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To The Corruptions Of Christianity I Am Indeed Opposed; But Not To The Genuine Precepts Of Jesus Himself. I Am A Christian, In The Only Sense He Wished Any One To Be; Sincerely Attached To His Doctrines, In Preference To All Others; Ascribing To Himself Every Human Excellence; & Believing He Never Claimed Any Other.

-Thomas Jefferson

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To The Corruptions Of

Thomas Jefferson

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To The Corruptions Of Christianity I Am Indeed Opposed; But Not To The Genuine Precepts Of Jesus Himself. I Am A Christian, In The Only Sense He Wished Any One To Be; Sincerely Attached To His Doctrines, In Preference To All Others; Ascribing To Himself Every Human Excellence; & Believing He Never Claimed Any Other.

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No Occupation Is So Delightful To Me As The Culture Of The Earth, And No Culture Comparable To That Of The Garden.

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

It Is Part Of The American Character To Consider Nothing As Desperate.

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

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

The Spirit Of 1776 Is Not Dead. It Had Only Been Slumbering. The Body Of The American People Is Substantially Republican.

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.

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

A Judiciary Independent Of A King Or Executive Alone, Is A Good Thing; But Independence Of The Will Of The Nation Is A Solecism, At Least In A Republican Government.

It Is A Moot Question Whether The Origin Of Any Kind Of Property Is Derived From Nature At All. It Is Agreed By Those Who Have Seriously Considered The Subject That No Individual Has, Of Natural Right, A Separate Property In An Acre Of Land, For Instance. By A Universal Law, Indeed, Whatever, Whether Fixed Or Movable, Belongs To All Men Equally And In Common Is The Property For The Moment Of Him Who Occupies It; But When He Relinquishes The Occupation, The Property Goes With It. Stable Ownership Is The Gift Of Social Law, And Is Given Late In The Progress Of Society.

Progress Of Society

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

Peace And Abstinence From European Interferences Are Our Objects, And So Will Continue While The Present Order Of Things In America Remain Uninterrupted.

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.

Where A New Invention Promises To Be Useful, It Ought To Be Tried.

I Believe The States Can Best Govern Our Home Concerns, And The General Government Our Foreign Ones.

Ridicule Is The Only Weapon Which Can Be Used Against Unintelligible Propositions. Ideas Must Be Distinct Before Reason Can Act Upon Them; And No Man Ever Had A Distinct Idea Of The Trinity. It Is The Mere Abracadabra Of The Mountebanks Calling Themselves The Priests Of Jesus.

Mankind Are More Disposed To Suffer, While Evils Are Sufferable, Than To Right Themselves By Abolishing The Forms To Which They Are Accustomed.

Unalienable Rights

If We Could Believe That Jesus...countenanced The Follies, Falsehoods And Charlatanisms Which His Biographers Father On Him, ...the Conclusion Would Be Irresistible...that He Was An Imposter.

Instead Of An Aristocracy Of Wealth, Of More Harm And Danger Than Benefit To Society, To Make An Opening For The Aristocracy Of Virtue And Talent, Which Nature Has Wisely Provided For The Direction Of The Interests Of Society And Scattered With Equal Hand Through All Its Conditions, Was Deemed Essential To A Well-ordered Republic.

The Moral Sense Is The First Excellence Of Well-organized Man.

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

There Is A Natural Aristocracy Among Men. The Grounds Of This Are Virtue And Talents.

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

To Take A Single Step Beyond The Boundaries Specially Drawn Around The Powers Of Congress Is To Take Possession Of A Boundless Field Of Power, No Longer Susceptible To Definition.

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.

Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle Given You By Heaven, And You Are Answerable For, Not The Rightness, But The Uprightness Of The Decision

Every Man's Reason Is His Own Rightful Umpire. This Principle, With That Of Acquiescence In The Will Of The Majority, Will Preserve Us Free And Prosperous As Long As They Are Sacredly Observed.

I Have Wished To See Chemistry Applied To Domestic Objects, To Malting, For Instance, Brewing, Making Cider, To Fermentation And Distillation Generally, To The Making Of Bread, Butter, Cheese, Soap, To The Incubation Of Eggs, &c.

I Am A Christian In The Only Sense In Which He Wished Anyone To Be: Sincerely Attached To His Doctrines In Preference To All Others.

