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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.

-Thomas Jefferson

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When We Consider How

Thomas Jefferson

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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.

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The Care Of Human Life And Happiness, And Not Their Destruction, Is The First And Only Object Of Good Government.

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

Lethargy Is The Forerunner Of Death To The Public Liberty.

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

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

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

You And I Have Formerly Seen Warm Debates And High Political Passions. But Gentlemen Of Different Politics Would Then Speak To Each Other And Separate The Business Of The Senate From That Of Society. It Is Not So Now. Men Who Have Been Intimate All Their Lives, Cross The Streets To Avoid Meeting, And Turn Their Heads Another Way, Lest They Should Be Obliged To Touch Their Hats. This May Do For Young Men With Whom Passion Is Enjoyment. But It Is Afflicting To Peaceable Minds. Tranquility Is The Old Man's Milk.

Preachers Dread The Advance Of Science As Witches Do The Approach Of Daylight.

The Late Rebellion In Massachusetts Has Given More Alarm Than I Think It Should Have Done. Calculate That One Rebellion In Thirteen States In The Course Of Eleven Years, Is But One For Each State In A Century And A Half. No Country Should Be So Long Without One. Nor Will Any Degree Of Power In The Hands Of Government Prevent Insurrections.

... I Am Not Afraid Of Priests. They Have Tried Upon Me All Their Various Batteries Of Pious Whining, Hypocritical Canting, Lying And Slandering. I Have Contemplated Their Order From The Magi Of The East To The Saints Of The West And I Have Found No Difference Of Character, But Of More Or Less Caution, In Proportion To Their Information Or Ignorance On Whom Their Interested Duperies Were To Be Played Off. Their Sway In New England Is Indeed Formidable. No Mind Beyond Mediocrity Dares There To Develop Itself.

Specie [gold And Silver Coin] Is The Most Perfect Medium Because It Will Preserve Its Own Level; Because, Having Intrinsic And Universal Value, It Can Never Die In Our Hands, And It Is The Surest Resource Of Reliance In Time Of War.

Our Fellow-citizens Think They Have A Right To Full Information, In A Case Of Such Great Concernment To Them. It Is Their Sweat Which Is To Earn All The Expenses Of The War, And Their Blood Which Is To Flow In Expiation Of The Causes Of It.

Who Will Govern The Governors? There Is Only One Force In The Nation That Can Be Depended Upon To Keep The Government Pure And The Governors Honest, And That Is The People Themselves. They Alone, If Well Informed, Are Capable Of Preventing The Corruption Of Power, And Of Restoring The Nation To Its Rightful Course If It Should Go Astray. They Alone Are The Safest Depository Of The Ultimate Powers Of Government.

The Happiness Of The Domestic Fireside Is The First Boon Of Heaven; And It Is Well It Is So, Since It Is That Which Is The Lot Of The Mass Of Mankind.

I Can Never Fear That Things Will Go Far Wrong Where Common Sense Has Fair Play.

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.

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.

It Is An Insult To Our Citizens To Question Whether They Are Rational Beings Or Not, And Blasphemy Against Religion To Suppose It Cannot Stand The Test Of Truth And Reason.

The Several States Composing The United States Of America Are Not United On The Principle Of Unlimited Submission To Their General Government

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.

Errors Of Opinion May Be Tolerated Where Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

Each Generation Has A Right To Choose For Itself The Form Of Government It Believes Most Promotive Of Its Happiness.

I Do Verily Believe That If The Principle Were To Prevail Of A Common Law Being In Force In The United States (which Principle Possesses The General Government At Once Of All The Powers Of The State Governments, And Reduces Us To A Single Consolidated Government), It Would Become The Most Corrupt Government On The Earth.

Millions Of Innocent Men, Women And Children, Since The Introduction Of Christianity, Have Been Burnt, Tortured, Fined And Imprisoned; Yet We Have Not Advanced One Inch Towards Uniformity. What Has Been The Effect Of Coercion? To Make One Half The World Fools, And The Other Half Hypocrites. To Support Roguery And Error All Over The Earth.

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.

If You Are Obliged To Neglect Any Thing, Let It Be Your Chemistry. It Is The Least Useful And The Least Amusing To A Country Gentleman Of All The Ordinary Branches Of Science.

The President Is Bound To Stop At The Limits Prescribed By Our Constitution And Law To The Authorities In His Hands, [and This] Would Apply In An Occasion Of Peace As Well As War.

