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

-Thomas Jefferson

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Truth Will Do Well

Thomas Jefferson

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

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Those Who Would Trade Safety For Freedom Deserve Neither.

Democrats Consider The People As The Safest Depository Of Power In The Last Resort; They Cherish Them, Therefore, And Wish To Leave In Them All The Powers To The Exercise Of Which They Are Competent.

We Wish The Happiness And Prosperity Of Every Nation.

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?

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.

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

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

State A Moral Case To A Plowman And A Professor. The Former Will Decide It As Well, And Often Better Than The Latter, Because He Has Not Been Led Astray By Artificial Rules.

I Find The Pain Of A Little Censure, Even When It Is Unfounded, Is More Acute Than The Pleasure Of Much Praise.

I Leave The World And Its Affairs To The Young And Energetic, And Resign Myself To Their Care, Of Whom I Have Endeavored To Take Care When Young.

An Injured Friend Is The Bitterest Of Foes.

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.

The Constitutions Of Most Of Our States Assert That All Power Is Inherent In The People; That... It Is Their Right And Duty To Be At All Times Armed.

The Information Of The People At Large Can Alone Make Them The Safe As They Are The Sole Depositary Of Our Political And Religious Freedom.

It Is Proof Of Sincerity, Which I Value Above All Things; As, Between Those Who Practice It, Falsehood And Malice Work Their Efforts In Vain.

Politics, Like Religion, Hold Up The Torches Of Martyrdom To The Reformers Of Error.

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.

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.

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

Tyranny Of The Majority

Truth Between Candid Minds Can Never Do Harm.

I Could Say Much About Politics, Our Only Entertainment Here, But You Would Not Care A Fig About That.

Honesty, Disinterestedness And Good Nature Are Indispensable To Procure The Esteem And Confidence Of Those With Whom We Live, And On Whose Esteem Our Happiness Depends.

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

No Man Will Ever Carry Out Of The Presidency The Reputation Which Carried Him Into It.

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

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.

I Served With General Washington In Die Legislature Of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin In Congress. I Never Heard Neither Of Them Speak Ten Minutes At A Time, Nor To Any But The Main Point.

Determine Never To Be Idle. No Person Will Have Occasion To Complain Of The Want Of Time Who Never Loses Any. It Is Wonderful How Much May Be Done If We Are Always Doing.

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.

No Nation Is Permitted To Live In Ignorance With Impunity

Nigeria Independence

Of Publishing A Book On Religion, My Dear Sir, I Never Had An Idea. I Should As Soon Think Of Writing For The Reformation Of Bedlam, As Of The World Of Religious Sects. Of These There Must Be, At Least, Ten Thousand, Every Individual Of Every One Of Which Believes All Wrong But His Own.

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

The Liberty Of The Whole Earth Was Depending On The Issue Of The Contest, And Was Ever Such A Prize Won With So Little Innocent Blood?

In The Fevered State Of Our Country, No Good Can Ever Result From Any Attempt To Set One Of These Fiery Zealots To Rights, Either In Fact Or Principle. They Are Determined As To The Facts They Will Believe, And The Opinions On Which They Will Act. Get By Them, Therefore, As You Would By An Angry Bull; It Is Not For A Man Of Sense To Dispute The Road With Such An Animal.

Blest Is That Nation Whose Silent Course Of Happiness Furnishes Nothing For History To Say.

The Further The Departure From Direct And Constant Control By The Citizens, The Less Has The Government Of The Ingredient Of Republicanism.

Agriculture Is At The Same Time The Most Tranquil, Healthy, And Independent Occupation.

Do You Want To Know Who You Are? Don't Ask. Act! Action Will Delineate And Define You.

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

When We Consider How Much Climate Contributes To The Happiness Of Our Condition, By The Fine Sensation It Excites, And The Productions It Is The Parent Of, We Have Reason To Value Highly The Accident Of Birth In Such A One As That Of Virginia.

The Moment A Person Forms A Theory, His Imagination Sees In Every Object Only The Traits Which Favor That Theory.

A Little Rebellion Now And Then... Is A Medicine Necessary For The Sound Health Of Government.

The Main Objects Of All Science, The Freedom And Happiness Of Man. . . . [are] The Sole Objects Of All Legitimate Government. A Plaque With This Quotation, With The First Phrase Omitted, Is In The Stairwell Of The Pedestal Of The Statue Of Liberty.

A Little Revolution Is A Good Thing.

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

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

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

The Foundation On Which (our Government Is) Built Is The Natural Equality Of Man, The Denial Of Every Pre-eminence But That Annexed To Legal Office, And Particularly The Denial Of A Pre-eminence By Birth.

