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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.
-Thomas Jefferson
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Trial By Jury Is

Thomas Jefferson
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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.

Understanding the Quote: "trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone..."

This quote by Thomas Jefferson reflects deeply on the theme of age. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Age, Gone, Trials, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas Jefferson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on age and gone. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Age
Gone
Trials
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Nature Intended Me For The Tranquil Pursuits Of Science By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight.
Boisterous
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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.
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Whiskey Claims To Itself Alone The Exclusive Office Of Sot-making.
Office
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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.
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I Have Learned To Be Less Confident In The Conclusions Of Human Reason, And Give More Credit To The Honesty Of Contrary Opinions.
Honesty
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I Consider Ethics, As Well As Religion, As Supplements To Law In The Government Of Man.
Men
Law
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If Some Period Be Not Fixed, Either By The Constitution Or By Practice, To The Services Of The First Magistrate, His Office, Though Nominally Elective, Will, In Fact, Be For Life, And That Will Soon Degenerate Into An Inheritance.
Life
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Office
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.
Art
World
Enthusiasm
[if] The Nature Of ... Government [were] A Subordination Of The Civil To The Ecclesiastical Power, I [would] Consider It As Desperate For Long Years To Come. Their Steady Habits [will] Exclude The Advances Of Information, And They [will] Seem Exactly Where They [have Always Been]. And There [the] Clergy Will Always Keep Them If They Can. [they] Will Follow The Bark Of Liberty Only By The Help Of A Tow-rope.
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[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.
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If A Sect Arises Whose Tenets Would Subvert Morals, Good Sense Has Fair Play And Reasons And Laughs It Out Of Doors Without Suffering The State To Be Troubled With It.
Doors
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Taxes Should Be Continued By Annual Or Biennial Reeactments, Because A Constant Hold, By The Nation, Of The Strings Of The Public Purse Is A Salutary Restraint From Which An Honest Government Ought Not Wish, Nor A Corrupt One To Be Permitted, To Be Free.
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There Is No Act, However Virtuous, For Which Ingenuity May Not Find Some Bad Motive.
President
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Unmerited Abuse Wounds, While Unmerited Praise Has Not The Power To Heal.
Abuse
Praise
Heal
There Is Nothing More Unequal Than The Equal Treatment Of Unequal People.
Education
Equal Treatment
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To Consider Judges As The Ultimate Arbiters Of All Constitutional Questions Is A Very Dangerous Doctrine Indeed, And One Which Would Place Us Under The Despotism Of An Oligarchy.
Freedom
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[oppose] With Manly Firmness [any] Invasions On The Rights Of The People.
Freedom
Rights
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I Steer My Bark With Hope In The Head, Leaving Fear Astern.
Hope
Fear
Leaving
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.
Party
Character
Evil
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.
Father
Character
Son
None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army. To Keep Ours Armed And Disciplined Is Therefore At All Times Important.
Army
Gun
Important
The Power Of Making War Often Prevents It.
War
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If I Am To Meet With A Disappointment, The Sooner I Know It, The More Of Life I Shall Have To Wear It Off.
Disappointment
Disappointing
Knows
I Have Seen Enough Of One War Never To Wish To See Another.
War
Wish
Enough
Having Seen The People Of All Other Nations Bowed Down To The Earth Under The Wars And Prodigalities Of Their Rulers, I Have Cherished Their Opposites, Peace, Economy, And Riddance Of Public Debt, Believing That These Were The High Road To Public As Well As Private Prosperity And Happiness.
Peace
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Believe
If We Are Made In Some Degree For Others, Yet In A Greater Are We Made For Ourselves. It Were Contrary To Feeling And Indeed Ridiculous To Suppose That A Man Had Less Rights In Himself Than One Of His Neighbors, Or Indeed All Of Them Put Together. This Would Be Slavery, And Not That Liberty Which The Bill Of Rights Has Made Inviolable, And For The Preservation Of Which Our Government Has Been Charged.
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But Of All The Views Of This Law [universal Education] None Is More Important, None More Legitimate, Than That Of Rendering The People The Safe, As They Are The Ultimate, Guardians Of Their Own Liberty.