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

We Have No Paupers ... The Great Mass Of Our [united States] Population Is Of Laborers; Our Rich, Who Can Live Without Labor, Either Manual Or Professional, Being Few, And Of Moderate Wealth. Most Of The Laboring Class Possess Property, Cultivate Their Own Lands, Have Families, And From The Demand For Their Labor Are Enabled To Exact From The Rich And The Competent Such Prices As Enable Them To Be Fed Abundantly, Clothed Above Mere Decency, To Labor Moderately And Raise Their Families. ... Can Any Condition Of Society Be More Desirable Than This?

You Have Not Been Mistaken In Supposing My Views And Feeling To Be In Favor Of The Abolition Of War. Of My Dispos[i]tion To Maintain Peace Until Its Condition Shall Be Made Less Tolerable Than That Of War Itself, The World Has Had Proofs, And More, Perhaps, Than It Has Approved. I Hope It Is Practicable, By Improving The Mind And Morals Of Society, To Lessen The Dispos[i]tion To War; But Of Its Abolition I Despair.

It Is For The Benefit Of Mankind To Mitigate The Horrors Of War As Much As Possible.

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.

Commerce With All Nations, Alliance With None, Should Be Our Motto.

The Whole History Of These Books (i.e. The Gospels) Is So Defective And Doubtful That It Seems Vain To Attempt Minute Enquiry Into It: And Such Tricks Have Been Played With Their Text, And With The Texts Of Other Books Relating To Them, That We Have A Right, From That Cause, To Entertain Much Doubt What Parts Of Them Are Genuine. In The New Testament There Is Internal Evidence That Parts Of It Have Proceeded From An Extraordinary Man; And That Other Parts Are Of The Fabric Of Very Inferior Minds. It Is As Easy To Separate Those Parts, As To Pick Out Diamonds From Dunghills.

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

The Authors Of The Gospels Were Unlettered And Ignorant Men And The Teachings Of Jesus Have Come To Us Mutilated, Misstated And Unintelligible.

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

A Government Held Together By The Bands Of Reason Only, Requires Much Compromise Of Opinion.

Tobacco Is A Culture Productive Of Infinite Wretchedness.

From The Dissensions Among Sects Themselves Arise Necessarily A Right Of Choosing And Necessity Of Deliberating To Which We Will Conform. But If We Choose For Ourselves, We Must Allow Others To Choose Also, And So Reciprocally, This Establishes Religious Liberty.

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

I Find That He Is Happiest Of Whom The World Says Least, Good Or Bad.

Bad Relationship

Men By Their Constitutions Are Naturally Divided Into Two Parties: 1. Those Who Fear And Distrust The People, And Wish To Draw All Powers From Them Into The Hands Of The Higher Classes. 2. Those Who Identify Themselves With The People, Have Confidence In Them, Cherish And Consider Them As The Most Honest And Safe, Although Not The Most Wise Depositary Of The Public Interests. In Every Country These Two Parties Exist, And In Every One Where They Are Free To Think, Speak, And Write, They Will Declare Themselves.

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.

Is It Less Dishonest To Do What Is Wrong Because It Is Not Expressly Prohibited By Written Law? Let Us Hope Our Moral Principles Are Not Yet In That Stage Of Degeneracy.

I Long To Be In The Midst Of The Children, And Have More Pleasure In Their Little Follies Than In The Wisdom Of The Wise.

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

Well, Page, I Do Wish The Devil Had Old Cooke, For I Am Sure I Never Was So Tired Of An Old Dull Scoundrel In My Life ... But The Old-fellows Say We Must Read To Gain Knowledge; And Gain Knowledge To Make Us Happy And Be Admired. Mere Jargon! Is There Any Such Thing As Happiness In This World? No.

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

[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

If I Had To Choose Between Government And A Free Press, I Would Choose A Free Press.

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?

Educate And Inform The Whole Mass Of The People.

Choice By The People Themselves Is Not Generally Distinguished For Its Wisdom.

There Are Two Subjects, Indeed, Which I Shall Claim A Right To Further As Long As I Breathe: The Public Education, And The Sub-division Of Counties Into Wards. I Consider The Continuance Of Republican Government As Absolutely Hanging On These Two Hooks.

