"A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government."
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Thomas Jefferson quotes (page 14 of 91)
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"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."
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"the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."
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"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"
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"A lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were written."
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"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God"
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"Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly."
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"Stock dealers and banking companies, by the aid of a paper system, are enriching themselves to the ruin of our country, and swaying the government by their possession of the printing presses, which their wealth commands and by any other means, not always honorable to the character of our countrymen."
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"When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine. Why should I question it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? ...Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics."
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"Man is not made for the State but the State for man and it derives its just powers only from the consent of the governed."
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"The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion."
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"Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless, by human interposition, disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them."
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"The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government."
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"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread."
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"Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man."
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"Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God."
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"For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum."
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"The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves."
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"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."
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"By oft repeating an untruth, men come to believe it themselves."
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