Education
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Law
I Consider The Doctrines Of Jesus As Delivered By Himself To Contain The Outlines Of The Sublimest System Of Morality That Has Ever Been Taught But I Hold In The Most Profound Detestation And Execration The Corruptions Of It Which Have Been Invented.
Jesus
Profound
Doctrine
I Should . . . Prefer Swallowing One Incomprehensibility Rather Than Two. It Requires One Effort Only To Admit The Single Incomprehensibility Of Matter Endowed With Thought, And Two To Believe, First That Of An Existence Called Spirit, Of Which We Have Neither Evidence Nor Idea, And Then Secondly How That Spirit, Which Has Neither Extension Nor Solidity, Can Put Material Organs Into Motion.
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The Future Inhabitants Of [both] The Atlantic And Mississippi States Will Be Our Sons. We Think We See Their Happiness In Their Union, And We Wish It. Events May Prove Otherwise; And If They See Their Interest In Separating Why Should We Take Sides? God Bless Them Both, And Keep Them In Union If It Be For Their Good, But Separate Them If It Be Better.
Son
Thinking
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There Is No Justification For Taking Away Individuals' Freedom In The Guise Of Public Safety.
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Individual
Justification
I Rejoice When I Hear Of Young Men Of Virtue And Talents, Worthy To Receive And Likely To Preserve The Splendid Inheritance Of Self- Government, Which We Have Acquired And Shaped For Them.
Men
Self
Inheritance
The Parties Of Whig And Tory Are Those Of Nature. They Exist In All Countries, Whether Called By These Names Or By Those Of Aristocrats And Democrats, Cote Droite And Cote Gauche, Ultras And Radicals, Serviles And Liberals. The Sickly, Weakly, Timid Man Fears The People, And Is A Tory By Nature. The Healthy, Strong And Bold Cherishes Them, And Is Formed A Whig By Nature.
Country
Strong
Party
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.
Country
Ties
Giving
When The Heart Is Right, The Feet Are Swift.
Heart
Feet
Whatever Enables Us To Go To War, Secures Our Peace
Peace
War
National Defense
But Every Difference Of Opinion Is Not A Difference Of Principle.
Differences
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Hemp Is One Of The Greatest, Most Important Substances Of Our Nation
Important
Substance
Hemp
God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion.
Years
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He Who Knows Best Knows How Little He Knows.
Work
Best Husband
Crafts
Nothing But Free Argument, Raillery And Even Ridicule Will Preserve The Purity Of Religion.
Atheism
Argument
Purity
This Ball Of Liberty, I Believe Most Piously, Is Now So Well In Motion That It Will Roll Round The Globe. At Least The Enlightened Part Of It, For Light & Liberty Go Together.
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Light
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The Relations Which Exist Between Man And His Maker, And The Duties Resulting From Those Relations, Are The Most Interesting And Important To Every Human Being And The Most Incumbent On His Study And Investigation.
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It Should Be Remembered, As An Axiom Of Eternal Truth In Politics, That Whatever Power In Any Government Is Independent, Is Absolute Also.
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Everything Yields To Diligence.
Work
Yield
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All... Natural Rights May Be Abridged Or Modified In [their] Exercise By Law.
Exercise
Rights
Law
Adore God. Reverence And Cherish Your Parents. Love Your Neighbor As Yourself, And Your Country More Than Yourself. Be Just. Be True. Murmur Not At The Ways Of Providence. So Shall The Life Into Which You Have Entered Be The Portal To One Of Eternal And Ineffable Bliss.
Country
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Parent
The Further The Departure From Direct And Constant Control By The Citizens, The Less Has The Government Of The Ingredient Of Republicanism.
Government
Citizens
Departure
Knowledge Is Power...knowled Ge Is Safety...knowle Dge Is Happiness.
Safety
Knowledge Is Power
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.
Lying
Media
Editors
Honor, Justice, And Humanity, Forbid Us Tamely To Surrender That Freedom Which We Received From Our Gallant Ancestors, And Which Our Innocent Posterity Have A Right To Receive From Us.
War
Justice
Humanity
Considering The Great Importance To The Public Liberty Of The Freedom Of The Press, And The Difficulty Of Submitting It To Very Precise Rules, The Laws Have Thought It Less Mischievous To Give Greater Scope To Its Freedom Than To The Restraint Of It.
