Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity
We do not mean to count or weigh our contributions by any standard other than that of our abilities.
If you have any duty which must be done, and it seems disagreeable, do it promptly and have it over.
We must use a good deal of economy in our wood, never cutting down new, where we can make the old do.
Common sense is the foundation of all authorities, of the laws themselves, and of their construction.
When two parties make a compact, there results to each a power of compelling the other to execute it.
[F]alsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
Ambition is a tricky little animal to tame. It is very skillful at concealing itself from its master.
As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.
Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.
Circumstances sometimes require, that rights the most unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy.
I could say much about politics, our only entertainment here, but you would not care a fig about that.
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
I see no comfort in outliving one's friends, and remaining a mere monument of the times which are past.
Experience has taught me that manufacturers are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort.
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society.
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
The Declaration of Independence . . . [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.
Experience has already shown that the impeachment the Constitution has provided is not even a scarecrow.
I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence.
I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal, hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.
To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.
The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.
The present generation has the same right of self-government which the past one has exercised for itself.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts.
I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural.
the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.
Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.
I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.
The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.
I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances.
History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.
The benefit of even limited monopolies is too doubtful, to be opposed to that of their general suppression.
Bank-paper must be suppressed, and the circulating medium must be restored to the nation to whom it belongs.
I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.
I do not know whether you are fond of chemical reading. There are some things in this science worth reading.
I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old.
Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom & happiness of man.
I see the necessity of sacrificing our opinions sometimes to the opinions of others for the sake of harmony.