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

In Every Country And In Every Age, The Priest Has Been Hostile To Liberty. He Is Always In Alliance With The Despot, Abetting His Abuses In Return For Protection To His Own.

No Nation Is Permitted To Live In Ignorance With Impunity

Nigeria Independence

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

In A Virtuous Government, And More Especially In Times Like These, Public Offices Are What They Should Be - Burdens To Those Appointed To Them Which It Would Be Wrong To Decline, Though Foreseen To Bring Them Intense Labor And Great Private Loss.

Times Like These

It Is Not The Policy Of The Government In America To Give Aid To Works Of Any Kind. They Let Things Take Their Natural Course Without Help Or Impediment, Which Is Generally The Best Policy.

We Defer Therefore Till This Time Twelve Month To Avail Ourselves Of The Instruction Of That Place, And Particularly Of Your Kindness In The Two Branches Of Botany And Natural History To Which We Wish Him Particularly To Apply.

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.

It Has Been Thought That The People Are Not Competent Electors Of Judges Learned In The Law. But I Do Not Know This To Be True, And, If Doubtful, We Should Follow Principle.

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 Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union.

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

Still Less, Let It Be Proposed That Our Properties Within Our Own Territories Shall Be Taxed Or Regulated By Any Power On Earth But Our Own. The God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time: The Hand Of Force May Destroy, But Cannot Disjoin Them.

The Study Of The Law Is Useful In A Variety Of Points Of View. It Qualifies A Man To Be Useful To Himself, To His Neighbors, & To The Public.

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong.

The Principle Of The Constitution Is That Of A Separation Of Legislative, Executive And Judiciary Functions, Except In Cases Specified. If This Principle Be Not Expressed In Direct Terms, It Is Clearly The Spirit Of The Constitution, And It Ought To Be So Commented And Acted On By Every Friend Of Free Government.

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.

In Defense Of Our Persons And Properties Under Actual Violation, We Took Up Arms. When That Violence Shall Be Removed, When Hostilities Shall Cease On The Part Of The Aggressors, Hostilities Shall Cease On Our Part Also.

You See I Am An Enthusiast On The Subject Of The Arts. But It Is An Enthusiasm Of Which I Am Not Ashamed, As Its Object Is To Improve The Taste Of My Countrymen, To Increase Their Reputation, To Reconcile To Them The Respect Of The World, And Procure Them Its Praise.

Liberty Is To The Collective Body, What Health Is To Every Individual Body. Without Health No Pleasure Can Be Tasted By Man; Without Liberty, No Happiness Can Be Enjoyed By Society.

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.

Never Put Off Your Massage Until Tomorrow If You Can Get It Today.

Let The Eye Of Vigilance Never Be Closed.

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

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

Certainly One Of The Highest Duties Of The Citizen Is A Scrupulous Obedience To The Laws Of The Nation. But It Is Not The Highest Duty.

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.

With Nations As With Individuals Our Interests Soundly Calculated Will Ever Be Found Inseparable From Our Moral Duties.

It Is Better To Tolerate The Rare Instance Of A Parent Refusing To Let His Child Be Educated, Than To Shock The Common Feelings And Ideas By Forcible Asportation And Education Of The Infant Against The Will Of The Father.

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

The History Of His Present Majesty, Is A History Of Unremitting Injuries And Usurpationsall Of Which Have In Direct Object The Establishment Of An Absolute Tyranny Over These States. To Prove This, Let Facts Be Submitted To A Candid World, For The Truth Of Which We Pledge A Faith Yet Unsullied By Falsehood.

When Tempted To Do Any Thing In Secret, Ask Yourself If You Would Do It In Public.

Every One Must Act According To The Dictates Of His Own Reason, And Mine Tells Me That Civil Powers Alone Have Been Given To The President Of The United States, And No Authority To Direct The Religious Exercises Of His Constituents.

The Cost Of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance

May It Be To The World... To Assume The Blessings And Security Of Self-government.

Hemp Is One Of The Greatest, Most Important Substances Of Our Nation

Peace And Friendship With All Mankind Is Our Wisest Policy, And I Wish We May Be Permitted To Pursue It.

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.

