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I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not know that it is. I have been the instrument of doing the following things but they would have been done by others some of them, perhaps, a little 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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President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
Things
Whether
Would
Others
Littles
Instrument
Better
Instruments
Little
Following
Country
Lived
Done
Asked
Sometimes
Perhaps

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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The idea of creating a national bank I do not concur in, because it seems now decided that Congress has not that power (although I sincerely wish they had it exclusively), and because I think there is already a vast redundancy rather than a scarcity of paper medium.
Thomas Jefferson
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The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.
Thomas Jefferson
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I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many.
Thomas Jefferson
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It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.
Thomas Jefferson
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The plough is to the farmer what the wand is to the sorcerer. Its effect is really like sorcery.
Thomas Jefferson
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I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.
Thomas Jefferson
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My principles, and those always received by the republicans, do not admit to removing any person from office merely for a difference of political opinion. Malversations in office, and the exerting of official influence to control the freedom of election are good causes for removal.
Thomas Jefferson
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Free men do not ask permission to bear arms
Thomas Jefferson
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The bloom of Monticello is chilled by my solitude.
Thomas Jefferson
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We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.
Thomas Jefferson
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It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy.
Thomas Jefferson
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An acre of the best ground for hemp, is to be selected and sewn in hemp and be kept for a permanent hemp patch.
Thomas Jefferson
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The right to use a thing comprehends a right to the means necessary to its use, and without which it would be useless.
Thomas Jefferson
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The objects of this primary education . . . would be . . . to form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom public prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend.
Thomas Jefferson
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The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years.
Thomas Jefferson
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The present generation has the same right of self-government which the past one has exercised for itself.
Thomas Jefferson
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Music...This is the favorite passion of my soul.
Thomas Jefferson
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But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed.
Thomas Jefferson
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Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
Thomas Jefferson
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I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.
Thomas Jefferson