The Habeas Corpus Secures Every Man Here, Alien Or Citizen, Against Everything Which Is Not Law, Whatever Shape It May Assume.

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

It Is True That In The Meantime We Are Suffering Deeply In Spirit, And Incurring The Horrors Of A War And Long Oppressions Of Enormous Public Debt.

Although We Are Free By The Law, We Are Not So In Practice.

We Are Now Trusting To Those Who Are Against Us In Position And Principle, To Fashion To Their Own Form The Minds And Affections Of Our Youth... This Canker Is Eating On The Vitals Of Our Existence, And If Not Arrested At Once, Will Be Beyond Remedy.

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

The Children Of Israel In The Wilderness, Led By A Cloud By Day, And A Pillar Of Fire By Night.

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.

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.

The Constitution Is A Mere Thing Of Wax In The Hands Of The Judiciary, Which They May Twist And Shape Into Any Form They Please.

The Purpose Of Government Is To Enable The People Of A Nation To Live In Safety And Happiness. Government Exists For The Interests Of The Governed, Not For The Governors.

No Government Ought To Be Without Censors; And Where The Press Is Free No One Ever Will.

Taxes Should Be Proportioned To What May Be Annually Spared By The Individual.

I Leave To Others The Sublime Delights Of Riding In The Storm, Better Pleased With Sound Sleep & A Warmer Berth Below It Encircled, With The Society Of Neighbors, Friends & Fellow Laborers Of The Earth Rather Than With Spies & Sycophants ... I Have No Ambition To Govern Men. It Is A Painful And Thankless Office.

The Course Of History Shows That As A Government Grows, Liberty Decreases.

All Things Here Appear To Me To Trudge On In One And The Same Round: We Rise In The Morning That We May Eat Breakfast, Dinner Andsupper And To Bed Again That We May Get Up The Next Morning And Do The Same: So That You Never Saw Two Peas More Alike Than Our Yesterday And To-day.

Every State Has A Natural Right In Cases Not Within The Compact (casus Non Faederis) To Nullify Of Their Own Authority All Assumptions Of Power By Others Within Their Limits. Without This Right, They Would Be Under The Dominion, Absolute And Unlimited, Of Whosoever Might Exercise This Right Of Judgment For Them.

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

[the Purpose Of A Written Constitution Is] To Bind Up The Several Branches Of Government By Certain Laws, Which, When They Transgress, Their Acts Shall Become Nullities; To Render Unnecessary An Appeal To The People, Or In Other Words A Rebellion, On Every Infraction Of Their Rights, On The Peril That Their Acquiescence Shall Be Construed Into An Intention To Surrender Those Rights.

The Evils Of War Are Great In Their Endurance, And Have A Long Reckoning For Ages To Come.

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

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

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.

But Is An Enemy So Execrable That Tho In Captivity His Wishes And Comforts Are To Be Disregarded And Even Crossed? I Think Not. It Is For The Benefit Of Mankind To Mitigate The Horrors Of War As Much As Possible.

Whensoever The General Government Assumes Undelegated Powers, Its Acts Are Unauthoritative, Void, And Of No Force.

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.

This I Hope Will Be The Age Of Experiments In Government, And That Their Basis Will Be Founded In Principles Of Honesty, Not Of Mere Force.

The Constitution On Which Our Union Rests, Shall Be Administered By Me [as President] According To The Safe And Honest Meaning Contemplated By The Plain Understanding Of The People Of The United States At The Time Of Its Adoption - A Meaning To Be Found In The Explanations Of Those Who Advocated, Not Those Who Opposed It, And Who Opposed It Merely Lest The Construction Should Be Applied Which They Denounced As Possible.

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

Libertarian Party

Democracies Have

I Join You Therefore In Branding As Cowardly The Idea That The Human Mind Is Incapable Of Further Advances.

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.

Christianity Neither Is, Nor Ever Was A Part Of The Common Law.

A Strong Body Makes The Mind Strong. As To The Species Of Exercises, I Advise The Gun. While This Gives Moderate Exercise To The Body, It Gives Boldness, Enterprise And Independence To The Mind. Games Played With The Ball, And Others Of That Nature, Are Too Violent For The Body And Stamp No Character On The Mind. Let Your Gun Therefore Be Your Constant Companion Of Your Walks.

Debt And Revolution Are Inseparable As Cause And Effect.

