THOMAS JEFFERSON

"On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock."

"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."

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

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

"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."