The Love Of Justice And The Love Of Country Plead Equally The Cause Of These People, And It Is A Moral Reproach To Us That They Should Have Pleaded It So Long In Vain.

If 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.

Rogueries, Absurdities And Untruths Were Perpetrated Upon The Teachings Of Jesus By A Large Band Of Dupes And Importers Led By Paul, The First Great Corrupter Of The Teaching Of Jesus.

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.

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

Never Fear The Want Of Business. A Man Who Qualifies Himself Well For His Calling, Never Fails Of Employment.

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.

Governments Constantly Choose Between Telling Lies And Fighting Wars, With The End Result Always Being The Same. One Will Always Lead To The Other.

One Man With Courage Is A Majority.

The Functionaries Of Every Government Have Propensities To Command At Will The Liberty And Property Of Their Constituents. There Is No Safe Deposit For These But With The People Themselves, Nor Can They Be Safe With Them Without Information. Where The Press Is Free, And Every Man Able To Read, All Is Safe.

Our Tenet Ever Was . . . That Congress Had Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Were Restrained To Those Specifically Enumerated; And That, As It Was Never Meant That They Should Provide For That Welfare But By The Exercise Of The Enumerated Powers, So It Could Not Have Been Meant They Should Raise Money For Purposes Which The Enumeration Did Not Place Under Their Action.

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

We Ought Not To Schismatize On Either Men Or Measures. Principles Alone Can Justify That.

Convinced That The People Are The Only Safe Depositories Of Their Own Liberty, And That They Are Not Safe Unless Enlightened To A Certain Degree, I Have Looked On Our Present State Of Liberty As A Short-lived Possession Unless The Mass Of The People Could Be Informed To A Certain Degree.

How Sublime To Look Down On The Workhouse Of Nature, To See Her Clouds, Hail, Snow, Rain, Thunder, All Fabricated At Our Feet!

The Uniform Tenor Of A Man's Life Furnishes Better Evidence Of What He Has Said Or Done On Any Particular Occasion Than The Word Of Any Enemy.

The Plough Is To The Farmer What The Wand Is To The Sorcerer. Its Effect Is Really Like Sorcery.

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.

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

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

The Provisions We Have Made [for Our Government] Are Such As Please Ourselves; They Answer The Substantial Purposes Of Government And Of Justice, And Other Purposes Than These Should Not Be Answered.

A Mind Always Employed Is Always Happy.

Legislators Cannot Invent Too Many Devices For Subdividing Property... Another Means Of Silently Lessening The Inequality Of Property Is To Exempt All From Taxation Below A Certain Point, And To Tax The Higher Portions Of Property In Geometrical Progression As They Rise. Whenever There Is In Any Country, Uncultivated Lands And Unemployed Poor, It Is Clear That The Laws Of Property Have Been So Far Extended As To Violate Natural Right.

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

Reason And Free Inquiry Are The Only Effectual Agents Against Error.

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.

A Community Of Small Farmers... Land Property Owners, Will Be The Only Assurance That The Freedom Our Republic Offers Will Be Guaranteed To Each And Every Citizen.

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.

Pursuit Of Happiness

We Exist, And Are Quoted, As Standing Proofs That A Government, So Modeled As To Rest Continually On The Will Of The Whole Society, Is A Practicable Government.

He Who Permits Himself To Tell A Lie Once, Finds It Much Easier To Do It A Second And Third Time, Till At Length It Becomes Habitual; He Tells Lies Without Attending To It, And Truths Without The World's Believing Him. This Falsehood Of The Tongue Leads To That Of The Heart, And In Time Depraves All Its Good Dispositions.

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

On The Dogmas Of Religion, As Distinguished From Moral Principles, All Mankind, From The Beginning Of The World To This Day, Have Been Quarrelling, Fighting, Burning And Torturing One Another, For Abstractions Unintelligible To Themselves And To All Others, And Absolutely Beyond The Comprehension Of The Human Mind.

Circumstances Sometimes Require, That Rights The Most Unquestionable Should Be Advanced With Delicacy.

Unmerited Abuse Wounds, While Unmerited Praise Has Not The Power To Heal.

Be A Listener Only, Keep Within Yourself, And Endeavor To Establish With Yourself The Habit Of Silence, Especially In Politics.

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.

The Juries Are Our Judges Of All Fact, And Of Law When They Choose It.

It Is Reasonable That Everyone Who Asks Justice Should Do Justice

I Place Economy Among The First And Most Important Virtues And Public Debt As The Greatest Dangers To Be Feared. To Preserve Our Independence, We Must Not Let Our Rulers Load Us With Perpetual Debt. If We Run Into Such Debts, We Must Be Taxed In Our Meat And Drink, In Our Necessities And In Our Comforts, In Our Labor And In Our Amusements. If We Can Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labor Of The People, Under The Pretense Of Caring For Them, They Will Be Happy.

