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If the happiness of the mass of mankind can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase.

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
Even
Expenses
Precious
Mass
Mankind
Blood
Tempest
Happiness
Purchase
Littles
Secured
Little
Expense

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I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying and slandering, without being able to give me one moment of pain.
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Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
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That paper money has some advantages is admitted. But that its abuses also are inevitable and, by breaking up the measure of value, makes a lottery of all private property, cannot be denied.
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When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.
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My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave consequences to him who has the disposal of them.
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Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.
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Whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun.
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The bloom of Monticello is chilled by my solitude.
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Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.
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Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.
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We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.
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The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
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The people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used for their destruction. And certainly they would never consent to be so used were they not deceived. To avoid this they should be instructed to a certain degree.
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The difficulty is no longer to find candidates for the offices, but offices for the candidates.
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We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.
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To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
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Men of high learning and abilities are few in every country and by taking in those who are not so, the able part of the body have their hands tied by the unable.
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Having labored faithfully in establishing the right of self-government, we see in the rising generation, into whose hands it is passing, that purity of principle and energy of character which will protect and preserve it through their day, and deliver it over to their sons as they receive it from their fathers.
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The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
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A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
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