“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving the peace”
"There are many things I believe that I will not say. However, I will never say that which I do not believe."
the 'Little Gentleman" Father of the Constitution
"I
cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution
which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of
benevolence, the money of their constituents." - Father of the
Constitution
“It will be of little avail to the people
that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so
voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot
be understood.”
With respect to
the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by
the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and
unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a
character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its
creators."
"It is impossible for the man of pious
reflection not to perceive in [the Constitution] a finger of that
Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our
relief in the critical stages of the revolution."
"The belief in a God All Powerful wise and
good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the
happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from
too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different
characters and capacities impressed with it."
"If Congress can employ money indefinitely
to the general welfare... they may appoint teachers in every state...
The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very
nature of the limited government established by the people of America."
Experience
is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they
ought to be conclusive and sacred" -Federalist 20
"There are consequences, sir, still more extensive, which, as they follow dearly from the doctrine combated, must either be admitted, or the doctrine must be given up. If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their Own hands; they may a point teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit of the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare."
On the Cod Fishery Bill, granting Bounties 1792
http://constitution.org/je/je4_cong_deb_12.htm
"as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. Where there is an excess of liberty, the effect is the same, tho' from an opposite cause. Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own."
James Madison, National Gazette, March 29, 1792
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s23.html
“It is sufficiently obvious, that persons now and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot well be separated. The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right. The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” -James Madison’s SPEECH IN THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.1— December 2, 1829 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1940&chapter=119344&layout=html&Itemid=27
"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have generally resulted from those causes."
- James Madison's Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution , June 6, 1788 http://www.constitution.org/rc/rat_va_05.htm
John Adams
“A nation of laws, not of men” [no representative above the Law]
The Foundation of a Free Constitution
"Statesmen,
my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion
and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which
Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free
Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our
People in a greater Measure than they have it now, They may change
their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a
lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies"
Are and by Right Ought To Be FREE
"Yesterday
the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America;
and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A
resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, "that these
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States."
The Finer Arts
"The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other
sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation
ought to take place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts.
I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study
mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and
philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture,
navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a
right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
THE CONSTITUTION:
FOR A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice,
ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our
Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made
only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (The Works of John Adams, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1851, 4:31)
The General Principles of Christianity
"The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were
the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young
Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by
them in their Address, or by me in my Answer.
And what were these general Principles? I answer,
the general Principles of Christianity,
in which all those Sects were united: And the general Principles
of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men
United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities
sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.
Now
I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those
general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as
the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of
Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial,
mundane System."
"The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free."
- John Adams' Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States 1787
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s15.html
John Hancock
upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
"There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!"
John Page (he kinda looks like bill murray)
"We know the
race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think
an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(From a Letter to Thomas Jefferson)
John Witherspoon
"He is the best friend to american liberty
who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled
religion and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down
on profanity and imorality of every kind, whoever is an avowed enemy of
God I scruple not to call him an enemy of his country"
There
is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost,
and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our
temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into
bondage.
John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, 1776
Marchese di Beccaria
"If by supporting the rights of mankind I
shall save from agonies of death one unfortunate victim of tyranny or
of ignorance equally fatal, his blessings will be sufficient
consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind."
Noah Webster (1758 – 1843) "Schoolmaster To America" (Personally Responsible for Article 1 Section 8 of the constitution)
"The brief exposition of the Constitution
of the united states will unfold to young persons the principles of
Republican government and it is the sincere desire of the writer that
our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of the
correct republican principles is the Bible particularly the New
Testament or the Christian Religion." -A School Textbook
The
virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their
abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with
more assiduity than the head.
Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788
"Before a standing army can rule, the
people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe.
The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword;
because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force
superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence,
raised in the United States."
-Noah Webster
PATRICK HENREY
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I
know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
"If
ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace. We
ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands
which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that you were our countrymen."
"The
utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods, are as visionary
and impractical as those which vest all property in the crown. These
ideas are arbitrary,despotic, and, in our government unconstitutional"
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
"A general dissolution of principles and
manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the
whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they
cannot be subdued; but when they lose their virtue they will be ready to
surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader"
“Among the natural rights of
the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty,
and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the
best manner they can”
“Our contest is not only
whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to
mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty”
“The Constitution shall never
be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
"He
therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries
most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence
extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and
trust who is not a wise and virtuous man....The sum of all is, if we
would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous
people."
Samuel Adams
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in
peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the
hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen."
