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Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

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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Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
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the qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. they are the result of habit and long training.
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Men possessing minds of the first order and who have had opportunities of being known and of acquiring the general confidence do not abound in any country beyond the wants of the country.
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Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error... They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only... If [free enquiry] be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged.
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You see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts.
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A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.
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Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
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Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.
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Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself.
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No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad ones the former only. If our government ever fails, it will be from this weakness.
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Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people.
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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.
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Everything yields to diligence.
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We wish the happiness and prosperity of every nation.
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The introduction of so powerful an agent as steam [to a carriage on wheels] will make a great change in the situation of man.
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For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.
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[Emigrants] will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth or, if able to throw off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty.
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A little revolution is a good thing.
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The people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used for their destruction. And certainly they would never consent to be so used were they not deceived. To avoid this they should be instructed to a certain degree.
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