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I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.

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
Politics
Abandonment
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Senators
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Ends
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Apprehend
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Rotation
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Offices

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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.
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We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority.
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I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations - to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements under all circumstances, to be open and generous, promoting in the long run even the interests of both
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It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.
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When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.
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Every honest man will suppose honest acts to flow from honest principles, and the rogues may rail without intermission.
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You see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. But it is an enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world, and procure them its praise.
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Would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not.
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Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits?
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So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
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Old heads as well as young may sometimes be charged with ignorance and presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
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Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
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Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.
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Nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an eye witness.
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Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both.
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He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
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I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.
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I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.
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For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have they have right to hold.
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It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.
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