"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."
( Thomas Jefferson )
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government."
( Thomas Jefferson )
False is the idea of utility... that would take fire from men because it
burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils,
except the destruction of liberty.
( Thomas Jefferson, 1775 )
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary,
too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."
( 1812 )
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
"To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. I place economy among the first and most important of Republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."
"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect
the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his
estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the
magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against
injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save
men against their wills."
( October 1776 )
"God who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and His justice cannot sleep forever."