On Every Unauthoritative Exercise Of Power By The Legislature Must The People Rise In Rebellion Or Their Silence Be Construed Into A Surrender Of That Power To Them? If So, How Many Rebellions Should We Have Had Already?

Congress Has Not Unlimited Powers To Provide For The General Welfare, But Only Those Specifically Enumerated.

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.

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

No Man Shall Be Compelled To Frequent Or Support Any Religious Worship, Place, Or Ministry Whatsoever.

The Best Defense Of Democracy Is An Informed Electorate.

The Physician Is Happy In The Attachment Of The Families In Which He Practices. All Think He Has Saved One Of Them, And He Finds Himself Everywhere A Welcome Guest, A Home In Every House.

Ministers And Merchants Love Nobody.

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.

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

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

I Have The Consolation Of Having Added Nothing To My Private Fortune During My Public Service, And Of Retiring With Hands Clean As They Are Empty.

It Is While We Are Young That The Habit Of Industry Is Formed. If Not Then, It Never Is Afterwards. The Fortune Of Our Lives Therefore Depends On Employing Well The Short Period Of Our Youth.

Everything Yields To Diligence.

Motivational Work

By Oft Repeating An Untruth, Men Come To Believe It Themselves.

Some Other Natural Rights... [have] Not Yet Entered Into Any Declaration Of Rights.

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 Feel A Much Greater Interest In Knowing What Has Passed Two Or Three Thousand Years Ago, Than In What Is Now Passing. I Read Nothing, Therefore, But Of The Heroes Of Troy, ... Of Pompey And Caesar, And Of Augustus Too.

If The Measures Which Have Been Pursued Are Approved By The Majority, It Is The Duty Of The Minority To Acquiesce And Conform.

Question Boldly Even The Existence Of God.

Existence Of God

We Often Repent Of What We Have Said, But Never, Never, Of That Which We Have Not.

I See Now Our Fireside Formed Into A Groupe, No One Member Of Which Has A Fibre In Their Composition Which Can Ever Produce Any Jarring Or Jealousies Among Us. No Irregular Passions, No Dangerous Bias, Which May Render Problematical The Future Fortunes And Happiness Of Our Descendants.

Though [the People] May Acquiesce, They Cannot Approve What They Do Not Understand.

The Merchant Has No Country .

He [washington] Has Often Declared To Me That He Considered Our New Constitution As An Experiment On The Practicability Of Republican Government, And With What Dose Of Liberty Man Could Be Trusted For His Own Good; That He Was Determined The Experiment Should Have A Fair Trial, And Would Lose The Last Drop Of His Blood In Support Of It. And These Declarations He Repeated To Me The Oftener And The More Pointedly.

To Take From One Because It Is Thought That His Own Industry And That Of His Father's Has Acquired Too Much, In Order To Spare To Others, Who, Or Whose Fathers Have Not Exercised Equal Industry And Skill, Is To Violate Arbitrarily The First Principle Of Association-the Guarantee To Every One Of A Free Exercise Of His Industry And The Fruits Acquired By It.

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

The Religion-builders Have So Distorted And Deformed The Doctrines Of Jesus, So Muffled Them In Mysticism, Fancies, And Falsehoods.

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

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.

The Declaration Of Independence . . . [is The] Declaratory Charter Of Our Rights, And The Rights Of Man.

No One More Sincerely Wishes The Spread Of Information Among Mankind Than I Do, And None Has Greater Confidence In It's Effect Towards Supporting Free & Good Government.

The Only Security Of All Is In A Free Press. The Force Of Public Opinion Cannot Be Resisted When Permitted Freely To Be Expressed. The Agitation It Produces Must Be Submitted To. It Is Necessary, To Keep He Waters Pure.

The Greatest Good We Can Do Our Country Is To Heal Its Party Divisions And Make Them One People.

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

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

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.

Laws And Institutions Must Go Hand In Hand With The Progress Of The Human Mind. . . . We Might As Well Require A Man To Wear The Coat Which Fitted Him When A Boy As Civilized Society To Remain Forever Under The Regimen Of Their Barbarous Ancestors.

Resolved ... That It Would Be A Dangerous Delusion Were A Confidence In The Men Of Our Choice To Silence Our Fears For The Safety Of Our Rights: That Confidence Is Everywhere The Parent Of Despotism - Free Government Is Founded In Jealousy, And Not In Confidence.