And Even Should The Cloud Of Barbarism And Despotism Again Obscure The Science And Libraries Of Europe, This Country Remains To Preserve And Restore Light And Liberty To Them.

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

Force Cannot Give Right.

Question With Boldness Even The Existence Of A God.

The Firmness With Which The (american) People Have Withstood The... Abuses Of The Press, The Discernment They Have Manifested Between Truth And Falsehood, Show That They May Safely Be Trusted To Hear Everything True And False And To Form A Correct Judgment Between Them.

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

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.

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.

During The Course Of Administration, And In Order To Disturb It, The Artillery Of The Press Has Been Levelled Against Us, Charged With Whatsoever Its Licentiousness Could Devise Or Dare. These Abuses Of An Institution So Important To Freedom And Science Are Deeply To Be Regretted, Inasmuch As They Tend To Lessen Its Usefulness And To Sap Its Safety.

It Is In The Love Of One's Family Only That Heartfelt Happiness Is Known.

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.

Any Woodsman Can Tell You That In A Broken And Sundered Nest, One Can Hardly Find More Than A Precious Few Whole Eggs. So It Is With The Family.

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

I Am Not Afraid Of The Priests. They Have Tried Upon Me All Their Various Batteries, Of Pious Whining, Hypocritical Canting, Lying And Slandering, Without Being Able To Give Me One Moment Of Pain.

I Own That I Am Not A Friend To A Very Energetic Government. It Is Always Oppressive.

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

Malice Will Always Find Bad Motives For Good Actions. - Shall We Therefore Never Do Good?

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

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.

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.

The Attempt Of Lavoisier To Reform Chemical Nomenclature Is Premature. One Single Experiment May Destroy The Whole Filiation Of His Terms; And His String Of Sulphates, Sulphites, And Sulphures, May Have Served No End Than To Have Retarded The Progress Of Science By A Jargon, From The Confusion Of Which Time Will Be Requisite To Extricate Us.

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.

It Is A Misnomer To Call A Government Republican In Which A Branch Of The Supreme Power Is Independent Of The Nation.

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

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

Evil Triumphs When Good Men Do Nothing.

The Lamp Of War Is Kindled Here, Not To Be Extinguished But By Torrents Of Blood.

It's Only Merit Was In Being The First Publication Which Carried The Claim Of Our Rights Their Whole Length, And Asserted That There Was No Rightful Link Of Connection Between Us And England But That Of Being Under The Same King.

Were I To Commence My Administration Again, The First Question I Would Ask Respecting A Candidate Would Be, Does He Use Ardent Spirits?

It Is My Principle That The Will Of The Majority Should Always Prevail.

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.

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

All We Can Do Is To Make The Best Of Our Friends, Love And Cherish What Is Good In Them, And Keep Out Of The Way What Is Bad.

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.

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

Those Who Bear Equally The Burthens Of Government Should Equally Participate Of Its Benefits.

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

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

It Is More Honorable To Repair A Wrong Than To Persist In It.

When, In The Course Of Human Events, It Becomes Necessary For One People To Dissolve The Political Bands Which Have Connected Them With Another, And To Assume Among The Powers Of The Earth The Separate And Equal Station To Which The Laws Of Nature And Of Nature's God Entitle Them, A Decent Respect To The Opinions Of Mankind Requires That They Should Declare The Causes Which Impel Them To The Separation.

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.

History, I Believe, Furnishes No Example Of A Priest-ridden People Maintaining A Free Civil Government. This Marks The Lowest Grade Of Ignorance Of Which Their Civil As Well As Religious Leaders Will Always Avail Themselves For Their Own Purposes.

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

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

The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert, That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That They May Exercise It By Themselves, In All Cases To Which They Think Themselves Competent, Or They May Act By Representatives, Freely And Equally Chosen; That It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed; That They Are Entitled To Freedom Of Person, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of Property, And Freedom Of The Press.

The Mass Of The Citizens Is The Safest Depositary Of Their Own Rights.

[n Regard To Jesus Believing Himself Inspired] This Belief Carried No More Personal Imputation Than The Belief Of Socrates That He Was Under The Care And Admonition Of A Guardian Demon. And How Many Of Our Wisest Men Still Believe In The Reality Of These Inspirations While Perfectly Sane On All Other Subjects

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

Books May Be Classed From The Faculties Of The Mind

I Am Entirely Persuaded That The Agitations Of The Public Mind Advance Its Powers, And That At Every Vibration Between The Points Of Liberty And Despotism, Something Will Be Gained For The Former. As Men Become Better Informed, Their Rulers Must Respect Them The More.

