no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.


Thomas Jefferson

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Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or bur...
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All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to fre...
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To be, or not to be, that is the question.
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To be or not to be. That's not really a question.
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Unlike all other forms of lute or combat the conditions are that the winner shall take nothing; neit...
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Do I have the courage of being a ruthless man to myself with the complete knowledge on my manner or ...
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Let no man seek Henceforth to be foretold that shall befall Him or his children.
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If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or pett...
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To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.
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To be mad is worse than not to be if this is what it is.
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Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy

"To go outside, and there perchance to stay
Or to re...
HENRY N. BEARD
To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being.
TOM ROBBINS
I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other d...
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The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreason...
US CONSTITUTION
That children shall be compelled to receive religious instruction which is in antagonism to the wish...
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yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of men are not the o...
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And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be nor more death, neither sorrow...
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The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it. But if you break it, a surpr...
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Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? / He that hath cle...
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No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but...
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Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
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our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics...
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Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to manki...
SAMUEL ADAMS
Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to manki...
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The first law for the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he ...
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Yes! Very funny this terrible thing is. A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls i...
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Of this you may be assured, that you shall none of you suffer for your opinions or religion, so lo...
CHARLES II
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or...
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It merely says, and I quote, 'equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by the United State...
CAROLYN MALONEY
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;...
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No baseness or cruelty of treason so deep or so tragic shall enter our human world, but that loyal l...
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And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his se...
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The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of fait...
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The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of fait...
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For this is the Great Deed that our Lord shall do, in which Deed He shall save His word and He shall...
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Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercis...
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Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the fo...
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Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the fo...
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Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll thei...
BIBLE
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at al...
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No man or woman shall dictate my character, behavior or worth.
JAIME CONTRERAS
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall posses...
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Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians ...
ABDULLAH YUSUF ALI
My religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as...
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If I know that I shall be as an angel, and more; if I shall behold all God has made; if he shall own...
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He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall t...
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Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be dif...
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be dif...
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Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.
JAMES CASH PENNEY
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, / If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and ...
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I know that David Tennant's Hamlet isn't till July. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who ...
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We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on th...
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No man shall be more exacting of me or my conduct than I am of myself.
KARL G. MAESER
He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. Exodus 21:17
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Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866 Christ was common to all in love, in teach...
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But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of t...
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The question will arise and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine: Which shall rule �...
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For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou...
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There is no reason to feel lost, for: Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, No birth, identit...
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We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire...give us the tools and we will finish...
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For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall...
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Let me speak plainly: The United States of America is and must remain a nation of openness to people...
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And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the wa...
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Serene I told my hands and wait, Nor care for wind or tide nor sea; I rave no more 'gainst tim...
JOHN BURROUGHS
War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffe...
ANATOLE FRANCE
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
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All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, ...
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Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw...
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We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on th...
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be signific...
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
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Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any new law, or to enforce...
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds ...
JEFF VANDERMEER
For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place...
BIBLE
Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience to Him.
JOHN OWEN
Ask , and it shall be given until you. That is no vain or untried promise, Ruth!
ELIZABETH GASKELL
In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou know not whether s...
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In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whet...
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A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them o...
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When I shall again write to you, or where I shall be tomorrow, I cannot tell.
DOLLEY MADISON
To date or not to date that is the question. It's almost as important as Shakespeare's to be...
AL GOLDSTEIN
There is nothing in the universe that I fear, but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail t...
MARY LYON
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters...
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All persons harboring or secreting the conspirators or aiding their concealment or escape, will be t...
EDWIN M. STANTON
Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, no...
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They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard...
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Were there no desire there would be no virtue, and because one man desires what another does not, wh...
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
For in every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall.
JULIAN OF NORWICH
The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
BIBLE
The Plagiarism of orators is the art, or an ingenious and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to ...
ISAAC D'ISRAELI
Religious fundamentalist haters and terrorists are not just saying that those who disagree with them...
CHRISTINA ENGELA
A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
When the souls rise up in glory, yours shall not be shunned nor sunderered, but shall be the prize o...
LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD
Fools can't understand even the gist by reading repeatedly the whole book; wise could comprehend eas...
ANUJ SOMANY
A wicked feels proud to see the crowd around oneself often, but a wise feels it is nice to spend mos...
ANUJ SOMANY
There is no surprise that every person’s words or thoughts have inherent voice and that clearly re...
ANUJ SOMANY
A wise does not have necessarily nice words but always good in intention; a wicked may have regularl...
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He who confesses magic or sorcery shall do penance for the time of murder, and shall be treated in t...
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The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
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The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.
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I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
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We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.
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There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
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Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
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If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should hav...
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The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
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One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
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I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
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Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
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It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
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Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves a...
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It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
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Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our o...
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I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results...
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No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
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It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by who...
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The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor...
