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

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One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
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I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
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Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
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It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
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It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
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I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results...
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No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
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It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by who...
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The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor...
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To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful an...
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Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to...
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Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
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The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
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I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
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Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
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Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
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Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
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Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
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No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
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No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.
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He who knows best knows how little he knows.
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Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
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When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
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A sense of this necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory proof that whereve...
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With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliat...
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The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been sta...
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The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest mode...
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If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let...
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But let me beseech you, Sir, not to let this letter get into a newspaper. Tranquillity, at my age, i...
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If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by ...
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We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular p...
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A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you ca...
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the giver of life, who gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness.
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The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imitations. It is raising up a monied aristoc...
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A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but i...
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Architecture worth great attention. As we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our house...
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As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn fro...
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The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they...
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The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; a...
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We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant...
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I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depe...
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The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pocket to pay for it, would make of our country...
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Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate wo...
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And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods.
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Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most indepe...
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I thought the work would be very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man;...
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Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massach...
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In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that w...
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One half of our brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of repr...
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Perfect happiness I believe was never intended by the deity to be the lot of any one of his creature...
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Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon want bread.
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If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking...
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I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-governm...
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To preserve the freedom of the human mind and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to ...
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That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disb...
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Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or bur...
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Peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nationsentangling alliances with none.
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It is, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government ...
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The desire to preserve our country from the calamities and ravages of war, by cultivating a disposit...
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I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any ar...
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Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute o...
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I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we...
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The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.
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There are two sides to every question, because, when there are no longer two sides it ceases to be a...
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I have not observed men's honesty to increase with their riches.
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Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to admit it.
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Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.
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Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one...
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The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
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Power is not alluring to pure minds
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I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.
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Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth ...
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Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none
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For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
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The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.
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It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
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It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
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When the moral sense is wanting, we endeavor to supply the defect by education, by appeals to reason...
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Conscience is the chamber of justice.
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That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.
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...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feeling...
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Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
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The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.
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Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil s...
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And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in t...
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There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson's secular college] by the...
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Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
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Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.
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I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our instit...
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Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
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Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
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I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from th...
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I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater...
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Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to p...
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If you want something you've never had
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I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
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Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers w...
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Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he...
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In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by renderi...
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I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
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It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the...
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I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending t...
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The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
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The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
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Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nati...
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It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
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When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
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An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, ...
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I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of m...
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Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then mo...
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The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficult...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolish...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate ob...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office
THOMAS JEFFERSON
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my fam...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
We seldom report of having eaten too little.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Tranquility is the old man's milk.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions,...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON