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My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind

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
Mankind
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More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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That the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction and that a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under colour of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.
Thomas Jefferson
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I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries of comforts of life.
Thomas Jefferson
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Those who wish to be ignorant and free, believe in something that never was and never shall be.
Thomas Jefferson
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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.
Thomas Jefferson
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I never saw an instance of one or two disputants convincing the other by argument.
Thomas Jefferson
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I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson
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No country and no people can be free and ignorant at the same time.
Thomas Jefferson
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The concentrating of powers in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one.
Thomas Jefferson
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Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely gives him comfortable subsistence.
Thomas Jefferson
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Government governed least is government governed best.
Thomas Jefferson
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It will be said that great societies cannot exist without government.
Thomas Jefferson
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I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another.
Thomas Jefferson
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The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.
Thomas Jefferson
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I have no ambition to govern men it is a painful and thankless office.
Thomas Jefferson
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No man has done everything he can who has done only his best.
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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Never put off your massage until tomorrow if you can get it today.
Thomas Jefferson
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No instance exists of a person's writing two language perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.
Thomas Jefferson
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It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.
Thomas Jefferson
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It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason.
Thomas Jefferson