Thomas Jefferson

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

"Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace"

"I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial."

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none"

"The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives. The only method of doing this is to assume a perfect resignation to the Divine will, to consider that whatever does happen, must happen; and that, by our uneasiness, we cannot prevent the blow before it does fall, but we may add to its force after it has fallen. These considerations, and others such as these, may enable us in some measure to surmount the difficulties thrown in our way; to bear up with a tolerable degree of patience under the burden of life; and to proceed with a pious and unshaken resignation, till we arrive at our journey's end."

"I cannot live without books."

"The more ignorant we become the less value we set on science, and the less inclination we shall have to seek it."

"Determine never to be idle. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."

"The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public debt... merits the consideration of Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults?... Or shall it rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union"

"I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it"

"If it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience."

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

"A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be."

"They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live."

"Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument."

"I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor."

"I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another."

"I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence."

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."