“The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.”
— Thomas Jefferson
“I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates the present state of things.”
“In a virtuous government, and more especially in times like these, public offices are what they should be – burdens to those appointed to them which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring them intense labor and great private loss.”
“The bloom of Monticello is chilled by my solitude.”
“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.”
“The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.”
“I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality.”
“To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.”
“Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless, by human interposition, disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”
“Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.”
“Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.”
“Beer, if drank with moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health.”
“I think it is a great error to consider a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxury. On the contrary, it is a tax on the health of our citizens.”
“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”
“When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.”
“The most effective means of preventing tyranny is to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts.”
“He does most in God’s great world who does his best in his own little world.”
“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 had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our powers boundless.”
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
“It will be said that great societies cannot exist without government.”
“Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.”
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible to civilization. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that the reformation must be worked.”
“It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also.”
“Wine brightens the life and thinking of anyone.”
“I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.”
“The hole and the patch should be commensurate.”
“The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.”
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god.”
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”
“Take more pleasure in giving what is best to another than in having it for yourself, and then all the world will love you.”
“Every man’s reason is his own rightful umpire. This principle, with that of acquiescence in the will of the majority, will preserve us free and prosperous as long as they are sacredly observed.”
“From candlelight to early bedtime, I read.”
“For if one link in nature’s chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.”
“The people cannot be all, and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.”
“An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.”
“We sometimes from dreams pick up some hint worth improving by reflection.”
“Every man has a commission to admonish, exhort, convince another of error.”
“My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.”
“I believe the states can best govern our home concerns and the federal government our foreign ones.”
“The flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.”
“It may be regarded as certain that not a foot of land will ever be taken from the Indians without their own consent.”
“Motherhood is the keystone of the arch of matrimonial happiness.”
“The religion of Jesus is founded in the Unity of God, and this principle chiefly gave it triumph over the rabble of heathen gods then acknowledged. Thinking men of all nations rallied readily to the doctrine of one only God, and embraced it with the pure-morals which Jesus inculcated.”
“My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.”
“If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”
“Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.”
“When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise.”
“I like my coffee like I like my women.”
“If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.”
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