Some quotes from Thomas Jefferson

[topane]

Since we're quoting presidents today:


"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."

-Notes on Virginia, 1782

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Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.

-Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

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I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.

-letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

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Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

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I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

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A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

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A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not

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The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.

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But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Notes on Virginia, 1782.

[blueindian]

i'd vote for him.

[Cantacuzene]

I wouldn't. His first two terms as president were unmitigated disasters. He has theory but he sure doesn;t have practice.

[topane]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene
I wouldn't. His first two terms as president were unmitigated disasters. He has theory but he sure doesn;t have practice.

Maybe, but he was far more eloquent and intelligent than our modern braintrust.

[faither]

Originally posted by topane
he was far more eloquent and intelligent than our modern braintrust.

[OC]

Originally posted by topane
Maybe, but he was far more eloquent and intelligent than our modern braintrust.

I think in todays political environment, "modern braintrust" is an oxymoron.

-OC

[RoniMan]

quotes from jefferson

you missed the obvious:

"DAMN IT weezy! we're moving on up!"

[Napoleon54]

A very impressive man, I've always admired his philosophy. A few of my favorite of his quotes:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every
form of tyranny over the mind of man."

"With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy
and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens -- a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."
First Inaugural Address
March 4, 1801

"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

"The freedom and happiness of man... [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government."

"The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to the general mass of those associated under it."

[Cantacuzene]

My fav Jefferson quote is...

"The tree of liberty is watered with the blood of tyrants."