Samuel Adams
"The law is an ass"
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
"It is jealousy and not confidence
which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are
obliged to trust with power... Our Constitution has accordingly fixed
the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go... In
questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
- Draft Kentucky Resolution 1798 - http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/kyres/kydraft.html
"In
questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
- As Used In The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 - http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm
"I
sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more
dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money
to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling
futurity on a large scale."
- Thomas Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816 - http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=308
“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
- a letter To Justice William Johnson, June 12, 1823 - http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=270&division=div1
"a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse or rest on"
-Jefferson's Letter to James Madison Dec 20, 1787 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116913
"a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." -Jefferson's First Inaugural Address
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres16.html
"an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry"
(The Only Necessary Argument Against Utopianists) Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor June 1, 1798 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=805&chapter=87151&layout=html&Itemid=27
"
experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and byslow operations, perverted it into tyranny "
-Thomas Jefferson, Preamble to a Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge--Fall 1778 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s11.html
Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. 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. -Jefferson's Letter to Peter Carr Aug 10, 1787
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/jefferson_carr.html
"Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others." - Jefferson's Eighth Annual Message Nov 8, 1808
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29450
"
it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations...
a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority
" -Jefferson's First Inaugural Address 1801 http://www.bartleby.com/268/8/23.html
"
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history becomes useful to the American politician." -Jefferson's Letter to John Norvell, June 14, 1807
http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116906
"Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." -Jefferson's Letter to Nathaniel Macon Jan 12, 1819
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_To_Nathaniel_Macon,_Monticello,_January_12,_1819
"
whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, & that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor war, and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out of the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my brethren into these, rather than separate from them. But I hope we may still keep clear of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, & that time may be given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed through, and to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other form it may be attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from joining in the wish of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire between us & the old world.
" -Jefferson's Letter to Elbridge Gerry Philadelphia, May 13, 1797
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl119.php
As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. Epictetus indeed, has given us what was good of the stoics; all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and grimace. -Jefferson's Letter to William Short, October 31, 1819
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl259.php
"I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, a fact like this [the sale of a
book] can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offense against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion?
And are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason."
-Jefferson's Letter to Nicolas Gouin Dufief April 19, 1814
http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116909
"we may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." Jefferson's Letter to John Taylor May 28, 1816
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl245.php
"The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, in perpetuum, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I believe that every State west and South of Connecticut river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time. Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper."
-Jefferson's Letter to John Wayles Eppes, June 24, 1813
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl219.php
"I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." Thomas Jefferson to John Adams Jun 10, 1815
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/217.html
"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it."" -Jefferson's Letter to Joseph Milligan April 6, 1816
"Your letters give a comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm it. Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, & I cannot but hope that that triumph, & the consequent disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of events, to kindle the wrath of the people of Europe against those who have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to bring at length, kings, nobles, & priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long deluging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of these scoundrels, tho I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne & potatoes. I have so completely withdrawn myself from these spectacles of usurpation & misrule, that I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month; & I feel myself infinitely the happier for it." -Jefferson's Letter to Tench Coxe May 1, 1794 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl107.php
"the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That
to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness"
Jefferson's
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom adopted 1785
http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/virginia-statute-religious-freedom
"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."
-Jefferson's Letter to thomas Cooper Nov 29, 1802
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=147&division=div1
=======================================
http://www.notable-quotes.com/j/jefferson_thomas_v.html
As Yet Unconfirmed by source
"I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad."
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
"I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office."
"I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master."
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
"I predict
future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from
wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of
them"
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"If God is just, I tremble for my country."
"If the
present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a
body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose
trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the
hour?"
"If there
is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is
that we should have nothing to do with conquest."
"Ignorance
is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who
believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
"No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it."
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave."
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."
"The
strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government"
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." (The cycle of Civilizations Renewal Seems About 200 years)
"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."
"The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression."
"There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents."
"There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world."
"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
"We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed."
"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government"
"Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival."
“The
strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government.”
every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."
"The principle of spending money to be paid
by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a
large scale."
-Thomas Jefferson
"The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Laws are made for men of ordinary
understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules
of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical
subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at
pleasure."
--Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-Thomas Jefferson [What would Jefferson say today?]
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
I place economy among the first and most
important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be
feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us
with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our
meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor
and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the
labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will
be happy.
- Thomas Jefferson [What would Jefferson say today?]
Attributed
"A
democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of
the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine"
