He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
— Thomas Jefferson
It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.
Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
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.
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
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.
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
