Continued Insights from Thomas Jefferson

"Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence"

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail"

"One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more"

"One man with courage is a majority"

"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them"

"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man"

"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"

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent"

"Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper"

"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which 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 circlue of our felicities"

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks"

"A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit"

"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"

"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government"

"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto"

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine"

"Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital"

"Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind"

"Be polite to all, but intimate with few"

"As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also"

"An injured friend is the bitterest of foes"

"An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes"

"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"

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom"

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories"

"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state"

"Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it"

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day"

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty"

"Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do"

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you"

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it"

"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other"

"Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning"

"It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good"

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important"

"Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations"

"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"

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition"

"If God is just, I tremble for my country"

"It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness"

"It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape"

"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"

"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"

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Inspiring Quotes by Thomas Jefferson - Page 3