Thomas Jefferson
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty...Collection: Religious
I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.Collection: Religious
My views and feelings (are) in favor of the abolition of war-and I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair.Collection: Military
Establish the eternal truth that acquiescence under insult is not the way to escape war.Collection: Military
When habit has strengthened our sense of duties, they leave us no time for other things; but when young we neglect them and this gives us time for anything.Collection: Giving
The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.Collection: Individual Happiness
Chemistry is yet, indeed, a mere embryon. Its principles are contested; experiments seem contradictory; their subjects are so minute as to escape our senses; and their result too fallacious to satisfy the mind. It is probably an age too soon to propose the establishment of a system.Collection: Science
I do not know whether you are fond of chemical reading. There are some things in this science worth reading.Collection: Reading
I have wished to see chemistry applied to domestic objects, to malting, for instance, brewing, making cider, to fermentation and distillation generally, to the making of bread, butter, cheese, soap, to the incubation of eggs, &c.Collection: Science
We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.Collection: Military
Every honest man will suppose honest acts to flow from honest principles, and the rogues may rail without intermission.Collection: Honesty
Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.Collection: Honesty
An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State.Collection: Thinking
Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing ... this enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to it's consummation. It shall have all my prayers, and these are the only weapons of an old man.Collection: Prayer
It is in the love of one's family only that heartfelt happiness is known.Collection: Happiness
Experience has taught me that manufacturers are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort.Collection: Independence
... the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced or knew that such a character existed.Collection: Character
The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body.Collection: Government
I shall rejoin myself to my native country, with new attachments, and with exaggerated esteem for its advantages; for though there is less wealth there, there is more freedom, more ease, and less misery.Collection: Country
I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.Collection: Ambition
All men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.Collection: Pursuit Of Happiness
I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one preacher well. I must therefore be contented to be an Unitarian by myself, although I know there are many around me who would become so, if once they could hear the questions fairly stated.Collection: Atheism
But, you may ask, if the two departments [i.e., federal and state] should claim each the same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable ground; but if it can neither be avoided nor compromised, a convention of the States must be called to ascribe the doubtful power to that department which they may think best.Collection: Party
Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves. The power of questioning - not simply believing - has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it.Collection: Believe
It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it.Collection: Parliament
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.Collection: Country
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.Collection: Gun
No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.Collection: Government
Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.Collection: Religious
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.Collection: Freedom
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.Collection: Inspirational
The country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and moneyed incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling...I hope we shall...crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to trial and bid defiance to the laws of our country. I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.Collection: Crush
Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.Collection: Gun
Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God.Collection: Oppression
The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful maneuvers, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But times and truth dissipated the delusion, and opened their eyes.Collection: Eye
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; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.Collection: Mean
I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.Collection: Hands
If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.Collection: Ignorance
The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.Collection: 4th Of July
My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!Collection: Freedom
Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.Collection: Government
[An] act of the Congress of the United States... which assumes powers... not delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force.Collection: Law
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.Collection: Lying
I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.Collection: Art
Take things always by their smooth handle.Collection: Gratitude
Opinion, and the just maintenance of it, shall never be a crime in my view.Collection: Views
Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?Collection: Action
Well, Page, I do wish the Devil had old Cooke, for I am sure I never was so tired of an old dull scoundrel in my life ... But the old-fellows say we must read to gain knowledge; and gain knowledge to make us happy and be admired. Mere jargon! Is there any such thing as happiness in this world? No.Collection: Educational