35 quotes
To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is … the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence.
Report on the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution (1846)
The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom.
He devoted himself, his life, his fortune, his hereditary honors, his towering ambition, his splendid hopes, all to the cause of liberty.
Oration on Lafayette (1834)
Pronounce him one of the first men of his age, and you have yet not done him justice.
Oration on Lafayette (1834)
This is the last of Earth! I am content.
Westward the star of empire takes its way.
Oration at Plymouth (1802)
Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel.
Think of your forefathers and of your posterity.
Oration at Plymouth (1802)
Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those of veneration for our forefathers, and of love for our posterity.
Oration at Plymouth (1802)
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
This house will bear witness to his piety; this town, his birthplace, to his munificence; history to his patriotism; posterity to the depth and compass of his mind.
Epitaph for John Adams (1829)
In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill will to any human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage their fellow men, not knowing what they do.
This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For Freedom only deals the deadly blow;
Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade,
For gentle peace in Freedom’s hallowed shade.
Written in an Album (1842)
The duties of man consist in alternate action and meditation, mutually aiding and relieving each other; and both, directed with undeviating aim, to the progressive improvement of himself and his fellow creatures.
I told him that I thought it was law logic — an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in Courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else.
Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation.
All the public business in Congress now connects itself with intrigues, and there is great danger that the whole government will degenerate into a struggle of cabals.
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
The first steps of the slaveholder to justify by argument the peculiar instutitions is to deny the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence. He denies that all men are created equal. He denies that he has inalienable rights.
Letter to the 12th Congressional District (1839)
My wants are many, and, if told,
Would muster many a score;
And were each wish a mint of gold,
I still would want for more.