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You Will Think Me Transported With Enthusiasm But I Am Not. — I Am Well Aware Of The Toil And Blood And Treasure, That It Will Cost Us To Maintain This Declaration, And Support And Defend These States. — Yet Through All The Gloom I Can See The Rays Of Ravishing Light And Glory. I Can See That The End Is More Than Worth All The Means. And That Posterity Will Tryumph In That Days Transaction, Even Altho We Should Rue It, Which I Trust In God We Shall Not.

-John Adams

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You Will Think Me

John Adams

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You Will Think Me Transported With Enthusiasm But I Am Not. — I Am Well Aware Of The Toil And Blood And Treasure, That It Will Cost Us To Maintain This Declaration, And Support And Defend These States. — Yet Through All The Gloom I Can See The Rays Of Ravishing Light And Glory. I Can See That The End Is More Than Worth All The Means. And That Posterity Will Tryumph In That Days Transaction, Even Altho We Should Rue It, Which I Trust In God We Shall Not.

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The National Defense Is One Of The Cardinal Duties Of A Statesman.

Religion And Virtue Are The Only Foundations, Not Of Republicanism And Of All Free Government, But Of Social Felicity Under All Government And In All The Combinations Of Human Society.

Human Government Is More Or Less Perfect As It Approaches Nearer Or Diverges Farther From The Imitation Of This Perfect Plan Of Divine And Moral Government.

The True Source Of Our Sufferings Has Been Our Timidity.

But All Provisions That He (god) Has Made For The Gratification Of Our Senses…are Much Inferior To The Provision, The Wonderful Provision That He Has Made For The Gratification Of Our Nobler Powers Of Intelligence And Reason. He Has Given Us Reason To Find Out The Truth, And The Real Design And True End Of Our Existence.

If We Do Not Lay Out Ourselves In The Service Of Mankind Whom Should We Serve?

Human Nature Itself Is Evermore An Advocate For Liberty. There Is Also In Human Nature A Resentment Of Injury, And Indignation Against Wrong. A Love Of Truth And A Veneration Of Virtue. These Amiable Passions, Are The "latent Spark" . . . If The People Are Capable Of Understanding, Seeing And Feeling The Differences Between True And False, Right And Wrong, Virtue And Vice, To What Better Principle Can The Friends Of Mankind Apply Than To The Sense Of This Difference?

One Useless Man Is A Shame, Two Is A Law Firm, And Three Is A Congress.

We Have No Government Armed With Power Capable Of Contending With Human Passions Unbridled By Morality And Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge Or Gallantry Would Break The Strongest Cords Of Our Constitution As A Whale Goes Through A Net. Our Constitution Is Designed Only For A Moral And Religious People. It Is Wholly Inadequate For Any Other.

Politics Are A Labyrinth Without A Clue.

The Way To Secure Liberty Is To Place It In The People's Hands, That Is, To Give Them The Power At All Times To Defend It In The Legislature And In The Courts Of Justice.

A Single Assembly Is Liable To All The Vices, Follies, And Frailties Of An Individual; Subject To Fits Of Humor, Starts Of Passion, Flights Of Enthusiasm, Partialities, Or Prejudice, And Consequently Productive Of Hasty Results And Absurd Judgments. And All These Errors Ought To Be Corrected And Defects Supplied By Some Controlling Power.

A Constitution Founded On These Principles Introduces Knowledge Among The People, And Inspires Them With A Conscious Dignity Becoming Freemen; A General Emulation Takes Place, Which Causes Good Humor, Sociability, Good Manners, And Good Morals To Be General. That Elevation Of Sentiment Inspired By Such A Government, Makes The Common People Brave And Enterprising. That Ambition Which Is Inspired By It Makes Them Sober, Industrious, And Frugal.

The Appearance Of Religion Only On Sunday Proves That It Is Only An Appearance.

Resistance To Sudden Violence, For The Preservation Not Only Of My Person, My Limbs, And Life, But Of My Property, Is An Indisputable Right Of Nature Which I Have Never Surrendered To The Public By The Compact Of Society, And Which Perhaps, I Could Not Surrender If I Would.

We Shall, By And By, Want A World Of Hemp More For Our Own Consumption.

You Will Ever Remember That All The End Of Study Is To Make You A Good Man And A Useful Citizen.

Inspirational Life

A Representative Assembly, Although Extremely Well Qualified, And Absolutely Necessary, As A Branch Of The Legislative, Is Unfit To Exercise The Executive Power, For Want Of Two Essential Properties, Secrecy And Dispatch.

But Before Any Great Things Are Accomplished, A Memorable Change Must Be Made In The System Of Education And Knowledge Must Become So General As To Raise The Lower Ranks Of Society Nearer To The Higher. The Education Of A Nation, Instead Of Being Confined To A Few Schools & Universities, For The Instruction Of The Few, Must Become The National Care And Expence, For The Information Of The Many.

Every Problem Is An Opportunity In Disguise.

I Do Not Like The Late Resurrection Of The Jesuits. . . . If Ever Any Congregation Of Men Could Merit Eternal Perdition On Earth, And In Hell, According To These Historians, Though, Like Pascal, True Catholics, It Is This Company Of Loyolas.

I Request That They May Be Considered In Confidence, Until The Members Of Congress Are Fully Possessed Of Their Contents, And Shall Have Had Opportunity To Deliberate On The Consequences Of Their Publication; After Which Time, I Submit Them To Your Wisdom.

