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Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional incitement; if that there be a future state, the hope of a happy existence in that increases the appetite to deserve it; if that Jesus was also a god, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love.
Thomas Jefferson
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As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a 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 the constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book with you.
Thomas Jefferson
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Our people... will give you all the necessaries of war they produce, if, instead of the bankrupt trash they now are obliged to receive for want of any other, you will give them a paper promise funded on a specific pledge, and of a size for common circulation.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
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A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.
Thomas Jefferson
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Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing, in the march of time. It will come.
Thomas Jefferson
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The moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing.
Thomas Jefferson
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We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.
Thomas Jefferson
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The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
Thomas Jefferson
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I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances.
Thomas Jefferson
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What an augmentation of the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the state powers into the hands of the general government.
Thomas Jefferson
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Besides the comfort of knowlege, every science is auxiliary to every other.
Thomas Jefferson
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Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges.
Thomas Jefferson
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The genuine and simple religion of Jesus will one day be restored: such as it was preached and practiced by Himself.
Thomas Jefferson
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My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
Thomas Jefferson
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I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird, or as a being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs.
Thomas Jefferson
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Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world, having taught a lesson useful to those who inflict and to those who feel oppression you retire from the great theatre of action with the blessings of your fellow citizens.
Thomas Jefferson
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You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war. Of my dispos[i]tion to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself, the world has had proofs, and more, perhaps, than it has approved. I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the dispos[i]tion to war; but of its abolition I despair.
Thomas Jefferson
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And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.
Thomas Jefferson
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When public opinion changes, it is with the rapidity of thought.
Thomas Jefferson
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And Botany I rank with the most valuable sciences, whether we consider its subjects as furnishing the principal subsistence of life to man and beast, delicious varieties for our tables, refreshments from our orchards, the adornments of our flower-borders, shade and perfume of our groves, materials for our buildings, or medicaments for our bodies.
Thomas Jefferson
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When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil; while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments.
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To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's 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.
Thomas Jefferson
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The sway of the clergy in New England is indeed formidable. No mind beyond mediocrity dares there to develop itself.
Thomas Jefferson
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The cement of this union is in the heart blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis.
Thomas Jefferson
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Quote of the day
Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed the floor.
Ogden Nash
Thomas Jefferson
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Born:
April 13, 1743
Died:
July 4, 1826
(aged 83)
Bio:
Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He was elected the second Vice President of the United States and the third President.
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