A Right To Property Is Founded In Our Natural Wants, In The Means With Which We Are Endowed To Satisfy These Wants, And The Right To What We Acquire By Those Means Without Violating The Similar Rights Of Other Sensible Beings.

I Am Not Among Those Who Fear The People. They, And Not The Rich, Are Our Dependence For Continued Freedom.

Government Debt

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

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

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

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

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.

Unless The Mass Retains Sufficient Control Over Those Entrusted With The Powers Of Their Government, These Will Be Perverted To Their Own Oppression, And To The Perpetuation Of Wealth And Power In The Individuals And Their Families Selected For The Trust.

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 Bloom Of Monticello Is Chilled By My Solitude.

I Think All The World Would Gain By Setting Commerce At Perfect Liberty.

The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty At The Same Time.

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

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.

The Great Object Of My Fear Is The Federal Judiciary. That Body, Like Gravity, Ever Acting, With Noiseless Foot, And Unalarming Advance, Gaining Ground Step By Step, And Holding What It Gains, Is Ingulfing Insidiously The Special Governments Into The Jaws Of That Which Feeds Them.

I Believe In Good Luck, And The Harder I Work And The More I Believe In Myself, The Luckier I Get.

He Alone Who Walks Strict And Upright, And Who, In Matters Of Opinion, Will Be Contented That Others Should Be As Free As Himself And Acquiesce When His Opinion Is Freely Overruled, Will Attain His Object In The End.

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

I Pledge Undying Hostility To Any Government Restrictions On The Free Minds Of The People.

A Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another Candle.

Founding Fathers Democracy

Easter Was When They Nailed Him To The Cross. And He Never Said A Mumbling Word.

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.

This Institution Will Be Based On The Illimitable Freedom Of The Human Mind. For Here We Are Not Afraid To Follow Truth Wherever It May Lead, Not Tolerate Error As Long As Reason Is Left Free To Combat It.

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

Money, Not Morality, Is The Principle Commerce Of Civilized Nations.

Why Suspend The Habeas Corpus In Insurrections And Rebellions? Examine The History Of England. See How Few Of The Cases Of The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Law Have Been Worthy Of That Suspension. They Have Been Either Real Treasons, Wherein The Parties Might As Well Have Been Charged At Once, Or Sham Plots, Where It Was Shameful They Should Ever Have Been Suspected. Yet For The Few Cases Wherein The Suspension Of The Habeas Corpus Has Done Real Good, That Operation Is Now Become Habitual And The Minds Of The Nation Almost Prepared To Live Under Its Constant Suspension.

How To Check These Unconstitutional Invasions Of Rights By The Federal Judiciary? Not By Impeachment In The First Instance, But By A Strong Protestation Of Both Houses Of Congress That Such And Such Doctrines Advanced By The Supreme Court Are Contrary To The Constitution; And If Afterwards They Relapse Into The Same Heresies, Impeach And Set The Whole Adrift. For What Was The Government Divided Into Three Branches, But That Each Should Watch Over The Others And Oppose Their Usurpations?

The Dominion Which The Banking Institutions Have Obtained Over The Minds Of Our Citizens...must Be Broken, Or It Will Break Us.

No Government Should Be Without Critics. If Its Intentions Are Good Then It Has Nothing To Fear From Criticism.

Heliotrope. To Be Sowed In The Spring. A Delicious Flower, But I Suspect It Must Be Planted In Boxes And Kept In The House In The Winter. The Smell Rewards The Care.

The Variety Of Opinions Leads To Questions. Questions Lead To Truth.

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.

And Botany I Rank With The Most Valuable Sciences, Whether We Consider Its Subjects As Furnishing The Principal Subsistence Of Life To Man And Beast, Delicious Varieties For Our Tables, Refreshments From Our Orchards, The Adornments Of Our Flower-borders, Shade And Perfume Of Our Groves, Materials For Our Buildings, Or Medicaments For Our Bodies.

Take More Pleasure In Giving What Is Best To Another Than In Having It For Yourself, And Then All The World Will Love You.

The Hole And The Patch Should Be Commensurate.

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

Big Banks Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies, And The Practice Of Borrowing And Spending Money To Be Paid Back By The Next Generation Is Stealing From Their Future.

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

War...is As Much A Punishment To The Punisher As To The Sufferer.

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

The Olive Tree Is Surely The Richest Gift Of Heaven. I Can Scarcely Expect Bread.

