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Of distinction by birth or badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong.

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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More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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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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Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
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At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about a public debt being a public blessing that the stock representing it was a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in dreams.
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Honesty, disinterestedness and good nature are indispensable to procure the esteem and confidence of those with whom we live, and on whose esteem our happiness depends.
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I am sure the man who powders most, perfumes most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most admired. Though to be candid, there are some who have too much good sense to esteem such monkey-like animals as these, in whose formation, as the saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God Almighty.
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I wish I was a despot that I might save the noble, the beautiful trees that are daily falling sacrifice to the cupidity of their owners, or the necessity of the poor. The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder.
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When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.
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Nothing is so engaging as the little domestic cares into which you appear to be entering, and as to reading it is useful for onlyfilling up the chinks of more useful and healthy occupations.
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The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood?
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A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful Land, traversing all the seas with the rich production of their Industry.
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The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Thomas Jefferson
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Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
Thomas Jefferson
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The eyes of our citizens are not sufficiently open to the true cause of our distress. They ascribe them to everything but their true cause, the banking system
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It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
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Our ancient laws expressly declare that those who are but delegates themselves shall not delegate to others powers which require judgment and integrity in their exercise.
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It is always better to have no ideas than false ones to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson
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ONLY a government that is AFRAID of its citizens tries to control them.
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That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
Thomas Jefferson
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I like to see the people awake and alert.
Thomas Jefferson
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Whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun.
Thomas Jefferson