trace Of Human Weakness, Some Germ Of Corruption And Degeneracy . . . Every Government Degenerates When Trusted To The Rulers Of The People Alone.

For The Present We May Groupe The Sciences Into Professorships As Follows, Subject However To Be Changed According To The Qualifications Of The Persons We May Be Able To Engage.

A Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another Candle.

Founding Fathers Democracy

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

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

To History Therefore I Must Refer For Answer, In Which It Would Be An Unhappy Passage Indeed, Which Should Shew By What Fatal Indulgence Of Subordinate Views And Passions, A Contest For An Atom Had Defeated Well Founded Prospects Of Giving Liberty To Half The Globe.

I Have Ever Judged Of The Religion Of Others By Their Lives... But This Does Not Satisfy The Priesthood. They Must Have A Positive, A Declared Assent To All Of Their Interested Absurdities. My Opinion Is That There Would Never Have Been An Infidel, If There Had Never Been A Priest.

The Most Effective Way To Find Ourselves Enslaved Will Not Be Done Openly. If Weakened We Will Sink Gradually. I Ask, Who Are The Militia? They Consist Of The Whole People, .... Except A Few Public Officers.

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.

I Am A Sect By Myself, As Far As I Know.

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.

Freedom, The First-born Of Science.

The Cement Of This Union Is The Heart-blood Of Every American.

To Lay Taxes To Provide For The General Welfare Of The United States, That Is To Say, 'to Lay Taxes For The Purpose Of Providing For The General Welfare.' For The Laying Of Taxes Is The Power, And The General Welfare The Purpose For Which The Power Is To Be Exercised. They Are Not To Lay Taxes Ad Libitum For Any Purpose They Please; But Only To Pay The Debts Or Provide For The Welfare Of The Union.

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

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

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

The Minority Possess Their Equal Rights, Which Equal Law Must Protect, And To Violate Would Be Oppression.

Moral Law, Evidence Of.- Man Has Been Subjected By His Creator To The Moral Law, Of Which His Feelings, Or Conscience As It Is Sometimes Called, Are The Evidence With Which His Creator Has Furnished Him. ... The Moral Duties Which Exist Between Individual And Individual In A State Of Nature, Accompany Them Into A State Of Society ... Their Maker Not Having Released Them From Those Duties On Their Forming Themselves Into A Nation.

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.

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.

Rejecting All Organs Of Informationbut My Senses, I Rid Myself Of The Pyrrhonisms With Which An Indulgence In Speculations Hyperphysical And Antiphysical So Uselessly Occupy And Disquiet The Mind.

Shake Off All The Fears And Servile Prejudices Under Which Weak Minds Are Servilely Crouched. Fix Reason Firmly In Her Seat, And Call To Her Tribunal Every Fact, Every Opinion. Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God; Because, If There Be One, He Must More Approve The Homage Of Reason, Than That Of Blindfolded Fear... Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven, And You Are Answerable Not For The Rightness But Uprightness Of The Decision.

Games Played With The Ball, And Others Of That Nature, Are Too Violent For The Body And Stamp No Character On The Mind.

I Never Saw An Instance Of One Or Two Disputants Convincing The Other By Argument.

We Are Destined To Be A Barrier Against The Return Of Ignorance And Barbarism. Old Europe Will Have To Lean On Our Shoulders, And To Hobble Along By Our Side, Under The Monkish Trammels Of Priests And Kings, As She Can. What A Colossus Shall We Be When The Southern Continent Comes Up To Our Mark! What A Stand Will It Seem As A Ralliance For The Reason And Freedom Of The Globe!

Creeds Have Been The Bane Of The Christian Church ... Made Of Christendom A Slaughter-house.

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

Indeed, We Need Not Look Back Half A Century To Times Which Many Now Living Remember Well, And See The Wonderful Advances In The Sciences And Arts Which Have Been Made Within That Period. Some Of These Have Rendered The Elements Themselves Subservient To The Purposes Of Man, Have Harnessed Them To The Yoke Of His Labors And Effected The Great Blessings Of Moderating His Own, Of Accomplishing What Was Beyond His Feeble Force, And Extending The Comforts Of Life To A Much Enlarged Circle, To Those Who Had Before Known Its Necessaries Only.

The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time; The Hand Of Force May Destroy, But Cannot Disjoin Them. ... Love Your Neighbor As Yourself And Your Country More Than Yourself. ... The Boisterous Sea Of Liberty Is Never Without A Wave. ... I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man. ... The Tree Of Liberty Must Be Refreshed From Time To Time With The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants. It Is Its Natural Manure.

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