Favorite Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, born April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, Virginia, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia -- voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era. His personal maxims were based on human equality and individual liberty (see https://wjmi.blogspot.com/2018/10/all-men-are-created-equal.html). As public official, historian, philosopher, plantation owner, and family man, he served his country for over 50 years. In addition, he was known as an avid inventor, architect and gardener.  Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, just hours before his close friend John Adams passed away, on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.   Following are a few of my favorite quotes:

“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 endeavours 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.” --Letter to John Page (15 July 1763)

“A lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity, that ever were written.” --Letter to Robert Skipwith (3 August 1771)

“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” --Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” – Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

“Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate ; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.” --A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, Chapter 82 (1779)

“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.” --Letter to Peter Carr (19 August 1785)

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” --Letter to Dr. James Currie (28 January 1786)

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.” --Letter to Abigail Smith Adams from Paris while a Minister to France (22 February 1787)

“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.” --Letter to Alexander Donald (7 February 1788)

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That "all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” -- Opinion against the constitutionality of a National Bank (1791)

“Delay is preferable to error.” --Letter to George Washington (16 May 1792)

“I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” --Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush (23 September 1800)

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” --"To the Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland" (March 31, 1809)

“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.” --First Inaugural Address (4 March 1801)

“What more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? …A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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.” --First Inaugural Address (4 March 1801)

“I cannot live without books.” – Letter to John Adams (10 June 1815)

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” --Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (6 January 1816)

“It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read. By the same test the world must judge me.” --Letter to Mrs. Harrison Smith (6 August 1816)

“Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly.” --Letter to Samuel Kercheval (1816)

“…the important truths, that knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness.” –Letter to George Ticknor (25 November 1817)

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." – Letter to Nathaniel Macon (January 12, 1819)

“Happiness is the aim of life.  Virtue is the foundation of happiness.” --Letter to William Short (October 31, 1819)

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” --Letter to William Charles Jarvis (28 September 1820)

Favorite Quotes from James Madison

James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16, 1751 and died June 28, 1836. He was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Known as the "Father of the Constitution" he helped to shape the new American Republic. In retirement at Montpelier, his estate in Orange County, Virginia, Madison spoke out against the disruptive states' rights influences that by the 1830's threatened to shatter the Federal Union. In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated."

Republic vs. Democracy 

“The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended.” Federalist No. 10 

“[W]e may define a republic to be…a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior…” Federalist No. 39 

Separation and Division of Power 

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Federalist No. 47 

“The compound Government of the United States is without a model, and to be explained by itself, not by similitudes or analogies.” Outline, September, 1829 (Madison, 1865, IV, page 18) 

“The two vital characteristics of the political system of the United States are, first, that the Government holds its powers by a charter granted to it by the people; second, that the powers of government are formed in two grand divisions — one vested in a Government over the whole community, the other in a number of independent Governments over its component parts. Hitherto charters have been written grants of privileges by Governments to the people. Here they are written grants of power by the people to their Governments.” Supplement to the letter of November 27, 1830, to A. Stevenson (Madison, 1865, IV, pages 138-139) 

“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Federalist No. 51 

Interpreting the Constitution 

“I have always supposed that the meaning of a law, and, for a like reason, of a constitution, so far as it depends on judicial interpretation, was to result from a course of particular decisions, and not those from a previous and abstract comment on the subject.” Letter to Judge Roan, September 2, 1819 (Madison, 1865, III, page 143) 

“The ‘Federalist’ may fairly enough be regarded as the most authentic exposition of the text of the federal Constitution as understood by the Body [Constitutional Convention] which prepared & and the Authorities [state ratifying conventions] which accepted it.” Letter to Thomas Jefferson, February 8, 1825 (Peterson, 1974, 2. page 383) 

Legislation and Law 

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” Letter to Edmund Pendleton, January 21, 1792 (Madison, 1865, I, page 546) 

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” Statement before Congress, 4 Annals of Congress 179 (1794) 

“The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” Speech, House of Representatives (January 10, 1794) 

“As far as laws are necessary to mark with precision the duties of those who are to obey them, and to take from those who are to administer them a discretion which might be abused, their number is the price of liberty. As far as laws exceed this limit they are a nuisance; a nuisance of the most pestilent kind.” Notes on the Confederacy—April, 1787 Representation 

“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” Federalist No. 57 

Factions and Power 

“By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Federalist No. 10 

“A Government like ours has so many safety-valves, giving vent to overheated passions, that it carries within itself a relief against the infirmities from which the best of human Institutions cannot be exempt.” Letter to General La Fayette, November 25, 1820 (Madison, 1865, III, pages 189-191) 

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations …” Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (June 6, 1788) 

Right to Bear Arms 

“[T]he advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” Federalist No. 46 Resistance “Extreme cases of oppression justify… a resort to the original right of resistance, a right belonging to every community, under every form of Government…” Letter to N. P. Trist, December, 1831 (Madison, 1865, IV, page 206) 

Freedom of Speech and Press 

“[T]he right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon…has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.” Virginia Resolutions, 1798 

“[T]o the press alone; checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.” Madison's Report on the Virginia Resolutions (in the American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress) 

