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The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But 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.

Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson
Age: 83 †
Born: 1743
Born: April 2
Died: 1826
Died: July 4
3Rd U.S. President
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For St. Paul only says that it is better to be married than to burn. Now I presume that if that apostle had known that providence would at an after day be so kind to any particular set of people as to furnish them with other means of extinguishing their fire than those of matrimony, he would have earnestly recmmended them to their practice.
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Dependence leads to subservience.
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What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and power into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate.
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If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation... to a continuance in union... I have no hesitation in saying, 'let us separate.
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To learn, you have to listen. To improve, you have to try.
Thomas Jefferson
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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.
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[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.
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The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.
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We will be soldiers, so our sons may be farmers, so their sons may be artists
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An occasional insurrection will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies.
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We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.
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Aristocrats fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society.
Thomas Jefferson
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If you have any duty which must be done, and it seems disagreeable, do it promptly and have it over.
Thomas Jefferson
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An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.
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Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
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The persons and property of our citizens are entitled to the protection of our government in all places where they may lawfully go.
Thomas Jefferson
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Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.
Thomas Jefferson
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Laws abridging the natural right of the citizen should be restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest limits.
Thomas Jefferson
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Should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price.
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No society can make a perpetual constitution... The earth belongs always to the living generation.
Thomas Jefferson