I Hold It That A Little Rebellion Now And Then Is A Good Thing, And As Necessary In The Political World As Storms In The Physical.

Civil Government Being The Sole Object Of Forming Societies, Its Administration Must Be Conducted By Common Consent.

Responsibility Is A Tremendous Engine In A Free Government.

Free Government

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

I Know Nothing More Important To Inculcate Into The Minds Of Young People Than The Wisdom, The Honor, And The Blessed Comfort Of Living Within Their Income.

Men Of Quality Are Not Threatened By Women Of Equality

No Experiment Can Be More Interesting Than That We Are Now Trying, And Which We Trust Will End In Establishing The Fact, That Man May Be Governed By Reason And Truth. Our First Object Should Therefore Be, To Leave Open To Him All The Avenues To Truth. The Most Effectual Hitherto Found, Is The Freedom Of The Press. It Is, Therefore, The First Shut Up By Those Who Fear The Investigation Of Their Actions.

Freedom Of Speech

I Considered 4 Of These Bills [of The Revised Code Of Virginia] As Forming A System By Which Every Fibre Would Be Eradicated Of Antient Or Future Aristocracy; And A Foundation Laid For A Government Truly Republican.

To Instruct The Mass Of Our Citizens In These, Their Rights, Interests And Duties, As Men And Citizens...this Brings Us To The Point At Which Are To Commence The Higher Branches Of Education . . . . To Develop The Reasoning Faculties Of Our Youth, Enlarge Their Minds, Cultivate Their Morals, And Instill Into Them The Precepts Of Virtue And Order.

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.

I Feel... An Ardent Desire To See Knowledge So Disseminated Through The Mass Of Mankind That It May, At Length, Reach Even The Extremes Of Society: Beggars And Kings.

One Had Rather Have No Opinion Than A False One.

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

None But An Armed Nation Can Dispense With A Standing Army. To Keep Ours Armed And Disciplined Is Therefore At All Times Important.

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

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

The Past Stays Put, I Just Keep Moving Farther Away From It.

Our People Shall Be Free

Every Society Has A Right To Fix The Fundamental Principles Of Its Association, And To Say To All Individuals, That If They Contemplate Pursuits Beyond The Limits Of These Principles And Involving Dangers Which The Society Chooses To Avoid, They Must Go Somewhere Else For Their Exercise; That We Want No Citizens, And Still Less Ephemeral And Pseudo-citizens, On Such Terms. We May Exclude Them From Our Territory, As We Do Persons Infected With Disease.

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

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.

I Hold It That A Little Rebellion, Now And Then, Is A Good Thing, And As Necessary In The Political World As Storms Are In The Physical. Unsuccessful Rebellions, Indeed, Generally Establish The Encroachments On The Rights Of The People, Which Have Produced Them. An Observation Of This Truth Should Render Honest Republican Governors So Mild In Their Punishment Of Rebellions, As Not To Discourage Them Too Much. It Is Medicine Necessary For The Sound Health Of Government.

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.

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.

I Hope Our Wisdom Will Grow With Our Power, And Teach Us, That The Less We Use Our Power The Greater It Will Be.

I Think Our Governments Will Remain Virtuous For Many Centuries As Long As They Are Chiefly Agricultural; And This Will Be As Long As There Shall Be Vacant Lands In Any Part Of America. When They Get Piled Upon One Another In Large Cities As In Europe, They Will Become Corrupt As In Europe.

An Equal Application Of Law To Every Condition Of Man Is Fundamental.

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

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.

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

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

Government Is Being Founded On Opinion, The Opinion Of The Public, Even When It Is Wrong, Ought To Be Respected To A Certain Degree.

But The Chief Justice Says, 'there Must Be An Ultimate Arbiter Somewhere.' True, There Must; But Does That Prove It Is Either Party? The Ultimate Arbiter Is The People Of The Union, Assembled By Their Deputies In Convention, At The Call Of Congress Or Of Two-thirds Of The States. Let Them Decide To Which They Mean To Give An Authority Claimed By Two Of Their Organs. And It Has Been The Peculiar Wisdom And Felicity Of Our Constitution, To Have Provided This Peaceable Appeal, Where That Of Other Nations Is At Once To Force.

The Power Of Making War Often Prevents It.

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.