Law
Giving
Liberty
Force Cannot Give Right.
Giving
Force
But, You May Ask, If The Two Departments [i.e., Federal And State] Should Claim Each The Same Subject Of Power, Where Is The Common Umpire To Decide Ultimately Between Them? In Cases Of Little Importance Or Urgency, The Prudence Of Both Parties Will Keep Them Aloof From The Questionable Ground; But If It Can Neither Be Avoided Nor Compromised, A Convention Of The States Must Be Called To Ascribe The Doubtful Power To That Department Which They May Think Best.
Party
Thinking
Umpires
If It Is Believed That These Elementary Schools Will Be Better Managed By The Governor And Council Or Any Other General Authority Of The Government, Than By The Parents Within Each Ward, It Is A Belief Against All Experience.
School
Government
Parent
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.
Religious
Men
Justice Of God
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.
Sacrifice
Attachment
Liberty
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.
Hands
Essentials
Aristocracy
The Evidence Of [the] Natural Right [of Expatriation], Like That Of Our Right To Life, Liberty, The Use Of Our Faculties, The Pursuit Of Happiness, Is Not Left To The Feeble And Sophistical Investigations Of Reason, But Is Impressed On The Sense Of Every Man. We Do Not Claim These Under The Charters Of Kings Or Legislators, But Under The King Of Kings.
Kings
Pursuit Of Happiness
Men
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.
Opinion
Individual
Distrust
It Would Not Be For The Public Good To Have [a Majority In Congress Of One Party] Greater [than] Two To One.
Party
Two
Majority
As New Discoveries Are Made, New Truths Discovered And Manners And Opinions Change With The Change Of Circumstances, Institutions Must Advance Also To Keep Pace With The Times.
Discovery
Pace
Opinion
One Insult Pocketed Soon Produces Another.
War
Political
Insult
The Present Generation Has The Same Right Of Self-government Which The Past One Has Exercised For Itself.
Past
Government
Self
The Superiority Of Chocolate (hot Chocolate), Both For Health And Nourishment, Will Soon Give It The Same Preference Over Tea And Coffee In America Which It Has In Spain.
Coffee
America
Giving
Speeches That Are Measured By The Hour Will Die With The Hour.
Death
Speech
Hours
We Do Not Mean To Count Or Weigh Our Contributions By Any Standard Other Than That Of Our Abilities.
Money
Mean
Standards
One Single Object . . . [will Merit] The Endless Gratitude Of The Society: That Of Restraining The Judges From Usurping Legislation.
Gratitude
Judging
Politics
It Is Comfortable To See The Standard Of Reason At Length Erected, After So Many Ages, During Which The Human Mind Has Been Held In Vassalage By Kings, Priests, And Nobles; And It Is Honorable For Us To Have Produced The First Legislature Who Had The Courage To Declare That The Reason Of Man May Be Trusted With The Formation Of His Own Opinions.
Kings
Men
Independence
The Qualifications For Self-government In Society Are Not Innate. They Are The Result Of Habit And Long Training.
Educational
Government
Self
The Cutting Of Heads Is Become So Much A La Mode, That One Is Apt To Feel Of A Morning Whether Their Own Is On Their Shoulders.
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Cutting
Shoulders
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.
Reading
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Bears
Man Is An Imitative Animal. This Quality Is The Germ Of All Education In Him. From His Cradle To His Grave He Is Learning To Do What He Sees Others Do.
Animal
Men
Quality
Man Was Destined For Society. His Morality Therefore Was To Be Formed To This Object. He Was Endowed With A Sense Of Right And Wrong Merely Relative To This. This Sense Is As Much A Part Of His Nature As The Sense Of Hearing, Seeing, Feeling; It Is The True Foundation Of Morality... The Moral Sense, Or Conscience, Is As Much A Part Of Man As His Leg Or Arm. It Is Given To All Human Beings In A Stronger Or Weaker Degree, As Force Of Members Is Given Them In A Greater Or Less Degree. It May Be Strengthened By Exercise, As May Any Particular Limb Of The Body.
Exercise
Men
Psychology
Whenever You Are To Do A Thing, Though It Can Never Be Known But To Yourself, Ask Yourself How You Would Act Were All The World Looking At You, And Act Accordingly.
