Jackson, Andrew.
It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience
... the desire to gain wealth and the fear to lose it are our chief breeders of cowardice and propagators of corruption. There are thousands of conjunctures in which a wealth-bound man must be a slave, whilst a man for whom poverty has no terrors becomes a freeman. Think of the strength which personal indifference to poverty would give us if we were devoted to unpopular causes. We need no longer hold our tongues or fear to vote the revolutionary or reformatory ticket. Our stocks might fall, our hopes of promotion vanish, our salaries stop, our club doors close in our faces; yet, while we lived, we would imperturbably bear witness to the spirit, and our example would help to set free our generation.
A regard for reputation and the judgment of the world may sometimes be felt where conscience is dormant. -- Thomas Jefferson to Edward Livingston, 1825.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Liberty... is the great parent of science and of virtue; and... a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free. -- Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, 1789. ME 7:329.
I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man. -- Thomas Jefferson to Valentine de Foronda, 1809. ME 12:320.
Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right. -- Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1806.
We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. -- Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy. -- Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1802. ME 10:342
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate. -- Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. Papers, 1:134
The light which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing has eminently changed the condition of the world... And while printing is preserved, it can no more recede than the sun return on his course. -- Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1823.
My principle is to do whatever is right and leave the consequences to Him who has the disposal of them. -- Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1813
The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. -- Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823.
Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it. -- Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep. -- Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1789. ME 7:264
…whatever their degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the property or person of others. Letter to Henri Gregoire, February 25, 1809.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
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