Twenty Times, In The Course Of My Late Reading, Have I Been On The Point Of Breaking Out, 'this Would Be The Best Of All Possible Worlds, If There Were No Religion In It!' But In This Exclamation, I Should Have Been As Fanatical As Bryant Or Cleverly. Without Religion, This World Would Be Something Not Fit To Be Mentioned In Public Company-i Mean Hell.

God Is An Essence That We Know Nothing Of. Until This Awful Blasphemy Is Got Rid Of, There Never Will Be Any Liberal Science In The World.

The Only Thing Most People Do Better Than Anyone Else Is Read Their Own Handwriting.

A Government Of Laws, And Not Of Men.

Let Them Revere Nothing But Religion, Morality And Liberty.

Founding Fathers Religion

The Dons, The Bashaws, The Grandees, The Patricians, The Sachems, The Nabobs, Call Them By What Names You Please, Sigh And Groan And Fret, And Sometimes Stamp And Foam And Curse, But All In Vain. The Decree Is Gone Forth, And It Cannot Be Recalled, That A More Equal Liberty Than Has Prevailed In Other Parts Of The Earth Must Be Established In America.

Remember, Democracy Never Lasts Long. It Soon Wastes, Exhausts, And Murders Itself. There Never Was A Democracy Yet That Did Not Commit Suicide.

The Rights Of Englishmen Are Derived From God, Not From King Or Parliament, And Would Be Secured By The Study Of History, Law, And Tradition.

We Hold That Each Man Is The Best Judge Of His Own Interest.

There Exists, I Believe, Throughout The Whole Christian World, A Law Which Makes It Blasphemy To Deny Or Doubt The Divine Inspiration Of All The Books Of The Old And New Testaments, From Genesis To Revelations. In Most Countries Of Europe It Is Punished By Fire At The Stake, Or The Rack, Or The Wheel... Now, What Free Inquiry, When A Writer Must Surely Encounter The Risk Of Fine Or Imprisonment For Adducing Any Argument For Investigating The Divine Authority Of Those Books?

Old Minds Are Like Old Horses; You Must Exercise Them If You Wish To Keep Them In Working Order.

The Longer I Live, The More I Read, The More Patiently I Think, And The More Anxiously I Inquire, The Less I Seem To Know...do Justly. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly [with Your God]. This Is Enough.

If The Multitude Is Possessed Of The Balance Of Real Estate, The Multitude Will Have The Balance Of Power, And In That Case The Multitude Will Take Care Of The Liberty, Virtue, And Interest Of The Multitude In All Acts Of Government.

The Law No Passion Can Disturb. 'tis Void Of Desire And Fear, Lust And Anger. 'tis Mens Sine Affectu, Written Reason, Retaining Some Measure Of The Divine Perfection. It Does Not Enjoin That Which Pleases A Weak, Frail Man, But, Without Any Regard To Persons, Commands That Which Is Good And Punishes Evil In All, Whether Rich Or Poor, High Or Low.

The Question Before The Human Race Is, Whether The God Of Nature Shall Govern The World By His Own Laws, Or Whether Priests And Kings Shall Rule It By Fictitious Miracles? Or, In Other Words, Whether Authority Is Originally In The People? Or Whether It Has Descended For 1800 Years In A Succession Of Popes And Bishops, Or Brought Down From Heaven By The Holy Ghost In The Form Of A Dove, In A Phial Of Holy Oil?

A Native Of America Who Cannot Read Or Write Is . . . As Rare As A Comet Or An Earthquake.

No Truth Is More Clearly Taught In The Volume Of Inspiration, Nor Any More Fully Demonstrated By The Experience Of All Ages, Than That A Deep Sense And A Due Acknowledgment Of The Governing Providence Of A Supreme Being And The Accountableness Of Men To Him As The Searcher Of Hearts And Righteous Distributor Of Rewards And Punishments Are Conducive Equally To The Happiness And Rectitude Of Individuals And To The Well Being Of Communities.

But America Is A Great, Unwieldy Body. Its Progress Must Be Slow. It Is Like A Large Fleet Sailing Under Convoy. The Fleetest Sailors Must Wait For The Dullest And Slowest. Like A Coach And Six-the Swiftest Horses Must Be Slackened And The Slowest Quickened, That All May Keep An Even Pace.

Our Constitution Was Made Only For A Moral And Religious People. It Is Wholly Inadequate To The Government Of Any Other.

I Wish I Could Lay Down Beside Her And Die Too.

As Unbalanced Parties Of Every Description Can Never Tolerate A Free Inquiry Of Any Kind, When Employed Against Themselves, The License, And Even The Most Temperate Freedom Of The Press, Soon Excite Resentment And Revenge.

Posterity! You Will Never Know How Much It Cost The Present Generation To Preserve Your Freedom! I Hope You Will Make A Good Use Of It.

Will You Tell Me How To Prevent Riches From Producing Luxury? Will You Tell Me How To Prevent Luxury From Producing Effeminacy, Intoxication, Extravagance, Vice And Folly?

Remember, Democracy Never Lasts Long. It Soon Wastes, Exhausts, And Murders Itself. There Never Was A Democracy Yet That Did Not Commit Suicide. It Is In Vain To Say That Democracy Is Less Vain, Less Proud, Less Selfish, Less Ambitious, Or Less Avaricious Than Aristocracy Or Monarchy. It Is Not True, In Fact, And Nowhere Appears In History. Those Passions Are The Same In All Men, Under All Forms Of Simple Government, And When Unchecked, Produce The Same Effects Of Fraud, Violence, And Cruelty.

