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| Thomas Jefferson
...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg. 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. A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty. Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. An injured friend is the bitterest of foes. Be polite to all, but intimate with few. But though I am an old man, I am but a young gardener. {letter to Charles Willson Peale, Aug. 20, 1811} Delay is preferable to error. Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life. Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of wisdom. Let it be our endeavor to merit the character of a just nation.I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it. I cannot live without books. I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives. For it is in our lives, and not from our works, that our religion must be read. I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others. I have never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friendship. I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our Government to trial, and bid defiance to the laws of our country I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but the people. and if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform them by education. I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. I sincerely believe ... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale. I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion.I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education. If the happiness of the mass of mankind can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase. 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. In matters of style, swim with the current;In matters of principle, stand like a rock.Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read. 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. It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness. It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.Man is a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice. Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the natural rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. No person will have the occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. 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 blind-folded fear. Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one. Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper. The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. The merchant has no country. The most valuable of talents is that of never using two words when one will do. The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. 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. This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force. Walking is the best possible exercise. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We in america do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. We must crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to bid defiance to the laws of our country. We never repent having eaten too little.We never repent of having eaten too little. Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. What is it men cannot be made to believe! When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly. |
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