"I never saw an instance of one or two disputants convincing the other by argument."
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Thomas Jefferson quotes (page 57 of 91)
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"A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a greater degree than anywhere else; and for its growth and continuance... I offer sincere prayers."
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"It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood."
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"Nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an eye witness."
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"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."
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"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. In order to flourish, the tree of Liberty needs the blood of patriots and tyrants."
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"When I contemplate the immense advances in science and discoveries in the arts which have been made within the period of my life, I look forward with confidence to equal advances by the present generation, and have no doubt they will consequently be as much wiser than we have been as we than our fathers were, and they than the burners of witches."
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"The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds."
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"Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect."
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"One precedent in favor of power is stronger than a hundred against it."
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"Freedom [is] the first-born daughter of science"
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"A man's moral sense must be unusually strong if slavery does not make him a thief."
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"From candlelight to early bedtime, I read."
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"The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them, they cannot love us."
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"The merchant has no country ."
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"Students of reading, writing and common arithmetick . . . Graecian [Greek], Roman, English and American history . . . should be rendered . . . worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens."
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"[We should be] determined... to sever ourselves from the union we so much value rather than give up the rights of self-government... in which alone we see liberty, safety and happiness."
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"The declaration that religious faith shall be unpunished does not give immunity to criminal acts dictated by religious error."
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"Choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished for its wisdom."
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"Our [Virginia's] act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The Ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe resident at this court have asked me copies of it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in the press; among others, in the new Encyclopédie. I think it will produce considerable good even in those countries where ignorance, superstition, poverty and oppression of body and mind in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped."
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