National Defense Is One Of The Cardinal Duties Of A Statesman, And That There Is An Obligation To Perform Such A Duty Absolutely Irrespective Of Party Politics Or Factional Differences.

There Is Danger From All Men. The Only Maxim Of A Free Government Ought To Be To Trust No Man Living With Power To Endanger The Public Liberty.

Borrowed Eloquence, If It Contains As Good Stuff, Is As Good As Own Eloquence

Let Every Sluice Of Knowledge Be Opened And Set A-flowing.

The United States Of America Have Exhibited, Perhaps, The First Example Of Governments Erected On The Simple Principles Of Nature. . . . [in] The Formation Of The American Governments . . . It Will Never Be Pretended That Any Persons Employed In That Service Had Interviews With The Gods, Or Were In Any Degree Under The Influence Of Heaven. . . . These Governments Were Contrived Merely By The Use Of Reason And The Senses.

What Havoc, Said I To Myself, Would These Manners Make In America! Our Governors, Our Judges, Our Senators Or Representatives, And Even Our Ministers, Would Be Appointed By Harlots, For Money; And Their Judgments, Decrees, And Decisions, Be Sold To Repay Themselves, Or, Perhaps, To Procure The Smiles Of Profligate Females.

Power Always Sincerely, Conscientiously, De Très Bon Foi, Believes Itself Right. Power Always Thinks It Has A Great Soul And Vast Views, Beyond The Comprehension Of The Weak.

The Hebrews Have Done More To Civilize Men Than Any Other Nation: The Doctrine Of A Supreme, Intelligent Sovereign Of The Universe, I Believe To Be The Great Essential Principle Of All Morality, And Consequently Of All Civilization.

Government Is Nothing More Than The Combined Force Of Society, Or The United Power Of The Multitude, For The Peace, Order, Safety, Good And Happiness Of The People.

Those Who Trade Liberty For Security Have Neither.

The Happiness Of Man, As Well As His Dignity, Consists In Virtue.

Politics Are The Divine Science, After All.

In Politics The Middle Way Is None At All.

I Drink No Cider, But Feast On Philadelphia Beer.

Slavery Is A Foul Contagion In The Human Character.

Admire And Adore The Author Of The Telescopic Universe, Love And Esteem The Work, Do All In Your Power To Lessen Ill, And Increase Good, But Never Assume To Comprehend.

[l]iberty Must At All Hazards Be Supported. We Have A Right To It, Derived From Our Maker. But If We Had Not, Our Fathers Have Earned And Bought It For Us, At The Expense Of Their Ease, Their Estates, Their Pleasure, And Their Blood.

Had I Been Chosen President Again, I Am Certain I Could Not Have Lived Another Year.

By The Former Of These (canon Law), The Most Refined, Sublime, Extensive, And Astonishing Constitution Of Policy That Ever Was Conceived By The Mind Of Man Was Framed By The Romish Clergy For The Aggrandizement Of Their Own Order.

Be Not Intimidated... Nor Suffer Yourselves To Be Wheedled Out Of Your Liberties By Any Pretense Of Politeness, Delicacy, Or Decency. These, As They Are Often Used, Are But Three Different Names For Hypocrisy, Chicanery And Cowardice.

Whenever Serious Art Loses Track Of Its Roots In The Vernacular, Then It Begins To Atrophy.

You Will Never Be Alone With A Poet In Your Pocket.

The Dignity And Stability Of Government In All Its Branches, The Morals Of The People, And Every Blessing Of Society Depend So Much Upon An Upright And Skillful Administration Of Justice, That The Judicial Power Ought To Be Distinct From Both The Legislative And Executive, And Independent Upon Both, That So It May Be A Check Upon Both, As Both Should Be Checks Upon That.

The Declaration Of Independence I Always Considered As A Theatrical Show. Jefferson Ran Away With All The Stage Effect Of That... And All The Glory Of It.

The World Grows More Enlightened. Knowledge Is More Equally Diffused.

It Is Much Easier To Pull Down A Government, In Such A Conjuncture Of Affairs As We Have Seen, Than To Build Up, At Such A Season As The Present.

Children Should Be Educated And Instructed In The Principles Of Freedom.

Suppose A Nation, Rich And Poor, High And Low, Ten Millions In Number, All Assembled Together; Not More Than One Or Two Millions Will Have Lands, Houses, Or Any Personal Property; If We Take Into The Account The Women And Children, Or Even If We Leave Them Out Of The Question, A Great Majority Of Every Nation Is Wholly Destitute Of Property, Except A Small Quantity Of Clothes, And A Few Trifles Of Other Movables.

The Hebrews Have Done More To Civilize Men Than Any Other Nation. If I Were An Atheist, And Believed Blind Eternal Fate, I Should Still Believe That Fate Had Ordained The Jews To Be The Most Essential Instrument For Civilizing The Nations.

A Question Arises Whether All The Powers Of Government, Legislative, Executive, And Judicial, Shall Be Left In This Body? I Think A People Cannot Be Long Free, Nor Ever Happy, Whose Government Is In One Assembly.

As The Government Of The United States Is Not, In Any Sense, Founded On The Christian Religion; As It Has In Itself No Character Of Enmity Against The Laws, Religion Or Tranquility Of Musselmen [muslims] ... It Is Declared ... That No Pretext Arising From Religious Opinion Shall Ever Product An Interruption Of The Harmony Existing Between The Two Countries.... The United States Is Not A Christian Nation Any More Than It Is A Jewish Or A Mohammedan Nation.

