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Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

Book by Thomas Jefferson · 21 quotes · States, Ifs, Law

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Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States Quotes

“The days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before us. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by the next morning.”

IfsLifeMatterMomentsHappensNextMorningObjectsForgottenCirclesPursuitFlyingEveningPresent MomentConsumedPursuit Of HappinessBankruptcyBuzzEnnui
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“The States should be watchful to note every material usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present submission shall be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents of rights, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their accumulation shall overweigh that of separation.”

ShouldStatesEvilTermRightsMaterialsNotesSeparationProtestTemporarySubmissionAccumulationPrecedentAcknowledgmentLesser EvilUsurpation
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“I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe.... They are nations of eternal war.”

WarStatesNationsUnitedUnited StatesEternalEuropeFundamentalsActiveLibertarianQuarrelsBalance Of Power
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“...It is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is in all this design, cause, and effect up to an Ultimate Cause-a Fabricator of all things, from matter and motion-their Preserver and Regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms-and their Regenerator into new and other forms.”

MindBelieveHumansMatterFormCausesImpossibleEffectsDesignAll ThingsUltimateHuman MindCause And EffectRegulators
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“On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

TryingMaySpiritConstitutionLibertarianDebatePatriotismConstructionAmendmentsConformAdoptedFreedom LibertyRight To Bear ArmsBearing ArmsRights And Freedoms2 AmendmentUs Constitution
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“A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.”

PeopleLawPoliticsDemocracyRightsClaimsChiefs4th Of JulyLaws Of NatureAmerican RevolutionMagistratesNatural RightsInalienable RightsAmerican LibertyUnalienable Rights
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“It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them.”

ThinkingLawOrderCrimeArmsCreatingTerrorPunishmentVainWickedOppositionLaws Of NatureLegislators
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“Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of [any difficult situation] in the easiest manner possible.”

TruthLyingNextDifficultJusticeSituationStepsHonorNever FearDifficult Situations
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“Every society has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and to say to all individuals, that if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these principles and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease.”

IfsWantMayPersonsStillsPoliticsIndividualTermPrinciplesDangerCitizensExerciseLimitsDiseaseFundamentalsPursuitTerritoryAssociationContemplatingSomewhere ElseInvolvingEphemeralPseudoFundamental Principles
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“Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money lenders, and are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.”

SelfStatesMercyFortuneFloodAvariceCirculationLendersDelugeMoney Lenders
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“Morals were too essential to the happiness of man, to be risked on the uncertain combinations of the head. Nature laid their foundation, therefore, in sentiment, not in science.”

MenMoralMoralityEssentialsFoundationCombinationSentimentsUncertain
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“A strong body makes the mind strong.”

MindBodyStrongArmsExerciseGunConstitutionAmendmentsFoundersFoundingBoldnessMind And BodySecond AmendmentRiflesFirearmsBill Of RightsRight To Bear ArmsMilitiaBearing ArmsGun RightsRights And FreedomsPro GunFounding Fathers Gun2 AmendmentUs ConstitutionFounding Fathers Second AmendmentFramersDisarmingMind GamesAmendment 1Strong MindStrong ArmsPatriotic Gun
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“He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this.”

IfsMenHas BeensMadeMatterReligionMoralObjectsMoralityOne ManRelativeDestinedPitiful
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“While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato's Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?”

WorldGivingShouldLongHas BeensPhilosophyScienceAsksShould HavePhilosopherReputationNonsenseRepublicPlatoCould Have BeenJargonPlato SWhimsyPlato's Republic
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