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Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.

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
Destruction
Materials
Wealth
Character
Without
Way
Surest
Abundance
Material

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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I learn with great concern that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a farm-house.
Thomas Jefferson
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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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I discharge every person under punishment or prosecution under the Sedition Law, because I considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity as absolute and palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image.
Thomas Jefferson
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I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid and I find myself much the happier.
Thomas Jefferson
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If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its hearts, where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as Haman's.
Thomas Jefferson
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For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.
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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I leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take care when young.
Thomas Jefferson
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Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.
Thomas Jefferson
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Paper money is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.
Thomas Jefferson
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Bigotry is the disease of ignorance.
Thomas Jefferson
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Nothing can now be believed that is seen in a newspaper.
Thomas Jefferson
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I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.
Thomas Jefferson
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I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man.
Thomas Jefferson
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The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
Thomas Jefferson
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Man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do.
Thomas Jefferson
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Those are governed best who are governed least.
Thomas Jefferson
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An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.
Thomas Jefferson
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Scenes are now to take place as will open the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandoned to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers.
Thomas Jefferson
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The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.
Thomas Jefferson