"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people."
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Quote collection
Thomas Jefferson quotes (page 49 of 91)
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"May it be to the world... to assume the blessings and security of self-government."
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"Dependence begets subservience and paves the way for tyranny."
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"The provisions we have made [for our government] are such as please ourselves; they answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered."
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"What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this."
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"The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace."
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"Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established."
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"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others."
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"The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights."
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"I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."
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"Of distinction by birth or badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong."
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"Some other natural rights... [have] not yet entered into any declaration of rights."
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"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively."
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"The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset."
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"Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one's family and affairs."
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"The monopoly of a single bank is certainly an evil. The multiplication of them was intended to cure it; but it multiplied an influence of the same character with the first, and completed the supplanting the precious metals by a paper circulation. Between such parties the less we meddle the better."
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"The issue for patents for new discovers has given a spring to invention beyond my conception."
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"We should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them in Music, Chess, or the merriments of our family companions."
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"The juries are our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it."
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"Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities."
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