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When a uniform exercise of kindness to prisoners on our part has been returned by as uniform severity on the part of our enemies,you must excuse me for saying it is high time, by other lessons, to teach respect to the dictates of humanity in such a case, retaliation becomes an act of benevolence.

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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Man is fed with fables through life, and leaves it in the belief he knows something of what has been passing, when in truth he knows nothing but what has passed under his own eyes.
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When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia.
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Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author
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To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
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My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind
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The patient, treated on the fashionable theory, sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine.
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Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.
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Nothing betrays imbecility so much as the being insensible of it.
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In the environment, every victory is temporary, every defeat permanent.
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Having always observed that public works are much less advantageously managed than the same are by private hands, I have thought it better for the public to go to market for whatever it wants which is to be found there for there competition brings it down to the minimum value.
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The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.
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Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.
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I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians.
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Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.
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A government held together by the bands of reason only, requires much compromise of opinion.
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The sickly, weakly, timid man fears the people, and is a Tory by nature. The healthy, strong and bold cherishes them, and is formed a Whig by nature.
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[T]he dignity of parliament it seems can brook no opposition to it's power. Strange that a set of men who have made sale of theirvirtue to the minister should yet talk of retaining dignity!
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Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
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I have a right to nothing which another has a right to take away.
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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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