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The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

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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President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
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Libertarianism

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One had rather have no opinion than a false one.
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Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits?
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The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
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When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.
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The best (remedy) I can devise would be to give future commissions to (federal) judges for six years with a re-appointability by the President with the approbation of both houses. If this would not be independence enough, I know not what would be.
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Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of wisdom. Let it be our endeavor to merit the character of a just nation.
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Nature [has] implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses.
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Never spend your money before you have earned it.
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I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.
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Hindsight is an exact science. Hold fast to your dreams, for it dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.
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The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
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Without health there is no happiness. An attention to health, then, should take the place of every other object.
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One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
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Everything yields to diligence.
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Man ... feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day.
Thomas Jefferson
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Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.
Thomas Jefferson
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The colleges of Edinburgh and Geneva as seminaries of science, are considered as the two eyes of Europe. While Great Britain and America give the preference to the former, all other countries give it to the latter.
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But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Thomas Jefferson
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never trust a man who won't accept that there is more than one way to spell a word Paraphrased
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I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our powers boundless.
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