349 quotes
When public opinion changes, it is with the rapidity of thought.
The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to its culture; especially, a bread grain; next in value to bread is oil.
The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.
I scarcely know myself which is most to be deprecated, a consolidation, or dissolution of the states. The horrors of both are beyond the reach of human foresight.
It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing, in the march of time. It will come.
Letter to Edward Coles (1814)
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read.
As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun.
Letter to Peter Carr (1785)
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.
Letter to Isaac McPherson (1813)
My aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an impostor.
Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on these alone a stable prosperity can be founded, that the evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come, I have used my best endeavors to keep our country uncommitted in the troubles which afflict Europe, and which assail us on every side.
Trial by jury, the best of all safeguards for the person, the property, and the fame of every individual.
Letter to A. Coray (1823)
History has informed us that bodies of men, as well as individuals, are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.
A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
The exclusive right of legislation and taxation in the representatives of the people.
Letter to A. Coray (1823)
After all, it is my principle that the will of the Majority should always prevail.
Letter to James Madison (1787)
Freedom of religion, restricted only from acts of trespass on that of others.
Letter to A. Coray (1823)
The mother principle [is] that 'governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it.'".
Letter to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval) (1816)
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.