Quotes from Letter to Isaac McPherson — Thomas Jefferson
1743–1826 United States
← All quotes by Thomas Jefferson
4 quotes
Every man should be protected in his lawful acts, and be certain that no ex post facto law shall punish or endamage him for them.
Letter to Isaac McPherson (1813)
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)
Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property.
Letter to Isaac McPherson (1813)
The law books abound with similar instances of the care the judges take of the public integrity, Laws, moreover, abridging the natural right of the citizen, should be restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest limits.
Letter to Isaac McPherson (1813)