Thomas Jefferson
I... [am] convinced [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.Collection: Men
I acknowledge that such a debt [of service to my fellow-citizens] exists, that a tour of duty in whatever line he can be most useful to his country, is due from every individual. It is not easy perhaps to say of what length exactly that tour should be, but we may safely say of what length it should not be. Not of our whole life, for instance, for that would be to be born a slave-not even of a very large portion of it.Collection: Country
It behooves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We are able to preserve our self-government if we will but think so.Collection: Thinking
I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of the public mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained for the former. As men become better informed, their rulers must respect them the more.Collection: Men
A single good government becomes... a blessing to the whole earth, its welcome to the oppressed restraining within certain limits the measure of their oppressions. But should even this be counteracted by violence on the right of expatriation, the other branch of our example then presents itself for imitation: to rise on their rulers and do as we have done.Collection: Blessing
Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep.Collection: Sheep
When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.Collection: Strong
The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience.Collection: Political
Tranquility is the old man's milk.Collection: Men
The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves.Collection: Sheep
Above all things, and at all times, practice yourself in good humor.Collection: Humor
What is it men cannot be made to believe!Collection: Honesty
To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.Collection: Jesus
I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances.Collection: Educational
Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.Collection: Freedom
Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature.Collection: Religious
No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . . their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice . . . . These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.Collection: Government
And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them.Collection: Country
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.Collection: Country
The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.Collection: Men
His [Calvin's] religion was demonism. If ever man worshiped a false God, he did. The being described in his five points is ... a demon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of CalvinCollection: Religious
I have always said that a studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.Collection: Bible
I have great confidence in the common sense of mankind in general.Collection: Confidence
The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years.Collection: Funny
That paper money has some advantages is admitted. But that its abuses also are inevitable and, by breaking up the measure of value, makes a lottery of all private property, cannot be denied.Collection: Abuse
We are not immortal ourselves, my friend; how can we expect our enjoyments to be so? We have no rose without its thorn; no pleasure without alloy. It is the law of our existence; and we must acquiesce.Collection: Law
The private buildings [of Virginia] are very rarely constructed of stone or brick; much the greatest proportion being of scantlingand boards, plastered with lime. It is impossible to devise things more ugly, uncomfortable, and happily more perishable.Collection: Virginia
A country whose buildings are of wood, can never increase in its improvements to any considerable degree.... Whereas when buildings are of durable materials, every new edifice is an actual and permanent acquisition to the state, adding to its value as well as to its ornament.Collection: Country
You see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts.Collection: Art
The application requisite to the duties of the office I hold [governor of Virginia] is so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign.Collection: Retirement
If you are obliged to neglect any thing, let it be your chemistry. It is the least useful and the least amusing to a country gentleman of all the ordinary branches of science.Collection: Country
Rejecting all organs of informationbut my senses, I rid myself of the Pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in speculations hyperphysical and antiphysical so uselessly occupy and disquiet the mind.Collection: Mind
I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gaycapital [Paris].Collection: Paris
When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia.Collection: Virginia
Congress has scarcely any thing to employ them, and complain that the place [Washington, D.C.] is remarkably dull.Collection: Complaining
Our business is to have great credit and to use it little.Collection: Use
The cutting of heads is become so much a la mode, that one is apt to feel of a morning whether their own is on their shoulders.Collection: Morning
Take painsto write a neat round, plain hand, and you will find it a great convenience through life to write a small and compact hand as well as a fair and legible one.Collection: Writing
Do not write me studied letters but ramble as you please.Collection: Writing
If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to me. Only let them be brim full of affection.Collection: Long
While old men feel sensibly enough their own advance in years, they do not sufficiently recollect it in those whom they have seenyoung.Collection: Men
When a uniform exercise of kindness to prisoners on our part has been returned by as uniform severity on the part of our enemies,you must excuse me for saying it is high time, by other lessons, to teach respect to the dictates of humanity; in such a case, retaliation becomes an act of benevolence.Collection: Kindness
It is well known, that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude are found in great numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it ... But to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain that such a one has existed in America, and that it has been the largest of all terrestrial beings.Collection: Lying
The colleges of Edinburgh and Geneva as seminaries of science, are considered as the two eyes of Europe. While Great Britain and America give the preference to the former, all other countries give it to the latter.Collection: Country
A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance and patience are the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others.Collection: Perseverance
His system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers... He was the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that ever has been exhibited to man.Collection: Christian
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a GodCollection: Religious
ONLY a government that is AFRAID of its citizens tries to control them.Collection: Government
How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the earth were it not for misgovernment and a diversion of his energies to selfish interests.Collection: Selfish