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A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
Thomas Jefferson
Coward and Cowardice
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2
A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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3
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
Thomas Jefferson
Medicine
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4
A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.
Thomas Jefferson
Happiness
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5
A sense of this necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory proof that wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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6
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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7
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation.
Thomas Jefferson
Citizenship
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8
Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed.
Thomas Jefferson
Free Enterprise
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9
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 laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson
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10
Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. 1 I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively. 2
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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11
Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
Thomas Jefferson
Life and Living
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12
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Argument
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13
And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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14
And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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15
Architecture worth great attention. As we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our houses. Besides we build of such perishable materials that one half of our houses must be rebuilt in every space of 20 years. So that in that term, houses are to be built for three fourths of our inhabitants. It is then among the most important arts: and it is desireable to introduce taste into an art which shews so much.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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16
As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may indeed injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which is the first and supreme law.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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17
At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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18
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson
Bankers and Banking
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19
Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on these alone a stable prosperity can be founded, that the evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come, I have used my best endeavors to keep our country uncommitted in the troubles which afflict Europe, and which assail us on every side.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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20
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Books and Reading
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21
But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicanswe are federalists.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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22
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.
Thomas Jefferson
Friends and Friendship
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23
But let me beseech you, Sir, not to let this letter get into a newspaper. Tranquillity, at my age, is the supreme good of life. I think it a duty, and it is my earnest wish, to take no further part in public affairs. The abuse of confidence by publishing my letters has cost me more than all other pains.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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24
But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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25
Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nation. But it is not the highest duty.
Thomas Jefferson
Law and Lawyers
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Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands. As long therefore as they can find emploiment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans, or any thing else. But our citizens will find emploiment in this line till their numbers, and of course their productions, become too great for the demand both internal and foreign.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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27
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
Thomas Jefferson
Pleasure
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28
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Thomas Jefferson
Education
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Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson
Opinions
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30
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
Vigilance
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31
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Thomas Jefferson
Soldier
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32
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Greed
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For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
Thomas Jefferson
Truth
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34
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?
Thomas Jefferson
Friends and Friendship
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God who gave us life gave us liberty. 1 Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. 2 Commerce between master and slave is despotism. 3 Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. 4 Establish the law for educating the common people. 5 This it is the business of the State to effect and on a general plan. 6
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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36
Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
Thomas Jefferson
Innovation
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37
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.
Thomas Jefferson
Happiness
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38
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.
Thomas Jefferson
Lies and Lying
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Here was buriedThomas Jeffersonauthorof the Declaration ofAmerican Independenceofthe Statute of Virginiafor Religious Freedom, andFather of the Universityof Virginia
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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40
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson
Honesty
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41
How much pain worries have cost us that have never happened?
Thomas Jefferson
Worry
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42
I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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43
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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44
I cannot live without books.
Thomas Jefferson
Books and Reading
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45
I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. They are the result of habit and long training, and for these they will require time and probably much suffering.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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46
I deem the essential principles of our government.... Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; ... freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected.
Thomas Jefferson
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47
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely happier for it.
Thomas Jefferson
Newspaper
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48
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson
Luck
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49
I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
Thomas Jefferson
Censure
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50
I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make be the difference of price what it may.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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51
I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
Thomas Jefferson
Power
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52
I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office
Thomas Jefferson
Government
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53
I have not observed men's honesty to increase with their riches.
Thomas Jefferson
Money
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54
I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not know that it is. I have been the instrument of doing the following things; but they would have been done by others; some of them, perhaps, a little better.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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55
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Thomas Jefferson
Tyranny
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56
I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
Thomas Jefferson
Rebellion
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57
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Thomas Jefferson
Power
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58
I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be
Thomas Jefferson
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59
I know 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 by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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60
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Thomas Jefferson
Dream
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61
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson
Bankers and Banking
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62
I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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63
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
Thomas Jefferson
General
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64
I thought the work would be very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man; not likely to be much read if let alone, but, if persecuted, it will be generally read. Every man in the United States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his right to buy, and to read what he pleases.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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65
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Thomas Jefferson
Injustice
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66
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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67
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
Liberty
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68
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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69
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson
Luck
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70
I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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71
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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72
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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73
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this 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.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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74
If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
Thomas Jefferson
Conquest
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75
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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76
If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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77
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson
Ignorance
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78
In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
Thomas Jefferson
Principles
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79
In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government.
Thomas Jefferson
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80
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
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81
In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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82
In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.
Thomas Jefferson
Fanatics and Fanaticism
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83
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Manners
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84
In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that we imagined everything republican which was not monarchy. We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it. Hence, our first constitutions had really no leading principles in them. But experience and reflection have but more and more confirmed me in the particular importance of the equal representation then proposed.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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85
Information is the currency of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson
Information
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86
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Liberty
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87
It behoves 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.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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88
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson
Truth
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89
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Thomas Jefferson
Guilt
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90
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
Occupation
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91
It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.
Thomas Jefferson
Character
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92
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
Thomas Jefferson
Law and Lawyers
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93
It is, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government various manifestations of a just and friendly disposition towards us; we wish to cultivate peace and friendship with all nations, believing that course most conducive to the welfare of our own; it is natural that these friendships should bear some proportion to the common interests of the parties.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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94
Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said: For Heavens sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum.
Thomas Jefferson
Uncategorised
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95
Let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.
Thomas Jefferson
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96
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Thomas Jefferson
Resignation
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97
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Trade
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98
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
Thomas Jefferson
Age and Aging
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99
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson
Government
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100
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Thomas Jefferson
Procrastination
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