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Always take hold of things by the smooth handle grateful that they are not worse rather than the rough handle, bitter that they are not better.

Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson
Age: 83 †
Born: 1743
Born: April 2
Died: 1826
Died: July 4
3Rd U.S. President
Archaeologist
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Diplomat
Farmer
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Lawyer
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Slaveholder
President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
Rather
Smooth
Better
Rough
Take
Bitter
Always
Handle
Things
Gratitude
Grateful
Worse
Hold

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We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.
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The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.
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Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.
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I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts.
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Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. ... With hearts fortified ... we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that... we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.
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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.
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The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.
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I have nothing but contempt for anyone who can spell a word in only one way.
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An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.
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Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
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With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole.
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I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
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So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
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It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.
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Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
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Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.
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I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.
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Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.
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What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
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One precedent in favor of power is stronger than a hundred against it.
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