Freedom of Religion 

“[W]e hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "that religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence." Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785 

“Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect…Equal laws, protecting equal rights, are found, as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country; as well as best calculated to cherish that mutual respect and good will among citizens of every religious denomination which are necessary to social harmony, and most favorable to the advancement of truth.” Letter to Dr. De La Motta, August 1820 (Madison, 1865, III, pages 178-179) 

“Conscience is the most sacred of all property …” "Property," March 27, 1792 (Madison, 1865, IV, page 478) 

“The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities to be impressed with it.” Letter to Rev. Frederick Beasley (November 20, 1825) 

Education 

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” Letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822 (Madison, 1865, III, page 276 

“Liberty and Learning; both best supported when leaning each on the other.” Letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822 (Madison, 1865, III, page 279) 

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"Madison" refers to Madison, James, Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Published by order of Congress, 4 volumes, Edited by Philip R. Fendall (Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1865)

Knowledge will forever govern Ignorance

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” – James Madison to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822.

One of the biggest threats to civility and progress is ignorance – but this is not the ignorance you may usually think of. In many ways we are a highly-educated society. Many of our generation excel in the knowledge of science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and their applications in business and industry. However by comparison, the level of knowledge of fundamental principles of human equality, liberty, and divine rights under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as of the history of the American Founding, is seriously lacking. Numerous studies have shown that the average student, as well as the average citizen, is totally unaware of the principles of government that guarantee our freedoms and of each individual’s responsibility to understand and uphold such freedoms. This ignorance is manifest in schools, universities, and in the media.

Some basic questions to test our knowledge:

• What are the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence? 
• What is liberty? How is it maintained? 
• What is tyranny? How is it kept in check? 
• What is the supreme law or primary duty of government? 
• What is the purpose of the law? How do we judge between just and unjust laws? 
• Are all men and women created equal? How are we equal? 
• What is the relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution? 
• What are the purposes of the Constitution? Does it establish a democracy or a republic? What are the differences between a democracy and a republic? 
• What are the three branches of the federal government? Why are there three branches? What are their roles and duties? 
• What is the Bill of Rights? What rights does the first amendment guarantee? 
• What is federalism? What is the relationship between federal and state governments? 
• What are the duties and responsibilities of citizens to government? To one another? 
• What are the roles of virtue and religion in a free society? 
• Can liberty subsist without civic virtue? 

One of Thomas Jefferson’s greatest concerns was that Americans become educated in a way “to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom.” (Letter to John Tyler, 1810). We are generally failing as a nation and as a society in this vital ingredient to maintain our constitutional republic. This fundamental ignorance seriously hampers our civility, our common discourse, and our progress as a nation. Even more significantly, it places in jeopardy our rights and our liberty.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816.

Slave-turned-Poet, Phillis Wheatley

On Virtue 

By: Phillis Wheatley 

O' Thou bright jewel in my aim I strive 

To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare 

Wisdom is higher than a fool can reach. 

I cease to wonder, and no more attempt 

Thine height t' explore, or fathom thy profound. 

But, O my soul, sink not into despair, 

Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand 

Would now embrace thee, hovers o'er thine head. 

Fain would the heav'n-born soul with her converse, 

Then seek, then court her for her promis'd bliss. 

Auspicious queen, thine heav'nly pinions spread, 

And lead celestial Chastity along; 

Lo! now her sacred retinue descends, 

Array'd in glory from the orbs above. 

Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful years! 

O leave me not to the false joys of time! 

But guide my steps to endless life and bliss. 

Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall call thee, 

To give me an higher appellation still, 

 Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay, 

 O thou, enthron'd with Cherubs in the realms of day. 

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"Slave-turned-poet Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784) was enslaved and sold when she was 7 or 8 (her exact birth year is unknown). [She was] named after “The Phillis,” the ship that took her to Boston in 1761. Her owner, John Wheatley, a progressive for the time, saw that Wheatley was bright and encouraged her education. By age 14, Wheatley had written her first poem. In 1770, Wheatley wrote an elegy for the deceased Reverend George Whitefield, which became published throughout New England. Her young age, her sex, her heritage, and the short amount of time she had lived in the English-speaking world all contributed to her renown in her readers’ eyes.

Without any formal education, she not only learned English but excelled at the art of the language in a remarkably short amount of time. Wheatley’s growing fame, in combination with her poor health, led the Wheatley family to send her to London, where, at age 20, she published her first book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Shortly after being published, Wheatley was emancipated from her slave owners. She married John Peters a few years after.

But neither her literary success nor her marriage were able to bring her out of poverty. Her frailty due to continued illness, combined with the financial challenges of the Revolutionary War, prevented her from ever publishing her second book of poems. In 1784, Wheatley lost her husband to debtors’ prison, and all three of her children died infancy. Phillis Wheatley herself died on December 9, 1784."

University of Massachusetts Boston's Wheatley Hall was named after her in 1985. Image above is of a painting that hangs in the hall.
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See: https://www.massachusetts.edu/news/featured-stories/black-history-month-spotlight-remembering-wheatley-hall-namesake-phillis