Quote

In a world which furnishes so many employments which are useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever know what ennui [boredom] is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a habit of hostility against 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
Archaeologist
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President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
Ever
Useful
Amusing
Many
Miserable
Hostility
Employments
World
Faults
Gambling
Furnishes
Driven
Disposition
Dispositions
Resources
Employment
Ennui
Habit
Teaches
Corrupts
Mankind
Fault
Gaming
Teach
Boredom
Resource

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
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May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion.
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This formidable censor of the public functionaries [the press], by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being.
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I am... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.
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Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.
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Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.
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No country and no people can be free and ignorant at the same time.
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The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.
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Against us are all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty We are likely to preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and perils.
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An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
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Law is often the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.
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The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.
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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.
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The Bible makes the best people in the world.
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The human character, we believe, requires in general constant and immediate control to prevent its being biased from right by the seductions of self-love.
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Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
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To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.
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I am sure the man who powders most, perfumes most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most admired. Though to be candid, there are some who have too much good sense to esteem such monkey-like animals as these, in whose formation, as the saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God Almighty.
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The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind.
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Everything yields to diligence.
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