Life
Character
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Be A Listener Only, Keep Within Yourself, And Endeavor To Establish With Yourself The Habit Of Silence, Especially In Politics.
Silence
Political
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There Are Two Amendments Only Which I Am Anxious For: 1. A Bill Of Rights, Which It Is So Much The Interest Of All To Have That I Conceive It Must Be Yielded...2. The Restoring Of The Principle Of Necessary Rotation, Particularly To The Senate And Presidency, But Most Of All To The Last.
Rights
Two
Principles
I Join Cordially In Admiring And Revering The Constitution Of The United States, The Result Of The Collected Wisdom Of Our Country. That Wisdom Has Committed To Us The Important Task Of Proving By Example That A Government, If Organized In All Its Parts On The Representative Principle Unadulterated By The Infusion Of Spurious Elements, If Founded, Not In The Fears & Follies Of Man, But On His Reason, On His Sense Of Right, On The Predominance Of The Social Over His Dissocial Passions, May Be So Free As To Restrain Him In No Moral Right, And So Firm As To Protect Him From Every Moral Wrong.
Country
Passion
Men
In Our Own Native Land, In Defense Of The Freedom That Is Our Birthright And Which We Ever Enjoyed Till The Late Violation Of It. For The Protection Of Our Property, Acquired Solely By The Honest Industry Of Our Fore-fathers And Ourselves, Against Violence Actually Offered, We Have Taken Up Arms. We Shall Lay Them Down When Hostilities Shall Cease On The Part Of The Aggressors, And All Danger Of Their Being Renewed Shall Be Removed, And Not Before.
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Taken
Land
If Our Country, When Pressed With Wrongs At The Point Of The Bayonet, Had Been Governed By Its Heads Instead Of Its Hearts, Where Should We Have Been Now? Hanging On A Gallows As High As Haman's.
Wisdom
Country
Heart
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.
Rights
Law
People
[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
Jesus
Believe
Inspiration
While The Farmer Holds The Title To The Land, Actually, It Belongs To All The People Because Civilization Itself Rests Upon The Soil.
Land
Civilization
People
The Natural Progress Of Things Is For Liberty To Yield And Government To Gain Ground.
Freedom
4th Of July
Yield
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.
People
Done
Way
I Am A Sect By Myself, As Far As I Know.
Knows
Sects
I Believe That Justice Is Instinct And Innate, That The Moral Sense Is As Much A Part Of Our Constitution As That Of Feeling, Seeing, Or Hearing; As A Wise Creator Must Have Seen To Be Necessary In An Animal Destined To Live In Society.
Wise
Believe
Animal
I Tolerate With The Utmost Latitude The Right Of Others To Differ From Me In Opinion Without Imputing To Them Criminality.
Liberty
Opinion
Latitude
Nothing But A Necessity Invincible By Any Other Means Can Justify ... A Prostitution Of Laws, Which Constitute The Pillars Of Our Whole System Of Jurisprudence.
Mean
Law
Jurisprudence
It Is My Principle That The Will Of The Majority Should Always Prevail.
Motivational
Democracy
Majority
Born In Other Countries, Yet Believing You Could Be Happy In This, Our Laws Acknowledge, As They Should Do, Your Right To Join Us In Society, Conforming, As I Doubt Not You Will Do, To Our Established Rules. That These Rules Shall Be As Equal As Prudential Considerations Will Admit, Will Certainly Be The Aim Of Our Legislatures, General And Particular.
Country
Believe
Law
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.
Government
Sight
People
We Figure Great Careers Aren't Made. They're Experienced.
Careers
Figures
Made
Experience Hath Shewn, That Even Under The Best Forms Of Government Those Entrusted With Power Have, In Time, And By Slow Operations, Perverted It Into Tyranny.
Trust
Time
Democracies Have
The Several States Composing The United States Of America Are Not United On The Principle Of Unlimited Submission To Their General Government
Government
America
Principles
We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.
Life
Unalienable Rights
Inalienable Rights
The Mass Of Our Citizens May Be Divided Into Two Classes -- The Laboring And The Learned. The Laboring Will Need The First Grade Of Education To Qualify Them For Their Pursuits And Duties; The Learned Will Need It As A Foundation For Further Acquirements.