When Two Parties Make A Compact, There Results To Each A Power Of Compelling The Other To Execute It.

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

Man Is Fed With Fables Through Life, And Leaves It In The Belief He Knows Something Of What Has Been Passing, When In Truth He Knows Nothing But What Has Passed Under His Own Eyes.

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.

We Have The Wolf By The Ears, And We Can Neither Hold Him, Nor Safely Let Him Go. Justice Is In One Scale, And Self-preservation In The Other.

Never Use Two Words When One Will Do.

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

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.

Victory And Defeat Are Each Of The Same Price.

Victory And Defeat

No Body Wishes More Than I Do To See Such Proofs As You Exhibit, That Nature Has Given To Our Black Brethren, Talents Equal To Those Of The Other Colors Of Men, And That The Appearance Of A Want Of Them Is Owing Merely To The Degraded Condition Of Their Existence, Both In Africa & America.

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

Hemp Is Of First Necessity To The Wealth & Protection Of The Country.

I Can Never Join Calvin In Addressing His God. He Was Indeed An Atheist, Which I Can Never Be; Or Rather His Religion Was Daemonism. If Ever Man Worshipped A False God, He Did.

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

Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State'... Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

Taxation Is, In Fact, The Most Difficult Function Of Government And That Against Which Their Citizens Are Most Apt To Be Refractory.

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.

The Declaration That Religious Faith Shall Be Unpunished Does Not Give Immunity To Criminal Acts Dictated By Religious Error.

Revenue On The Consumption Of Foreign Articles Is Paid Cheerfully By Those Who Can Afford To Add Foreign Luxuries To Domestic Comforts.

I Find That The Harder I Work, The More Luck I Seem To Have.

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God.

Should Look Forward To A Time, And That Not A Distant One, When Corruption In This, As In The Country From Which We Derive Our Origin, Will Have Seized The Heads Of Government, And Be Spread By Them Through The Body Of The People; When They Will Purchase The Voices Of The People, And Make Them Pay The Price.

Were Parties Here Divided Merely By A Greediness For Office,...to Take A Part With Either Would Be Unworthy Of A Reasonable Or Moral Man.

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

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

Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

Health Is Value Greater Than Studying.

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

The Oppressed Should Rebel, And They Will Continue To Rebel And Raise Disturbance Until Their Civil Rights Are Fully Restored To Them And All Partial Distinctions, Exlusions, And Incapacitations Are Removed.

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.

Among The Sayings And Discourses Imputed To Him (i.e. Jesus) By His Biographers, I Find Many Passages Of Fine Imagination, Correct Morality, And Of The Most Lovely Benevolence; And Others Again Of So Much Ignorance, So Much Absurdity, So Much Untruth, Charlatanism, And Imposture, As To Pronounce It Impossible That Such Contradictions Should Have Proceeded From The Same Being.

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

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

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

That These Are Our Grievances Which We Have Thus Laid Before His Majesty, With That Freedom Of Language And Sentiment Which Becomes A Free People Claiming Their Rights As Derived From The Laws Of Nature, And Not As The Gift Of Their Chief Magistrate.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

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.

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.

We Act Not For Ourselves But For The Whole Human Race. The Event Of Our Experiment Is To Show Whether Man Can Be Trusted With Self - Government.

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

Whenever The People Are Well Informed, They Can Be Trusted With Their Own Government; That Whenever Things Get So Far Wrong As To Attract Their Notice, They May Be Relied On To Set Them To Rights.

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

We Could In The United States Make As Great A Variety Of Wines As Are Made In Europe, Not Exactly Of The Same Kinds, But Doubtless As Good.

The Darker The Berry, The Sweeter The Juice.

I Was Bold In The Pursuit Of Knowledge, Never Fearing To Follow Truth And Reason To Whatever Results They Led, And Bearding Every Authority Which Stood In Their Way.

