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Hindsight is an exact science. Hold fast to your dreams, for it dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

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
Architect
Cryptographer
Diplomat
Farmer
Inventor
Jurist
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Slaveholder
President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
Evil
Fast
Pain
Bird
Science
Cost
Cannot
Dreams
Dream
Broken
Winged
Much
Hold
Hindsight
Never
Happened
Evils
Life
Dies
Exact

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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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.
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The Declaration of Independence . . . [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.
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Shake hands with Pain, give greeting unto Grief, Those angels in disguise, and thy glad soul From height to height, from star to shining star, Shall climb and claim blest immortality.
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[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.
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The equal rights of man and the happiness of every individual are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.
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Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.
Thomas Jefferson
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Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.
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An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens.
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I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence.
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Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.
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Ambition is a tricky little animal to tame. It is very skillful at concealing itself from its master.
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We figure great careers aren't made. They're experienced.
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The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen states in the course of eleven years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of government prevent insurrections.
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Religious leaders will always avail themselves of public ignorance for their own purpose.
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When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas Jefferson
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The President is bound to stop at the limits prescribed by our Constitution and law to the authorities in his hands, [and this] would apply in an occasion of peace as well as war.
Thomas Jefferson
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I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box.
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In a virtuous and free state, no rewards can be so pleasing to sensible minds, as those which include the approbation of our fellow citizens. My great pain is, lest my poor endeavours should fall short of the kind expectations of my country.
Thomas Jefferson
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If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves.
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Who then can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the same wound himself.
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