Class
Two
Foundation
I Suppose, Indeed, That In Public Life, A Man Whose Political Principles Have Any Decided Character And Who Has Energy Enough To Give Them Effect Must Always Expect To Encounter Political Hostility From Those Of Adverse Principles.
Character
Men
Giving
I Prefer The Tumult Of Liberty To The Quiet Of Servitude
Liberty
Quiet
Capitalism
For If One Link In Nature's Chain Might Be Lost, Another Might Be Lost, Until The Whole Of Things Will Vanish By Piecemeal.
Nature
Environmental
Links
Amplification Is The Vice Of Modern Oratory. It Is An Insult To An Assembly Of Reasonable Men, Disgusting And Revolting Instead Ofpersuading. Speeches Measured By The Hour, Die By The Hour.
Men
Vices
Amplification
What Is It Men Cannot Be Made To Believe!
Honesty
Integrity
Believe
Taste Cannot Be Controlled By Law.
Law
Taste
Controlled
Nothing Is More Certainly Written In The Book Of Fate Than That These People Are To Be Free. Nor Is It Less Certain That The Two Races, Equally Free, Cannot Live In The Same Government. Nature, Habit, Opinion Has Drawn Indelible Lines Of Distinction Between Them.
Wisdom
Book
Fate
When We Get Piled Upon One Another In Large Cities, As In Europe, We Shall Become As Corrupt As Europe.
Europe
Cities
Large Cities
No Duty The Executive Had To Perform Was So Trying As To Put The Right Man In The Right Place.
Men
Political
Trying
Most Codes Extend Their Definitions Of Treason To Acts Not Really Against One's Country. They Do Not Distinguish Between Acts Against The Government, And Acts Against The Oppressions Of The Government. The Latter Are Virtues, Yet Have Furnished More Victims To The Executioner Than The Former. Real Treasons Are Rare; Oppressions Frequent. The Unsuccessful Strugglers Against Tyranny Have Been The Chief Martyrs Of Treason Laws In All Countries.
Country
Real
Government
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.
Honesty
Believe
Mean
No Government Can Be Maintained Without The Principle Of Fear As Well As Duty. Good Men Will Obey The Last, But Bad Ones The Former Only. If Our Government Ever Fails, It Will Be From This Weakness.
Men
Good Man
Weakness
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.
Religious
Men
Issues
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.
Death
Dying
Amusement
Our Civil Rights Have No Dependence Upon Our Religious Opinions More Than Our Opinions In Physics Or Geometry.
Religious
Rights
Opinion
Let Us In Education Dream Of An Aristocracy Of Achievement Arising Out Of A Democracy Of Opportunity
Dream
School
Opportunity
Merchants Have No Country. The Mere Spot They Stand On Does Not Constitute So Strong An Attachment As That From Which They Draw Their Gains.
Country
Strong
Attachment
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.
Years
Age
Growing
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
Dog
War
Example
Only Aim To Do Your Duty, And Mankind Will Give You Credit Where You Fail.
Failure
Government
Giving
Every Man Has A Commission To Admonish, Exhort, Convince Another Of Error.
Men
Errors
Politics
There Is Not A Single Crowned Head In Europe Whose Talents Or Merit Would Entitle Him To Be Elected A Vestryman By The People Of Any Parish In America.
Europe
America
People
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.
Wish
Would Be
Taxation
In Reviewing The History Of The Times Through Which We Have Passed, No Portion Of It Gives Greater Satisfaction Or Reflection, Than That Which Represents The Efforts Of The Friends Of Religious Freedom And The Success With Which They Are Crowned.
Religious
Reflection
Giving
Laws That Forbid The Carrying Of Arms Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes.
Gun
Law
Strong Arms
I Know Of No Safe Depository Of The Ultimate Power Of The Society But The People Themselves.
Peace
War
People
Difference Of Opinion Is Advantageous In Religion. The Several Sects Perform The Office Of A Censor - Over Each Other.
Life
Differences
Office
Where Thought Is Free In Its Range, We Need Never Fear To Hazard What Is Good In Itself.
Hazards
Needs
Politics
An Enemy Generally Says And Believes What He Wishes.
Believe
Reality
Political
Every People May Establish What Form Of Government They Please, And Change It As They Please, The Will Of The Nation Being The Only Thing Essential.