Property Is Surely A Right Of Mankind As Real As Liberty.

I Am Quite Content To Come Home And Go To Farming, Be A Select Man, And Owe No Man Any Thing But Good Will. There I Can Get A Little Health And Teach My Boys To Be Lawyers.

It Is Not Only The Juror's Right, But His Duty To Find The Verdict According To His Own Best Understanding, Judgment And Conscience, Though In Direct Opposition To The Instruction Of The Court.

The Good Of The Governed Is The End, And Rewards And Punishments Are The Means, Of All Government. The Government Of The Supreme And All-perfect Mind, Over All His Intellectual Creation, Is By Proportioning Rewards To Piety And Virtue, And Punishments To Disobedience And Vice. ... The Joys Of Heaven Are Prepared, And The Horrors Of Hell In A Future State, To Render The Moral Government Of The Universe Perfect And Complete. Human Government Is More Or Less Perfect, As It Approaches Nearer Or Diverges Further From An Imitation Of This Perfect Plan Of Divine And Moral Government.

A Desire To Be Observed, Considered, Esteemed, Praised, Beloved, And Admired By His Fellows Is One Of The Earliest As Well As The Keenest Dispositions Discovered In The Heart Of Man.

In General, Our Generals Were Outgeneralled.

Did You Ever See A Portrait Of A Great Man Without Perceiving Strong Traits Of Pain And Anxiety?

As The Government Of The United States Of America Is Not In Any Sense Founded On The Christian Religion, - As It Has In Itself No Character Of Enmity Against The Laws, Religion Or Tranquility Of Musselmen, - And As The Said States Never Have Entered Into Any War Or Act Of Hostility Against Any Mehomitan Nation, It Is Declared By The Parties That No Pretext Arising From Religious Opinions Shall Ever Produce An Interruption Of The Harmony Existing Between The Two Countries.

I Was Very Strenuous For Retaining And Insisting On It [law Of Nature], As A Resource To Which We Might Be Driven By Parliament Much Sooner Than We Were Aware.

The Consequences Arising From The Continual Accumulation Of Public Debts In Other Countries Ought To Admonish Us To Prevent Their Growth In Our Own.

To Be Good, And To Do Good, Is All We Have To Do.

I Had Heard My Father Say That He Never Knew A Piece Of Land Run Away Or Break.

I Do Not Say That Democracy Has Been More Pernicious On The Whole, And In The Long Run, Than Monarchy Or Aristocracy. Democracy Has Never Been And Never Can Be So Durable As Aristocracy Or Monarchy; But While It Lasts, It Is More Bloody Than Either.

Democracies Have

The General Principles On Which The Fathers Achieved Independence Were The General Principles Of Christianity. I Will Avow That I Then Believed, And Now Believe, That Those General Principles Of Christianity Are As Eternal And Immutable As The Existence And Attributes Of God.

Ambition Is One Of The Ungovernable Passions Of The Human Heart. The Love Of Power Is Insatiable And Uncontrollable.

The Europeans Are All Deeply Tainted With Prejudices, Both Ecclesiastical And Temporal, Which They Can Never Get Rid Of. They Are All Infected With Episcopal And Presbyterian Creeds, And Confessions Of Faith. They All Believe That Great Principle Which Has Produced This Boundless Universe, Newton's Universe And Herschell's Universe, Came Down To This Little Ball, To Be Spit Upon By Jews. And Until This Awful Blasphemy Is Got Rid Of, There Never Will Be Any Liberal Science In The World.

An Honest, Sensible, Humane Man, . . . Laboring To Do Good Rather Than Be Rich, To Be Useful Rather Than Make A Show, Living In Modest Simplicity . . . Is Really The Most Respectable Man In Society, [and] Makes Himself And All About Him Most Happy.

I Would Define Liberty To Be A Power To Do As We Would Be Done By. The Definition Of Liberty To Be The Power Of Doing Whatever The Law Permits, Meaning The Civil Laws, Does Not Seem Satisfactory.

Arms In The Hands Of Citizens May Be Used At Individual Discretion... In Private Self-defense.

Conclude Not From All This That I Have Renounced The Christian Religion. . . . Far From It. I See In Every Page Something To Recommend Christianity In Its Purity, And Something To Discredit Its Corruptions. . . . The Ten Commandments And The Sermon On The Mount Contain My Religion.

If There Is A Form Of Government, Then, Whose Principle And Foundation Is Virtue, Will Not Every Sober Man Acknowledge It Better Calculated To Promote The General Happiness Than Any Other Form?

But A Constitution Of Government Once Changed From Freedom, Can Never Be Restored. Liberty, Once Lost, Is Lost Forever.

I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessing On This House, And On All That Shall Hereafter Inhabit It. May None But Honest And Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof!

Have You Ever Found In History, One Single Example Of A Nation, Thoroughly Corrupted, That Was Afterwards Restored To Virtue? And Without Virtue There Can Be No Political Liberty.

A Lawyer Once Told A Jury That The Person His Client Stood Accused Of Having Killed Was About To Walk Through The Courtroom Door. When The Jurors Looked Startled, The Lawyer Asserted That If Those Jurors Had Wondered, Even For One Second That The Victim Might Appear, That Belief Constituted Enough Reasonable Doubt For Them To Find His Client Innocent.

