Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
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.
All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.
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.
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.
Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.
While learning the language in France a young man's morals, health and fortune are more irresistibly endangered than in any country of the universe.
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.
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.
The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.
The sickly, weakly, timid man fears the people, and is a Tory by nature. The healthy, strong and bold cherishes them, and is formed a Whig by nature.
We love and we value peace; we know its blessings from experience. We abhor the follies of war, and are not untried in its distresses and calamities.
We must endeavor to forget our former love for them [the British] and to hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind.
Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government.
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands.
But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed.
The cement of this union is in the heart blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis.
The wisdom of our ages and the blood of our heroes has been devoted to the attainment of trial by jury. It should be the creed of our political faith.
Man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them.
There is not a single crowned head in Europe whose talents or merit would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the people of any parish in America.