Government
People
Essentials
The Patriot, Like The Christian, Must Learn To Bear Revilings And Persecutions As A Part Of His Duty; And In Proportion As The Trial Is Severe, Firmness Under It Becomes More Requisite And Praiseworthy. It Requires, Indeed, Self-command. But That Will Be Fortified In Proportion As The Calls For Its Exercise Are Repeated.
Christian
Exercise
Self
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.
Christian
Doctrine
Preference
The Happiest Hours Of My Life Have Been Spent In The Flow Of Affection Among Friends.
Flow
Affection
Hours
Too Old To Plant Trees For My Own Gratification, I Shall Do It For My Posterity.
Garden
Tree
Serving Others
Should [reformers] Attempt More Than The Established Habits Of The People Are Ripe For, They May Lose All And Retard Indefinitely The Ultimate Object Of Their Aim.
People
May
Revolution
The Smell Rewards The Care.
Smell
Care
Rewards
No Other Depositories Of Power [but The People Themselves] Have Ever Yet Been Found, Which Did Not End In Converting To Their Own Profit The Earnings Of Those Committed To Their Charge.
People
Earning
Ends
[t]he Dignity Of Parliament It Seems Can Brook No Opposition To It's Power. Strange That A Set Of Men Who Have Made Sale Of Theirvirtue To The Minister Should Yet Talk Of Retaining Dignity!
Men
Strange
Dignity
The Legitimate Powers Of Government Extend To Such Acts Only As Are Injurious To Others. But It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods, Or No God. It Neither Picks My Pocket Nor Breaks My Leg.
Religious
Atheist
Government
The Authors Of The Gospels Were Unlettered And Ignorant Men And The Teachings Of Jesus Have Come To Us Mutilated, Misstated And Unintelligible.
Jesus
Teaching
Men
No One, I Hope, Can Doubt My Wish To See... All Mankind Exercising Self-government, And Capable Of Exercising It. But The Question Is Not What We Wish, But What Is Practicable.
Exercise
Government
Self
Exercise And Application Produce Order In Our Affairs, Health Of Body, Cheerfulness Of Mind, And These Make Us Precious To Our Friends
Motivational
Fitness
Exercise
Our Citizens May Be Deceived For Awhile, And Have Been Deceived; But As Long As The Presses Can Be Protected, We May Trust To Them For Light.
Light
Long
Citizens
But When A Long Train Of Abuses And Usurpations, Pursuing Invariably The Same Object Evinces A Design To Reduce Them Under Absolute Despotism, It Is Their Right, It Is Their Duty, To Throw Off Such Government, And To Provide New Guards For Their Future Security.
Government
Tyrants
Long
The Policy Of The American Government Is To Leave Their Citizens Free, Neither Restraining Nor Aiding Them In Their Pursuits.
4th Of July
Government
Liberty
The Governor Would Serve A Five-year Term And Be Ineligible For Reelection.
Years
Political
Term Limits
To Talk Of Immaterial Existences Is To Talk Of Nothings. To Say That The Human Soul, Angels, God, Are Immaterial, Is To Say They Are Nothings, Or That There Is No God, No Angels, No Soul. I Cannot Reason Otherwise: But I Believe I Am Supported In My Creed Of Materialism By Locke, Tracy, And Stewart. At What Age Of The Christian Church This Heresy Of Immaterialism, This Masked Atheism, Crept In, I Do Not Know. But Heresy It Certainly Is.
Christian
Religious
Atheist
It Does Me No Injury For My Neighbor To Say There Are Twenty Gods Or No God.
Life
God
Religious
All Men Are Created Equal And Have The Right To Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.
Pursuit Of Happiness
Men
Liberty
The Steady Character Of Our Countrymen Is A Rock To Which We May Safely Moor; And Notwithstanding The Efforts Of The Papers To Disseminate Early Discontents, I Expect That A Just, Dispassionate And Steady Conduct, Will At Length Rally To A Proper System The Great Body Of Our Country. Unequivocal In Principle, Reasonable In Manner, We Shall Be Able I Hope To Do A Great Deal Of Good To The Cause Of Freedom & Harmony.
Country
Character
Rocks
An Informed Citizenry Is The Only True Repository Of The Public Will.