All Great Changes Are Irksome To The Human Mind, Especially Those Which Are Attended With Great Dangers And Uncertain Effects.

When Philosophic Reason Is Clear And Certain By Intuition Or Necessary Induction, No Subsequent Revelation Supported By Prophecies Or Miracles Can Supersede It.

This Is A Revolution, Damn It! We're Going To Have To Offend Somebody!

Riches Attract Attention, Consideration, And Congratulations Of Mankind.

Congratulations

Our Whole System Of Banks Is A Violation Of Every Honest Principle Of Banks. There Is No Honest Bank But A Bank Of Deposit. A Bank That Issues Paper At Interest Is A Pickpocket Or A Robber. But The Delusion Will Have Its Course. ... An Aristocracy Is Growing Out Of Them That Will Be As Fatal As The Feudal Barons If Unchecked In Time.

The Idea Of Infidelity [a Disbelief In The Inspiration Of The Scriptures Or The Divine Origin Of Christianity] Cannot Be Treated With Too Much Resentment Or Too Much Horror. The Man Who Can Think Of It With Patience Is A Traitor In His Heart And Ought To Be Execrated [denounced] As One Who Adds The Deepest Hypocrisy To The Blackest Treason.

If Worthless Men Are Sometimes At The Head Of Affairs, It Is, I Believe, Because Worthless Men Are At The Tail And The Middle

If It Be The Pleasure Of Heaven That My Country Shall Require The Poor Offering Of My Life, The Victim Shall Be Ready, At The Appointed Hour Of Sacrifice, Come When That Hour May. But While I Do Live, Let Me Have A Country, And That A Free Country!

I Shall Have The Liberty To Think For Myself.

It Should Be Your Care, Therefore, And Mine, To Elevate The Minds Of Our Children And Exalt Their Courage; To Accelerate And Animate Their Industry And Activity; To Excite In Them An Habitual Contempt Of Meanness, Abhorrence Of Injustice And Inhumanity, And An Ambition To Excel In Every Capacity, Faculty, And Virtue. If We Suffer Their Minds To Grovel And Creep In Infancy, They Will Grovel All Their Lives.

That The Desires Of The Majority Of The People Are Often For Injustice And Inhumanity Against The Minority, Is Demonstrated By Every Page Of The History Of The World.

As Much As I Converse With Sages And Heroes, They Have Very Little Of My Love And Admiration. I Long For Rural And Domestic Scene, For The Warbling Of Birds And The Prattling Of My Children.

It Is More Important That Innocence Be Protected Than It Is That Guilt Be Punished, For Guilt And Crimes Are So Frequent In This World That They Cannot All Be Punished. But If Innocence Itself Is Brought To The Bar And Condemned, Perhaps To Die, Then The Citizen Will Say, "whether I Do Good Or Whether I Do Evil Is Immaterial, For Innocence Itself Is No Protection," And If Such An Idea As That Were To Take Hold In The Mind Of The Citizen That Would Be The End Of Security Whatsoever.

The Question Before The Human Race Is, Whether The God Of Nature Shall Govern The World By His Own Laws, Or Whether Priests And Kings Shall Rule It By Fictitious Miracles?

My Best Wishes, In The Joys, And Festivities, And The Solemn Services Of That Day On Which Will Be Completed The Fiftieth Year From Its Birth, The Independence Of The United States. A Remarkable Epoch In The Annals Of The Human Race, Destined In Future History To Form The Brightest Or The Blackest Page, According To The Use Or The Abuse Of Those Political Institutions By Which They Shall, In Time To Come, Be Shaped By The Human Mind.

I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessings On This House And On All That Shall Hereafter Inhabit It. May None But Honest And Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof.

Tis Impossible To Judge With Much Præcision Of The True Motives And Qualities Of Human Actions, Or Of The Propriety Of Rules Contrived To Govern Them, Without Considering With Like Attention, All The Passions, Appetites, Affections In Nature From Which They Flow. An Intimate Knowledge Therefore Of The Intellectual And Moral World Is The Sole Foundation On Which A Stable Structure Of Knowledge Can Be Erected.

Public Virtue Cannot Exist In A Nation Without Private, And Public Virtue Is The Only Foundation Of Republics. There Must Be A Positive Passion For The Public Good, The Public Interest, Honour, Power And Glory, Established In The Minds Of The People, Or There Can Be No Republican Government, Nor Any Real Liberty: And This Public Passion Must Be Superiour To All Private Passions.

To Suppose Arms In The Hands Of Citizens, To Be Used At Individual Discretion, Except In Private Self-defense, Or By Partial Orders Of Towns, Counties Or Districts Of A State, Is To Demolish Every Constitution, And Lay The Laws Prostrate, So That Liberty Can Be Enjoyed By No Man; It Is A Dissolution Of The Government. The Fundamental Law Of The Militia Is, That It Be Created, Directed And Commanded By The Laws, And Ever For The Support Of The Laws.

When Economic Power Became Concentrated In A Few Hands, Then Political Power Flowed To Those Possessors And Away From The Citizens, Ultimately Resulting In An Oligarchy Or Tyranny.

Each Individual Of The Society Has A Right To Be Protected By It In The Enjoyment Of His Life, Liberty, And Property, According To Standing Laws.

Let Us Tenderly And Kindly Cherish, Therefore, The Means Of Knowledge. Let Us Dare To Read, Think, Speak, And Write.

