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If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

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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One imputation in particular has been repeated till it seems as if some at least believed it: that I am an enemy to commerce. They admit me a friend of agriculture, and suppose me an enemy to the only means of disposing of its produce.
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Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.
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Industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of people.
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I have always said that a studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.
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Victory and defeat are each of the same price.
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My views and feelings (are) in favor of the abolition of war-and I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war but of its abolition I despair.
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No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
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[F]alsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
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The law for religious freedom... [has]put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind.
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Where the principle of difference [between political parties] is as substantial and as strongly pronounced as between the republicans and the monocrats of our country, I hold it as honorable to take a firm and decided part and as immoral to pursue a middle line, as between the parties of honest men and rogues, into which every country is divided.
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The man who loves his country on its own account, and not merely for its trappings of interest or power, can never be divorced for it, can never refuse to come forward when he finds that she is engaged in dangers which he has the means of warding off.
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Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise.
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Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.
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Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.
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We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever.
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There is no King, who, with sufficient force, is not always ready to make himself absolute.
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We are here lounging our time away, doing nothing, and having nothing to do. It gives me great regret to be passing my time so uselessly when it could have been so importantly employed at home.
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Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.
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I sincerely pray that all the members of the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness.
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Dependence begets subservience and paves the way for tyranny.
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