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

Yet The Hour Of Emancipation Is Advancing ... This Enterprise Is For The Young; For Those Who Can Follow It Up, And Bear It Through To It's Consummation. It Shall Have All My Prayers, And These Are The Only Weapons Of An Old Man.

My Only Fear Is That I May Live Too Long. This Would Be A Subject Of Dread To Me.

Truth Is Great And Will Prevail If Left To Herself.

Church And State

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.

Nothing Is Unchangeable But The Inherent And Unalienable Rights Of Man.

But Under The Beaming, Constant And Almost Vertical Sun Of Virginia, Shade Is Our Elysium. In The Absence Of This No Beauty Of The Eye Can Be Enjoyed.

Our Attachment To No Nation On Earth Should Supplant Our Attachment To Liberty.

Anarchy [is] Necessarily Consequent To Inefficiency.

A Rigid Economy Of The Public Contributions And Absolute Interdiction Of All Useless Expenses Will Go Far Towards Keeping The Government Honest And Unoppressive.

Ours Are The Only Farmers Who Can Read Homer

Most Men Die At Age 25, But Aren't Buried Until 70.

A Free Government Is Of All Others The Most Energetic.

Free Government

To Make Us One Nation As To Foreign Concerns, And Keep Us Distinct In Domestic Ones Gives The Outline Of The Proper Division Of Powers Between The General [national] And Particular [state] Governments.

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 It To Be One Of The Distinguishing Excellences Of Elective Over Hereditary Successions That The Talents Which Nature Has Provided In Sufficient Proportion, Should Be Selected By The Society For The Govenment Of Their Affairs, Rather Than That This Should Be Be Transmitted Through The Loins Of Knaves And Fools Passing From The Debauches Of The Table To Those Of The Bed.

It Be Urged That The Wild And Uncultivated Tree, Hitherto Yielding Sour And Bitter Fruit Only, Can Never Be Made To Yield Better; Yet We Know That The Grafting Art Implants A New Tree On The Savage Stock, Producing What Is Most Estimable In Kind And Degree. Education, In Like Manner, Engrafts A New Man On The Native Stock, And Improves What In His Nature Was Vicious And Perverse Into Qualities Of Virtue And Social Worth.

Of All The Errors Which Can Possibly Be Committed To The Education Of Youth, That Of Sending Them To Europe Is The Most Fatal. I See [clearly] That No American Should Come To Europe Under 30 Years Of Age.

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

I Believe In Both A Creative And Personal God, A Divinely Ordered Universe, That Man Has An Innate Moral Sense, And That Jesus Was A Great Moral Teacher, Perhaps The Greatest The World Has Witnessed.

The Sovereign Invigorator Of The Body Is Exercise, And Of All The Exercises Walking Is The Best.

On A Hot Day In Virginia, I Know Nothing More Comforting Than A Fine Spiced Pickle, Brought Up Trout-like From The Sparkling Depths Of The Aromatic Jar Below The Stairs Of Aunt Sally's Cellar.

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.

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.

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

For Heaven's Sake Discard The Monstrous Wig Which Makes The English Judges Look Like Rats Peeping Through Bunches Of Oakum.

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.

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

The Hocus-pocus Phantasm Of A God, Like Another Cerberus, With One Body And Three Heads, Had Its Birth And Growth In The Blood Of Thousands And Thousands Of Martyrs.

Enemies In War, In Peace Friends.

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

Friendship Is But Another Name For An Alliance With The Follies And The Misfortunes Of Others. Our Own Share Of Miseries Is Sufficient: Why Enter Then As Volunteers Into Those Of Another?

You Will Perceive By My Preaching That I Am Growing Old: It Is The Privilege Of Years, And I Am Sure You Will Pardon It From The Purity Of It's Motives.

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

If Virtuous, The Government Need Not Fear The Fair Operation Of Attack And Defense. Nature Has Given To Man No Other Means Of Sifting The Truth, Either In Religion, Law, Or Politics.

Everything Is Useful Which Contributes To Fix The Principles And Practices Of Virtue.

Had Not A Conviction Of The Danger To Which An Unlimited Occupation Of The Executive Chair Would Expose The Republican Constitution Of Our Government, Made It Conscientiously A Duty To Retire When I Did, The Fear Of Becoming A Dotard And Of Being Insensible Of It, Would Of Itself Have Resisted All Solicitations To Remain.

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