Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government
My general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything purely domestic.
Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.
the study of the law is useful in a variety of points of view. it qualifies a man to be useful to himself, to his neighbors, & to the public.
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.
Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christians.
It is proof of sincerity, which I value above all things; as, between those who practice it, falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain.
Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light.
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.
Slavery is an abomination and must be loudly proclaimed as such, but I own that I nor any other man has any immediate solution to the problem.
I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.
In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.
I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.
The uniform tenor of a man's life furnishes better evidence of what he has said or done on any particular occasion than the word of any enemy.
We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.
Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.
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.
They are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes.
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.
My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice, and to keep my name out of the newspapers.
The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible.
Always take hold of things by the smooth handle grateful that they are not worse rather than the rough handle, bitter that they are not better.
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.
Government as well as religion has furnished its schisms, its persecutions and its devices for fattening idleness on the earnings of the people.
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.
I have now the gloomy prospect of retiring from office loaded with serious debts, which will materially affect the tranquility of my retirement.
In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance.
Any woodsman can tell you that in a broken and sundered nest, one can hardly find more than a precious few whole eggs. So it is with the family.
I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe.... They are nations of eternal war.
We act not for ourselves but for the whole human race. The event of our experiment is to show whether man can be trusted with self - government.
All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution.
The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four words: 'Be just and good,' is that in which all our enquiries must end.
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.
Laws ... proportionate and mild should never be dispensed with. Let mercy be the character of the law-giver, but let the judge be a mere machine.
I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gaycapital [Paris].
I leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take care when young.
I like the power given the Legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely approve of the greater house being chosen by the people directly.
Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. ...I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.
Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both.
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.
I never before knew the full value of trees....What would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.
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.
Our ancestors ... possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them.
It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.
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.
If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation... to a continuance in union... I have no hesitation in saying, 'let us separate.
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.
By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as his enemy.
Our minds and hearts are free to believe everything or nothing at all - and it is our duty to protect and perpetuate this sacred culture of freedom.