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To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful an...
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Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to...
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Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
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The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
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I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
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Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
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Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
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Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
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Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
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It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wr...
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No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
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No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.
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No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
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He who knows best knows how little he knows.
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Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have,...
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To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by educat...
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Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
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It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
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The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noi...
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The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working unde...
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When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
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The second office of this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid misery.
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The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the stre...
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A sense of this necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory proof that whereve...
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With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliat...
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The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been sta...
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The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest mode...
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If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let...
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But let me beseech you, Sir, not to let this letter get into a newspaper. Tranquillity, at my age, i...
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If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by ...
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We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular p...
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A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you ca...
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the giver of life, who gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness.
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God who gave us life gave us liberty. 1 Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed...
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The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imitations. It is raising up a monied aristoc...
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A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but i...
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Architecture worth great attention. As we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our house...
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As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn fro...
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Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said: For Heav...
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The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they...
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At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helples...
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The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; a...
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To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government, as a barrier against foreign...
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We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by th...
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We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant...
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I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the publi...
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I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt ...
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I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depe...
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The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pocket to pay for it, would make of our country...
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Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate wo...
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And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods.
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Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most indepe...
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You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war....
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The character of our coasts, remarkable in considerable parts of it for admitting no vessels of size...
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I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must ...
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But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
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I thought the work would be very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man;...
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I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not ...
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Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massach...
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In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that w...
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But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names ...
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One half of our brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of repr...
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Were our State a pure democracy, in which all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all t...
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Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free; nor is...
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With your talents and industry, with science, and that stedfast honesty which eternally pursues righ...
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The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my famil...
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Perfect happiness I believe was never intended by the deity to be the lot of any one of his creature...
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Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on th...
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We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid bu...
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The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projec...
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The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. are the sole objects of all legit...
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If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem an...
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Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon want bread.
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If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking...
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I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricul...
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I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-governm...
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To preserve the freedom of the human mind and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to ...
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That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disb...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or bur...
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Peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nationsentangling alliances with none.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The desire to preserve our country from the calamities and ravages of war, by cultivating a disposit...
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I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any ar...
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Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute o...
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If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was a...
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I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.
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It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the ...
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There are two sides to every question, because, when there are no longer two sides it ceases to be a...
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I have not observed men's honesty to increase with their riches.
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Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to admit it.
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Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Power is not alluring to pure minds
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.
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Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none
THOMAS JEFFERSON
For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
When the moral sense is wanting, we endeavor to supply the defect by education, by appeals to reason...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Conscience is the chamber of justice.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feeling...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.
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Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil s...
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And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in t...
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There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson's secular college] by the...
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Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our instit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
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Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to p...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
If you want something you've never had
You must be willing to do something you've never done.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good gener...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbeliev...
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Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work Plato's R...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by renderi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nati...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of m...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then mo...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficult...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolish...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate ob...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office
THOMAS JEFFERSON
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my fam...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
We seldom report of having eaten too little.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Tranquility is the old man's milk.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions,...
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
THOMAS JEFFERSON