I Discharge Every Person Under Punishment Or Prosecution Under The Sedition Law, Because I Considered, And Now Consider, That Law To Be A Nullity As Absolute And Palpable As If Congress Had Ordered Us To Fall Down And Worship A Golden Image.

Every Man, And Every Body Of Men On Earth, Possesses The Right Of Self-government. They Receive It With Their Being From The Hand Of Nature. Individuals Exercise It By Their Single Will; Collections Of Men By That Of Their Majority; For The Law Of The Majority Is The Natural Law Of Every Society Of Men.

Ministers Of The Gospel Are Excluded [from Serving As Visitors Of The County Elementary Schools] To Avoid Jealousy From The Other Sects, Were The Public Education Committed To The Ministers Of A Particular One; And With More Reason Than In The Case Of Their Exclusion From The Legislative And Executive Functions.

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.

I Am An Epicurean. I Consider The Genuine (not The Imputed) Doctrines Of Epicurus As Containing Everything Rational In Moral Philosophy Which Greece And Rome Have Left Us.

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

Political Differences

Every Human Being Must Be Viewed According To What It Is Good For. For Not One Of Us, No, Not One, Is Perfect. And Were We To Love None Who Had Imperfection, This World Would Be A Desert For Our Love.

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.

The Idea Of Creating A National Bank I Do Not Concur In, Because It Seems Now Decided That Congress Has Not That Power (although I Sincerely Wish They Had It Exclusively), And Because I Think There Is Already A Vast Redundancy Rather Than A Scarcity Of Paper Medium.

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

On The Subject Of The History Of The American Revolution, You Ask Who Shall Write It? Who Can Write It? And Who Will Ever Be Able To Write It? Nobody, Except Merely Its External Facts... All Its Councils, Designs And Discussions Having Been Conducted By Congress [behind] Closed Doors - And No Members, As Far As I Know, Having Even Made Notes Of Them. These, Which Are The Life And Soul Of History, Must Forever Be Unknown.

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

Excessive Taxation . . . Will Carry Reason & Reflection To Every Man's Door, And Particularly In The Hour Of Election.

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.

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

Where The Principle Of Difference [between Political Parties] Is As Substantial And As Strongly Pronounced As Between The Republicans And The Monocrats Of Our Country, I Hold It As Honorable To Take A Firm And Decided Part And As Immoral To Pursue A Middle Line, As Between The Parties Of Honest Men And Rogues, Into Which Every Country Is Divided.

No Society Is So Precious As That Of One’s Own Family.

Victory And Defeat Are Each Of The Same Price.

Victory And Defeat

Those Who Don’t Read The Newspapers Are Better Off Than Those Who Do Insofar As Those Who Know Nothing Are Better Off Than Those Whose Heads Are Filled With Half-truths And Lies.

The Advertisement Is The Most Truthful Part Of A Newspaper.

Exercise And Application Produce Order In Our Affairs, Health Of Body, Cheerfulness Of Mind, And These Make Us Precious To Our Friends

I Have Never Conceived That Having Been In Public Life Required Me To Belie My Sentiments, Or To Conceal Them. Opinion And The Just Maintenance Of It Shall Never Be A Crime In My View, Nor Bring Injury On The Individual. I Never Will By Any Word Or Act, Bow To The Shrine Of Intolerance. I Never Had An Opinion In Politics Or Religion Which I Was Afraid To Own; A Reserve On These Subjects Might Have Procured Me More Esteem From Some People, But Less From Myself.

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

Nothing Can Stop The Man With The Right Mental Attitude From Achieving His Goal; Nothing On Earth Can Help The Man With The Wrong Mental Attitude.

I Never Before Knew The Full Value Of Trees....what Would I Not Give That The Trees Planted Nearest Round The House At Monticello Were Full Grown.

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

I Have Lived Temperately, Eating Little Animal Food, And That Not As An Aliment, So Much As A Condiment For The Vegetables, Which Constitute My Principal Diet.

Vegetarian Diet

I Am Sure That In Estimating Every Man's Value Either In Private Or Public Life, A Pure Integrity Is The Quality We Take First Into Calculation, And That Learning And Talents Are Only The Second.

Every Man Cannot Have His Way In All Things. If His Opinion Prevails At Some Times, He Should Acquiesce On Seeing That Of Others Preponderate At Other Times. Without This Mutual Disposition We Are Disjointed Individuals, But Not A Society.

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

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.

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

Men Of High Learning And Abilities Are Few In Every Country; And By Taking In Those Who Are Not So, The Able Part Of The Body Have Their Hands Tied By The Unable.

Every Man Wishes To Pursue His Occupation And To Enjoy The Fruits Of His Labours And The Produce Of His Property In Peace And Safety, And With The Least Possible Expense. When These Things Are Accomplished, All The Objects For Which Government Ought To Be Established Are Answered.