Informed Citizens
Informed Citizenry
Citizenry
Whose Foot Is To Be The Measure To Which Ours Are All To Be Cut Or Stretched?
Cutting
Feet
Censorship
Earnestly Recommended To All Officers And Soldiers, Diligently To Attend Divine Services.
Soldier
Divine
Officers
Experience Has Already Shown That The Impeachment The Constitution Has Provided Is Not Even A Scarecrow.
Political
President
Politics
The Hole And The Patch Should Be Commensurate.
Inspirational
Design
Holes
[t]o Preserve The Republican Form And Principles Of Our Constitution And Cleave To The Salutary Distribution Of Powers Which That [the Constitution] Has Established . . . Are The Two Sheet Anchors Of Our Union. If Driven From Either, We Shall Be In Danger Of Foundering.
Distribution Of Power
Anchors
Two
The Constitution Of The United States Is The Result Of The Collected Wisdom Of Our Country.
Country
United States
Constitution
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.
Peace
War
Blessing
The Doctrines Of Jesus Are Simple, And Tend To All The Happiness Of Man.
Jesus
Simple
Men
To Compel A Man To Furnish Funds For The Propagation Of Ideas He Disbelieves And Abhors Is Sinful And Tyrannical.
Wisdom
Men
Ideas
Courts Love The People Always, As Wolves Do The Sheep.
Sheep
People
Court
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.
Religious
Communication
Imagination
The Tender Breasts Of Ladies Were Not Formed For Political Convulsion.
Political
Breasts
The Spirit Of Resistance To Government Is So Valuable On Certain Occasions That I Wish It To Be Always Kept Alive.
Freedom
War
Patriotic
Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People... They Are The Only Sure Reliance For The Preservation Of Our Liberty.
Education
Wisdom
People
No Religious Reading, Instruction Or Exercise, Shall Be Prescribed Or Practiced [in The Elementary Schools] Inconsistent With The Tenets Of Any Religious Sect Or Denomination.
Religious
Reading
School
Both Of Our Political Parties, At Least The Honest Portion Of Them, Agree Conscientiously In The Same Object: The Public Good; But They Differ Essentially In What They Deem The Means Of Promoting That Good. One Side Believes It Best Done By One Composition Of The Governing Powers, The Other By A Different One. One Fears Most The Ignorance Of The People; The Other The Selfishness Of Rulers Independent Of Them. Which Is Right, Time And Experience Will Prove.
Party
Believe
Ignorance
Though [the People] May Acquiesce, They Cannot Approve What They Do Not Understand.
People
May
I Find Friendship To Be Like Wine, Raw When New, Ripened With Age, The True Old Man's Milk And Restorative Cordial.
Friendship
True Friend
Wine
[f]alsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.
Heart
President
Tongue
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.
Jesus
Men
Thinking
Our Particular Principles Of Religion Are A Subject Of Accountability To God Alone.
Accountability
Principles
Civil Rights
It Look Like The Lord Just Work For Wite Folks Cause Ever Sens I Wasn Nothin But A Litle Boy I Been On My On Haulin Water To The Fiel On That Ol Water Cart Wit All Them Dime Bukets An That Dipper Just Hittin An Old Dorthy Just Trottin And Trottin An Me Up Their Hittin Her Wit That Rope.
Boys
Water
Dying
In Every Free And Deliberating Society, There Must, From The Nature Of Man, Be Opposite Parties, And Violent Dissensions And Discords; And One Of These, For The Most Part, Must Prevail Over The Other For A Longer Or Shorter Time.
Party
Men
Opposites
The Christian God Can Easily Be Pictured As Virtually The Same God As The Many Ancient Gods Of Past Civilizations. The Christian God Is A Three Headed Monster Cruel Vengeful And Capricious. If One Wishes To Know More Of This Raging Three Headed Beast Like God One Only Needs To Look At The Caliber Of People Who Say They Serve Him. They Are Always Of Two Classes Fools And Hypocrites.
Christian
Atheist
Hypocrite
Honesty Is The First Chapter In The Book Of Wisdom. Let It Be Our Endeavor To Merit The Character Of A Just Nation.
Honesty
Book
Character
The Mobs Of Great Cities Add Just So Much To The Support Of Pure Government As Sores Do To The Strength Of The Human Body.
