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the qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. they are the result of habit and long training.

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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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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[If a book were] very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man not likely to be much read if let alone, but if persecuted, it will be generally read. Every man in the United States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his right to buy and to read what he pleases.
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Health is value greater than studying.
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Do not neglect your music. It will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you.
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Don't spend your money till you have it.
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I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.
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A generation may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life when that has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights and powers their predecessors once held, and may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and inalienable rights of man.
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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.
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Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.
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Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.
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We think, in America, that it is necessary to introduce the people into every department of government, as far as they are capable of exercising it, and that this is the only way to ensure a long continued and honest administration of its powers.
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Well, Page, I do wish the Devil had old Cooke, for I am sure I never was so tired of an old dull scoundrel in my life ... But the old-fellows say we must read to gain knowledge and gain knowledge to make us happy and be admired. Mere jargon! Is there any such thing as happiness in this world? No.
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I value peace, and I should unwillingly see any event take place which would render war a necessary resource.
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A properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate.
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Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. ... With hearts fortified ... we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that... we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.
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Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.
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Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself.
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One never really knows how much one has been touched by a place until one has left it.
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The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.
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No society is so precious as that of one’s own family.
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