When Legislature Is Corrupted, The People Are Undone.

Public Affairs Go On Pretty Much As Usual: Perpetual Chicanery And Rather More Personal Abuse Than There Used To Be.

The Whole Drama Of The World Is Such Tragedy That I Am Weary Of The Spectacle.

If The Empire Of Superstition And Hypocrisy Should Be Overthrown, Happy Indeed Will It Be For The World; But If All Religion And Morality Should Be Over-thrown With It, What Advantage Will Be Gained?

The Executive Shall Never Exercise The Legislative And Judicial Powers, Or Either Of Them, To The End That It May Be A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men.

Because Power Corrupts, Society's Demands For Moral Authority And Character Increase As The Importance Of The Position Increases.

If Aristotle, Livy, And Harrington Knew What A Republic Was, The British Constitution Is Much More Like A Republic Than An Empire. They Define A Republic To Be A Government Of Laws, And Not Of Men. If This Definition Is Just, The British Constitution Is Nothing More Or Less Than A Republic, In Which The King Is First Magistrate. This Office Being Hereditary, And Being Possessed Of Such Ample And Splendid Prerogatives, Is No Objection To The Government's Being A Republic, As Long As It Is Bound By Fixed Laws, Which The People Have A Voice In Making, And A Right To Defend.

The Declaration Of Independence Laid The Cornerstone Of Human Government Upon The First Precepts Of Christianity.

They Worry One Another Like Mastiffs, Scrambling For Rank And Pay Like Apes For Nuts.

Education Makes A Greater Difference Between Man And Man Than Nature Has Made Between Man And Brute.

I Must Study Politics And War That My Sons May Have Liberty To Study Mathematics And Philosophy.

A Pen Is Certainly An Excellent Instrument To Fix A Man's Attention And To Inflame His Ambition.

I Must Study Politicks And War That My Sons May Have Liberty To Study Mathematicks And Philosophy. My Sons Ought To Study Mathematicks And Philosophy, Geography, Natural History, Naval Architecture, Navigation, Commerce And Agriculture, In Order To Give Their Children A Right To Study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry And Porcelaine. (12 May 1780)

My Country Has Contrived For Me The Most Insignificant Office That Ever The Invention Of Man Contrived Or His Imagination Conceived.

We May... Affirm That The Balance Of Power In A Society Accompanies The Balance Of Property In Land. The Only Possible Way, Then, Of Preserving The Balance Of Power On The Side Of Liberty And Public Virtue Is To Make The Acquisition Of Land Easy To Every Member Of Society; To Make A Division Of The Land Into Small Quantities, So That The Multitude May Be Possessed Of Landed Estates.

We Shall Convince France And The World, That We Are Not A Degraded People, Humiliated Under A Colonial Spirit Of Fear And A Sense Of Inferiority, Fitted To Be The Miserable Instruments Of Foreign Influence, And Regardless Of National Honor, Character, And Interest.

The Foundations Of National Morality Must Be Laid In Private Families.

I Must Judge For Myself, But How Can I Judge, How Can Any Man Judge, Unless His Mind Has Been Opened And Enlarged By Reading.

People And Nations Are Forged In The Fires Of Adversity.

Thomas Jefferson Survives.

Elections To Office, Which Are The Great Objects Of Ambition, I Look At With Terror!

You Are A Virginian, And A Virginian Ought To Appear At The Head Of This Business. I Am Obnoxious, Suspected And Unpopular; You Are Very Much Otherwise. And You Can Write Ten Times Better Than I Can.

Several Country Towns, Within My Observation, Have At Least A Dozen Taverns. Here The Time, The Money, The Health And The Modesty, Of Most That Are Young And Of Many Old, Are Wasted. Here Diseases, Vicious Habits, Bastards And Legislators Are Frequently Spawned.

The Truth Is That Neither Then Nor At Any Former Time, Since I Had Attained My Maturity In Age, Reading And Reflection Had I Imbibed Any General Prejudice Against Kings, Or In Favour Of Them. It Appeared To Me Then As It Has Done Ever Since, That There Is A State Of Society In Which A Republican Government Is The Best, And In America The Only One.

The Ten Commandments And The Sermon On The Mount Contain My Religion.

Founding Fathers Religion

Liberty, According To My Metaphysics Is A Self-determining Power In An Intellectual Agent. It Implies Thought And Choice And Power.

We Electors Have An Important Constitutional Power Placed In Our Hands: We Have A Check Upon Two Branches Of The Legislature, As Each Branch Has Upon The Other Two; The Power I Mean Of Electing At Stated Periods, One Branch, Which Branch Has The Power Of Electing Another. It Becomes Necessary To Every Subject Then, To Be In Some Degree A Statesman: And To Examine And Judge For Himself Of The Tendencies Of Political Principles And Measures.

Banks Have Done More Injury To The Religion, Morality, Tranquility, Prosperity, And Even Wealth Of The Nation Than They Can Have Done Or Ever Will Do Good.

While All Other Sciences Have Advanced, That Of Government Is At A Standstill - Little Better Understood, Little Better Practiced Now Than Three Or Four Thousand Years Ago.

There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, Unless You Have A Coupon For A Free Lunch...or Someone Gives You A Lunch...never Mind.

Power Always Thinks... That It Is Doing God's Service When It Is Violating All His Laws.

The United States Is Not A Christian Nation Any More Than It Is A Jewish Or A Mohammedan Nation.

