| THOMAS JEFFERSON |
| (1743-1826) 1 2 |
| �Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.�
�But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.� �Delay is preferable to error.� �Each generation... has a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness.� �Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.� �For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it.� �Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.� �History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.� [in a June 11, 1807 letter to John Norvell] �Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.� �I cannot live without books.� �I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.� �I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.� �I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.� �I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.� �If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.� �If ignorance is bliss, why aren�t more people happy?� �If no action is to be deemed virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a virtuous action.� �I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder the work the more I have of it.� �In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.� |
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