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.

Sir, Your Letter Of The 15th Is Received, But Age Has Long Since Obliged Me To Withhold My Mind From Speculations Of The Difficulty Of Those Of Your Letter, That Their Are Means Of Artificial Buoyancy By Which Man May Be Supported In The Air, The Balloon Has Proved, And That Means Of Directing It May Be Discovered Is Against No Law Of Nature And Is Therefore Possible As In The Case Of Birds, But To Do This By Mechanical Means Alone In A Medium So Rare And Unassisting As Air Must Have The Aid Of Some Principal Not Yet Generally Known.

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.

He Who Is Permitted By Law To Have No Property Of His Own, Can With Difficulty Conceive That Property Is Founded In Anything But Force.

But The Fact Being Once Established, That The Press Is Impotent When It Abandons Itself To Falsehood, I Leave To Others To Restore It To Its Strength, By Recalling It Within The Pale Of Truth. Within That, It Is A Noble Institution, Equally The Friend Of Science And Of Civil Liberty.

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

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.

The Cement Of This Union Is In The Heart Blood Of Every American. I Do Not Believe There Is On Earth A Government Established On So Immovable A Basis.

Resort Is Had To Ridicule Only When Reason Is Against Us.

In A Republican Nation Whose Citizens Are To Be Led By Reason And Persuasion And Not By Force, The Art Of Reasoning Becomes Of First Importance.... Reason And Persuasion Are The Only Practicable Instruments. To Make Way For These, Free Inquiry Must Be Indulged.... Let Them Take Arms. The Remedy Is To Set Them Right As To The Facts, Pardon And Pacify Them.

I Wish I Was A Despot That I Might Save The Noble, The Beautiful Trees That Are Daily Falling Sacrifice To The Cupidity Of Their Owners, Or The Necessity Of The Poor. The Unnecessary Felling Of A Tree, Perhaps The Growth Of Centuries, Seems To Me A Crime Little Short Of Murder.

Religious Institutions That Use Government Power In Support Of Themselves And Force Their Views On Persons Of Other Faiths, Or Of No Faith, Undermine All Our Civil Rights. Moreover, State Support Of An Established Religion Tends To Make The Clergy Unresponsive To Their Own People, And Leads To Corruption Within Religion Itself. Erecting The 'wall Of Separation Between Church And State,' Therefore, Is Absolutely Essential In A Free Society.

To All Of Which Is Added A Selection From The Elementary Schools Of Subjects Of The Most Promising Genius, Whose Parents Are Too Poor To Give Them Further Education, To Be Carried At The Public Expense Through The College And University. The Object Is To Bring Into Action That Mass Of Talents Which Lies Buried In Poverty In Every Country, For Want Of The Means Of Development, And Thus Give Activity To A Mass Of Mind, Which, In Proportion To Our Population, Shall Be Double Or Treble Of What It Is In Most Countries.

I Don't Want Them To Kill No Hog . . . . I Want A Man To Go To That Chair, On His Own Two Feet.

Doubts And Jealousies Often Beget The Facts They Fear.

The Man Who Never Looks Into A Newspaper Is Better Informed Than He Who Reads Them, In-as-much As He Who Knows Nothing Is Nearer To The Truth Than He Whose Mind Is Filled With Falsehood And Errors.

The Reason That Christianity Is The Best Friend Of Government Is Because Christianity Is The Only Religion That Changes The Heart.

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

No Freeman Shall Be Debarred The Use Of Arms.

Second Amendment

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.

I Never Before Knew The Full Value Of Trees. Under Them I Breakfast, Dine, Write, Read And Receive My Company.

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.

...in War, They Will Kill Some Of Us; We Shall Destroy All Of Them

We Never Repent Of Having Eaten Too Little.

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.

We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes, And Our Sacred Honour.

Unalienable Rights

Inalienable Rights

The Constitutional Freedom Of Religion Is The Most Inalienable And Sacred Of All Human Rights

If Our Legislature Does Not Heartily Push Our University [of Virginia] We Must Send Our Children For Education To Kentucky [transylvania College] Or Cambridge [harvard College]. The Latter Will Return Them To Us As Fanatics And Tories, The Former Will Keep Them To Add To Their Population.

If We Can But Prevent The Government From Wasting The Labours Of The People, Under The Pretence Of Taking Care Of Them, They Must Become Happy.

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.

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.

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