If The Christian Religion, As I Understand It, Or As You Understand It, Should Maintain Its Ground, As I Believe It Will, Yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, And Cabalistical Christianity, Which Is Catholic Christianity, And Which Has Prevailed For 1500 Years, Has Received A Mortal Wound, Of Which The Monster Must Finally Die. Yet So Strong Is His Constitution, That He May Endure For Centuries Before He Expires.

What A Pity It Is That Our Congress Had Not Known This Discovery, And That Alexander Hamilton’s Projects Of Raising An Army Of Fifty Thousand Men, Ten Thousand Of Them To Be Cavalry And His Projects Of Sedition Laws And Alien Laws And Of New Taxes To Support His Army, All Arose From A Superabundance Of Secretions Which He Could Not Find Whores Enough To Draw Off! And That The Same Vapours Produced His Lyes And Slanders By Which He Totally Destroyed His Party Forever And Finally Lost His Life In The Field Of Honor.

Mystery Is Made A Convenient Cover For Absurdity.

The Whole People Must Take Upon Themselves The Education Of The Whole People, And Must Be Willing To Bear The Expenses Of It. There Should Not Be A District Of One Mile Square, Without A School In It, Not Founded By A Charitable Individual, But Maintained At The Public Expense Of The People Themselves.

As Good Government Is An Empire Of Laws, How Shall Your Laws Be Made? In A Large Society, Inhabiting An Extensive Country, It Is Impossible That The Whole Should Assemble To Make Laws. The First Necessary Step, Then, Is To Depute Power From The Many To A Few Of The Most Wise And Good.

Let Us Hear The Dangers Of Thralldom To Our Consciences From Ignorance, Extreme Poverty, And Dependence; In Short, From Civil And Political Slavery. Let Us See Delineated Before Us The True Map Of Man. Let Us Hear The Dignity Of His Nature, And The Noble Rank He Holds Among The Works Of God-that Consenting To Slavery Is A Sacrilegious Breach Of Trust, As Offensive In The Sight Of God As It Is Derogatory From Our Own Honor Or Interest Or Happiness-and That God Almighty Has Promulgated From Heaven Liberty, Peace, And Goodwill To Man!

We Electors Have An Important Constitutional Power Placed In Our Hands; We Have A Check Upon Two Branches Of The Legislature.

Objects Of The Most Stupendous Magnitude, And Measure In Which The Lives And Liberties Of Millions Yet Unborn Are Intimately Interested, Are Now Before Us. We Are In The Very Midst Of A Revolution The Most Complete, Unexpected And Remarkable Of Any In The History Of Nations.

Public Virtue Cannot Exist In A Nation Without Private, And Public Virtue Is The Only Foundation Of Republics.

This Would Be The Best Of All Possible Worlds, If There Were No Religion In It.

If There Is A God

I Will Insist The Hebrews Have [contributed] More To Civilize Men Than Any Other Nation. If I Was An Atheist And Believed In Blind Eternal Fate, I Should Still Believe That Fate Had Ordained The Jews To Be The Most Essential Instrument For Civilizing The Nations. They Are The Most Glorious Nation That Ever Inhabited This Earth. The Romans And Their Empire Were But A Bubble In Comparison To The Jews. They Have Given Religion To Three-quarters Of The Globe And Have Influenced The Affairs Of Mankind More And More Happily Than Any Other Nation, Ancient Or Modern.

The Most Sensible And Jealous People Are So Little Attentive To Government That There Are No Instances Of Resistance Until Repeated, Multiplied Oppressions Have Placed It Beyond A Doubt That Their Rulers Had Formed Settled Plans To Deprive Them Of Their Liberties; Not To Oppress An Individual Or A Few, But To Break Down The Fences Of A Free Constitution, And Deprive The People At Large Of All Share In The Government, And All The Checks By Which It Is Limited.

The Christian Religion As I Understand It Is The Best.

I Am Determined To Control Events, Not Be Controlled By Them.

Swim Or Sink, Live Or Die, Survive Or Perish With My Country Was My Unalterable Determination.

Great Is The Guilt Of An Unnecessary War.

No Good Government But What Is Republican... The Very Definition Of A Republic Is 'an Empire Of Laws, And Not Of Men.'

I Must Study War And Politics So That My Children Shall Be Free To Study Commerce, Agriculture And Other Practicalities, So That Their Children Can Study Painting, Poetry And Other Fine Things.

We Must Not Then Depend Alone Upon The Love Of Liberty In The Soul Of Man For Its Preservation.

And Liberty Cannot Be Preserved Without A General Knowledge Among The People Who Have A Right From The Frame Of Their Nature To Knowledge, As Their Great Creator Who Does Nothing In Vain, Has Given Them Understandings And A Desire To Know. But Besides This They Have A Right, An Indisputable, Unalienable, Indefeasible Divine Right To The Most Dreaded And Envied Kind Of Knowledge, I Mean Of The Characters And Conduct Of Their Rulers.

What Is To Become Of An Independent Statesman, One Who Will Bow The Knee To No Idol, Who Will Worship Nothing As A Divinity But Truth, Virtue, And His Country? I Will Tell You; He Will Be Regarded More By Posterity Than Those Who Worship Hounds And Horses; And Although He Will Not Make His Own Fortune, He Will Make The Fortune Of His Country.

Set Before Us The Conduct Of Our Own British Ancestors, Who Defended For Us The Inherent Rights Of Mankind Against Foreign And Domestic Tyrants And Usurpers, Against Arbitrary Kings And Cruel Priests; In Short Against The Gates Of Earth And Hell.

