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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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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
Great
Passings
Time
Passing
Regret
Gives
Uselessly
Away
Lounging
Home
Importantly
Nothing
Idleness
Giving
Employed

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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In the environment, every victory is temporary, every defeat permanent.
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I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others... An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.... Power is not alluring to pure minds and is not with them the primary principle of contest.
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The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
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A lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools.
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War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
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He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
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No man complains of his neighbor for ill management of his affairs, for an error in sowing his land, or marrying his daughter, for consuming his substance in taverns ... in all these he has liberty but if he does not frequent the church, or then conform in ceremonies, there is an immediate uproar.
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A truth now and then projecting into the ocean of newspaper lies serves like headlands to correct our course. Indeed, my scepticism as to everything I see in a newspaper makes me indifferent whether I ever see one.
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The constitution of the United States is the result of the collected wisdom of our country.
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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.
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Slavery is an abomination and must be loudly proclaimed as such, but I own that I nor any other man has any immediate solution to the problem.
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If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter
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Above all things, lose no occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous, etc. Consider every act of this kind as an exercise which will strengthen your moral faculties and increase your worth.
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[T]he true key for the construction of everything doubtful in a law is the intention of the law-makers. This is most safely gathered from the words, but may be sought also in extraneous circumstances provided they do not contradict the express words of the law.
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Every experience deeply felt in life needs to be passed along. Wheather it be through words and music, chiseled in stone, painted with a brush, or sewn with a needle, it is a way of reaching for immortality.
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Delay is preferable to error.
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If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.
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Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known and seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.
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Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.
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It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
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