Government
Cities
Support
The Creator Has Not Thought Proper To Mark Those In The Forehead Who Are Of Stuff To Make Good Generals. We Are First, Therefore, To Seek Them Blindfold, And Then Let Them Learn The Trade At The Expense Of Great Losses.
Loss
Stuff
Firsts
I Am Myself An Empiric In Natural Philosophy, Suffering My Faith To Go No Further Than My Facts. I Am Pleased, However, To See The Efforts Of Hypothetical Speculation, Because By The Collisions Of Different Hypotheses, Truth May Be Elicited And Science Advanced In The End.
Philosophy
Effort
Suffering
The Earth Is Given As A Common For Men To Labor And Live In.
Nature
Educational
Men
Besides The Comfort Of Knowlege, Every Science Is Auxiliary To Every Other.
Educational
Comfort
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.
Giving
Forever
Political
My Passion Strengthens Daily To Quit Political Turmoil, And Retire Into The Bosom Of My Family, The Only Scene Of Sincere And Purehappiness.
Happiness
Passion
Political
With Your Talents And Industry, With Science, And That Steadfast Honesty Which Eternally Pursues Right, Regardless Of Consequences, You May Promise Yourself Every Thing-but Health, Without Which There Is No Happiness. An Attention To Health Then Should Take Place Of Evey Other Object. The Time Necessary To Secure This By Active Exercises, Should Be Devoted To It In Preference To Every Other Pursuit.
Honesty
Health
Exercise
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.
Reading
Reflection
Religion
Instead Of That Liberty Which Takes Root And Growth In The Progress Of Reason, If Recovered By Mere Force Or Accident, It Becomes With An Unprepared People A Tyranny Still Of The Many, The Few, Or The One.
Roots
People
Growth
Never Spend Your Money Before You Have Earned It.
Money
Debt Free
Owing A Debt
The Advertisement Is The Most Truthful Part Of A Newspaper.
Motivational
Truth
Humorous
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.
Love Is
Self
Moral
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.
Country
Book
Reading
Walking Is The Best Possible Exercise. Habituate Yourself To Walk Very Far.
Fitness
Exercise
Walks
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.
Christian
Giving
Atheism
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.
Kings
Rights
Liberty
"it Astonishes Me To Find... [that So Many] Of Our Countrymen... Should Be Contented To Live Under A System Which Leaves To Their Governors The Power Of Taking From Them The Trial By Jury In Civil Cases, Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of The Press, Freedom Of Commerce, The Habeas Corpus Laws, And Of Yoking Them With A Standing Army. This Is A Degeneracy In The Principles Of Liberty... Which I [would Not Have Expected For At Least] Four Centuries."
Army
Law
Liberty
The Clergy ... Believe That Any Portion Of Power Confided To Me [as President] Will Be Exerted In Opposition To Their Schemes. And They Believe Rightly: For I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man. But This Is All They Have To Fear From Me: And Enough, Too, In Their Opinion.
Religious
Believe
Men
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
Death
Hypocrite
Half
Without Society, And A Society To Our Taste, Men Are Never Contented.
Men
Society
Taste
In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like A Rock.
Rocks
Matter
Principal
Public Offices Were Not Made For Private Convenience.
Office
Made
Convenience
Very Many And Very Meritorious Were The Worthy Patriots Who Assisted In Bringing Back Our Government To Its Republican Tack. To Preserve It In That, Will Require Unremitting Vigilance.
Government
Revolution
Republican
My Construction Of The Constitution Is Very Different From That You Quote. It Is That Each Department Is Truly Independent Of The Others, And Has An Equal Right To Decide For Itself What Is The Meaning Of The Constitution In The Cases Submitted To Its Action; And Especially, Where It Is To Act Ultimately And Without Appeal.
Independent
Different
Action
Peace With All Nations, And The Right Which That Gives Us With Respect To All Nations, Are Our Object.
Peace
Giving
Objects
God Forbid We Should Ever Be Twenty Years Without Such A Rebellion... We Have Had Thirteen States Independent For Eleven Years. There Has Been One Rebellion. That Comes To One Rebellion In A Century And A Half, For Each State. What Country Before Ever Existed A Century And A Half Without A Rebellion.
Wisdom
Country
Independent
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