Thomas Jefferson

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.”

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”

“The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.”

“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.”

“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”

“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”

“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.”

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.”

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.”

“History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.”

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”

“It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.”

“History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.”

“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.”

“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.”

“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.”

“Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.”

“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.”

“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

“None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.”

“I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.”

“A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.”

“It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.”

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

“The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.”

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

“Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.”

“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

“Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.”

“It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.”

“Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.”

“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.”

“I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God - my daughter to my country.”

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”

“I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God - my daughter to my country.”

“I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.”

“One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.”

“Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.”

“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”

“I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.”

“Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.”

“For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.”

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

“There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.”

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

“My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.”

“If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?”

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.”

“In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.”

“I agree with yours of the 22d that”

“I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.”

“Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.”

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

“Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.”

“Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.”

“I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

“[I]f the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send 150 lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour?”

“We never repent of having eaten too little.”

“The policy of American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.”

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

“I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments.”

“In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.”

“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master. Could the contrary of this be proved, I should conclude either that there is no god, or that he is a malevolent being.”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.”

“I congratulate you, my dear friend, on the law of your state for suspending the importation of slaves, and for the glory you have justly acquired by endeavoring to prevent it forever. This abomination must have an end, and there is a superior bench reserved in heaven for those who hasten it.”

“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.”

“No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth either in religion, law, or politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know, nor notice, it’s sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper the former and persecute the latter.”

“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.”

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”

“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

“I see too many proofs of the imperfection of human reason, to entertain wonder or intolerance at any difference of opinion on any subject; and acquiesce in that difference as easily as on a difference of feature or form; experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we cannot do all we would wish.”

“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.”

“I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”

“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers 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 everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

“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.”

“Whereas, our tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost the only landmark which now divides the federalists from the republicans, that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated;…”

“It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.”

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. The engine of consolidation will be the Federal judiciary; the two other branches the corrupting and corrupted instruments.”

“It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.”

“Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

“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.”

“To constrain the brute force of the people, the European governments deem it necessary to keep them down by hard labor, poverty and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus to sustain a scanty and miserable life.”

“Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.”

“Botany is the school for patience, and it’s amateurs learn resignation from daily disappointments.”

“Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”

“There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.”

“Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.”

“I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.”

“The naturalists, you know, distribute the history of nature into three kingdoms or departments: zoology, botany, mineralogy. Ideology, or mind, however, occupies so much space in the field of science, that we might perhaps erect it into a fourth kingdom or department. But inasmuch as it makes a part of the animal construction only, it would be more proper to subdivide zoology into physical and moral.”

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.”

“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to its culture; especially, a bread grain; next in value to bread is oil.”

“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.”

“Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.”

“Power is not alluring to pure minds.”

“Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.”

“An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.”

“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.”

“Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.”

“Taste cannot be controlled by law.”

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

“Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.”

“Delay is preferable to error.”

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

“No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.”

“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”

“Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.”

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

“My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.”

“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.”

“I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.”

“Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia.”

“Be polite to all, but intimate with few.”

“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.”

“If God is just, I tremble for my country.”

“It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.”

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

“No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.”

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

“Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.”

“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”

“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.”

“War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.”

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”

“The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”

“Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.”

“My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.”

“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.”

“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.”

“The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.”

“I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.”

“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.”

“The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.”

“To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.”

“In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.”

“There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”

“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.”

“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”

“The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.”

“I cannot live without books.”

“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.”

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”

“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.”

“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”

“It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.”

“The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.”

“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.”

“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?”

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

“Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.”

“I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.”

“An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.”

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”

“The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.”

“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”

“I cannot live without books.”

“We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.”

“No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.”

“So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.”

“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

“I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce, and friendship, may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our business to manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep our markets open for what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the amities or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the stoutest of them tremble.”

“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”

“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”

“Taste cannot be controlled by law.”

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.”

“The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.”

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.”

“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.”

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.”

“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

“We never repent of having eaten too little.”

“… the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

“Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.”

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

“A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life:”

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”

“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.”

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

“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.”

“History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.”

“All are dead, and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know us not.”

“If you want something you've never had”

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”

“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”

“Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia.”

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.”

“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.”

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”

“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 tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

“To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.”

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”

“I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.”

“The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.”

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”

“Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.”

“Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”

“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

“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.”

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

“When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.”

“Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.”

“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”

“Never spend your money before you have earned it.”

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

“Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.”

“The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.”

“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.”

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

“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.”

“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.”

“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.”

“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

“The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.”

“I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”

“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.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”

“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.”

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.”

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.”

“Never spend your money before you have earned it.”

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

“One man with courage is a majority.”

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”

“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?”

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

“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.”

“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.”

“All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”