The Moment The Idea Is Admitted Into Society That Property Is Not As Sacred As The Law Of God, And That There Is Not A Force Of Law And Public Justice To Protect It, Anarchy And Tyranny Commence.

In Every Society Where Property Exists There Will Ever Be A Struggle Between Rich And Poor. Mixed In One Assembly, Equal Laws Can Never Be Expected; They Will Either Be Made By The Member To Plunder The Few Who Are Rich, Or By The Influence To Fleece The Many Who Are Poor.

Shall We Have Recourse To The Art Of Printing? But This Has Not Destroyed Property Or Aristocracy Or Corporations Or Paper Wealth In England Or America, Or Diminished The Influence Of Either; On The Contrary, It Has Multiplied Aristocracy And Diminished Democracy.

The Consequences Of These Institutions (the Towns Or Districts, The Congregations, The Schools,and The Militia.) Have Been, That The Inhabitants, Having Acquired From Their Infancy The Habit Of Discussing, Of Deliberating, And Of Judging Of Public Affairs, It Was In These Assemblies Of Towns Or Districts That The Sentiments Of The People Were Formed In The First Place, And Their Resolutions Were Taken From The Beginning To The End Of The Disputes And The War With Great Britain.

What Havoc Has Been Made Of Books Through Every Century Of The Christian Era? Where Are Fifty Gospels, Condemned As Spurious By The Bull Of Pope Gelasius? Where Are The Forty Wagon-loads Of Hebrew Manuscripts Burned In France, By Order Of Another Pope, Because Suspected Of Heresy? Remember The 'index Expurgatorius', The Inquisition, The Stake, The Axe, The Halter And The Guillotine.

The Study And Practice Of Law ... Does Not Dissolve The Obligations Of Morality Or Of Religion.

No Man Who Ever Held The Office Of President Would Congratulate A Friend On Obtaining It.

We May Please Ourselves With The Prospect Of Free And Popular Governments. But There Is Great Danger That Those Governments Will Not Make Us Happy. God Grant They May. But I Fear That In Every Assembly, Members Will Obtain An Influence By Noise, Not Sense. By Meanness, Not Greatness. By Ignorance, Not Learning. By Contracted Hearts, Not Large Souls.

Always Stand On Principle Even If You Stand Alone.

Major Greene This Evening Fell Into Some Conversation With Me About The Divinity And Satisfaction Of Jesus Christ. All The Argument He Advanced Was, "that A Mere Creature Or Finite Being Could Not Make Satisfaction To Infinite Justice For Any Crimes," And That "these Things Are Very Mysterious." Thus Mystery Is Made A Convenient Cover For Absurdity.

Upon This Point All Speculative Politicians Will Agree, That The Happiness Of Society Is The End Of Government, As All Divines And Moral Philosophers Will Agree That The Happiness Of The Individual Is The End Of Man. From This Principle It Will Follow That The Form Of Government Which Communicates Ease, Comfort, Security, Or, In One Word, Happiness, To The Greatest Numbers Of Persons, And In The Greatest Degree, Is The Best. All Sober Inquirers After Truth, Ancient And Modern, Pagan And Christian, Have Declared That The Happiness Of Man, As Well As His Dignity, Consists In Virtue.

But What Do We Mean By The American Revolution? Do We Mean The American War? The Revolution Was Effected Before The War Commenced. The Revolution Was In The Minds And Hearts Of The People; A Change In Their Religious Sentiments, Of Their Duties And Obligations ... This Radical Change In The Principles, Opinions, Sentiments, And Affections Of The People Was The Real American Revolution.

There Is No Greater Guilt Than The Unneccessary War.

It Is Folly To Anticipate Evils, And Madness To Create Imaginary Ones.

All The Perplexities, Confusion And Distress In America Arise, Not From Defects In Their Constitution Or Confederation, Not From Want Of Honor Or Virtue, So Much As From The Downright Ignorance Of The Nature Of Coin, Credit And Circulation.

Farther I Could Find It In My Heart To Wish That You Had Been At The Head Of A Hundred Thousand Israelites . . . & Marching With Them Into Judea & Making A Conquest Of That Country & Restoring Your Nation To The Dominion Of It. For I Really Wish The Jews Again In Judea An Independent Nation.

Let The Human Mind Loose. It Must Be Loose. It Will Be Loose. Superstition And Dogmatism Cannot Confine It.

When We Say God Is A Spirit, We Know What We Mean, As Well As We Do When We Say That The Pyramids Of Egypt Are Matter. Let Us Be Content, Therefore, To Believe Him To Be A Spirit, That Is, An Essence That We Know Nothing Of, In Which Originally And Necessarily Reside All Energy, All Power, All Capacity, All Activity, All Wisdom, All Goodness.

Honor Is Truly Sacred, But Holds A Lower Rank In The Scale Of Moral Excellence Than Virtue. Indeed The Former Is Part Of The Latter, And Consequently Has Not Equal Pretensions To Support A Frame Of Government Productive Of Human Happiness.

Have You Considered That System Of Holy Lies And Pious Frauds That Has Raged And Triumphed For 1,500 Years?

Founding Fathers Religion

Ambition Is The Subtlest Beast Of The Intellectual And Moral Field. It Is Wonderfully Adroit In Concealing Itself From Its Owner.

We Cannot Insure Success, But We Can Deserve It.

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King Edward VIII

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