THOMAS JEFFERSON

"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave."

"Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion."

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty."

"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

"Be polite to all, but intimate with few."

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."

"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."

"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched."

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led."

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly."

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."

"A great deal of love given to a few is better than a little to many."

"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time."

"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other."

"Good wine is a necessity of life for me."

"It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice."

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it."

"Nothing is troublesome that one does willingly."

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

"We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it."

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give."

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none"

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

"Who you are will show in what you do."

"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe."

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

"When angry, count 10. before you speak; if very angry, 100."

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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."

"No people can be both ignorant and free."

"If you want something you've never had, You must be willing to do something you've never done."

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."

"It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape."

"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and opressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

"The dead should not rule the living."

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

"Every human being must be viewed according to what it is good for. For not one of us, no, not one, is perfect. And were we to love none who had imperfection, this world would be a desert for our love."

"Never buy a thing you do not want, because it is cheap, it will be dear to you."

"Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be."