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

Perfect Happiness, I Believe, Was Never Intended By The Deity To Be The Lot Of One Of His Creatures In This World; But That He Has Very Much Put In Our Power The Nearness Of Our Approaches To It Is What I Have Steadfastly Believed.

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

The Bible Is The Cornerstone Of Liberty.

The Christian Priesthood, Finding The Doctrines Of Christ Leveled To Every Understanding, And Too Plain To Need Explanation, Saw, In The Mysticism Of Plato, Materials With Which They Might Build Up An Artificial System Which Might, From It's Indistinctness, Admit Everlasting Controversy, Give Employment For Their Order, And Introduce It To Profit, Power And Pre-eminence.

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

The Following [addition To The Bill Of Rights] Would Have Pleased Me: The People Shall Not Be Deprived Or Abridged Of Their Right To Speak, To Write, Or Otherwise To Publish Anything But False Facts Affecting Injuriously The Life, Liberty Or Reputation Of Others, Or Affecting The Peace Of The [united States] With Foreign Nations.

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

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

It Will Be Said That Great Societies Cannot Exist Without Government.

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

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.

The Government You Elect Is The Government You Deserve.

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.

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?

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

Our Ancestors ... Were Laborers, Not Lawyers.

My Views And Feelings (are) In Favor Of The Abolition Of War-and I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Disposition To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

The Bible Makes The Best People In The World.

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

I Have Sworn Upon The Altar Of God Eternal, Hostility Against Every Form Of Tyranny Over The Mind Of Man.

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

To Compel A Man To Furnish Contributions Of Money For The Propagation Of Opinions Which He Disbelieves And Abhors, Is Sinful And Tyrannical; . . . Even The Forcing Him To Support This Or That Teacher Of His Own Religious Persuasion, Is Depriving Him Of The Comfortable Liberty Of Giving His Contributions To The Particular Pastor Whose Morals He Would Make His Pattern. . . .

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

It Is Important To Strengthen The State Governments; And As This Cannot Be Done By Any Change In The Federal Constitution (for The Preservation Of That Is All We Need Contend For), It Must Be Done By The States Themselves, Erecting Such Barriers At The Constitutional Line As Cannot Be Surmounted Either By Themselves Or By The General Government. The Only Barrier In Their Power Is A Wise Government. A Weak One Will Lose Ground In Every Contest.

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.

We Need A Revolution Every 20 Years Just To Keep Government Honest.

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

We Have No Right To Prejudice Another In His Civil Enjoyments Because He Is Of Another Church.

Religious Freedom

When A Uniform Exercise Of Kindness To Prisoners On Our Part Has Been Returned By As Uniform Severity On The Part Of Our Enemies,you Must Excuse Me For Saying It Is High Time, By Other Lessons, To Teach Respect To The Dictates Of Humanity; In Such A Case, Retaliation Becomes An Act Of Benevolence.

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.

To Compel A Man To Furnish Contributions Of Money For The Propagation Of Opinions Which He Disbelieves And Abhors Is Sinful And Tyrannical...a Wise And Frugal Government...shall Not Take From The Mouth Of Labor The Bread It Has Earned...congress Has Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare But Only Those Specifically Enumerated...would It Not Be Better To Simplify The System Of Taxation Rather Than To Spread It Over Such A Variety Of Subjects And Pass Through So Many New Hands?

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

Inalienable Rights

The General (federal) Government Will Tend To Monarchy, Which Will Fortify Itself From Day To Day, Instead Of Working Its Own Cures.

I Like The Power Given The Legislature To Levy Taxes, And For That Reason Solely Approve Of The Greater House Being Chosen By The People Directly.

Among The Values Of Classical Learning I Estimate The Luxury Of Reading The Greek & Roman Authors In All The Beauties Of Their Originals ... I Think Myself More Indebted To My Father For This, Than For All The Other Luxuries His Cares And Affections Have Placed Within My Reach.

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

The Introduction Of So Powerful An Agent As Steam [to A Carriage On Wheels] Will Make A Great Change In The Situation Of Man.

The Rights Of The People To The Exercise And Fruits Of Their Own Industry Can Never Be Protected Against The Selfishness Of Rulers Not Subject To Their Control At Short Periods.

All Men Are Created Equal.

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

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

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

In A Virtuous And Free State, No Rewards Can Be So Pleasing To Sensible Minds, As Those Which Include The Approbation Of Our Fellow Citizens. My Great Pain Is, Lest My Poor Endeavours Should Fall Short Of The Kind Expectations Of My Country.

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