Thomas Jefferson is easily one of my favorite founding fathers.
When I read his quotes it reminds me just how the same we are. The modern world isn't facing much difference from Jefferson's. I especially enjoy his views on education and firearms because he refutes what a lot of liberals love to say; "The founding fathers didn't imagine a world where..."
They weren't primitive. They were well learned in history and a lot of them didn't even get a formal education.
That said, please enjoy some of my favorite Thomas Jefferson quotes. I have underlined the ones which I think most apply to the problems of today.
To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.
(later in the quote, though, he does provide for keeping the super rich from being a threat to the state)
"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands or tenements]" (in quotes because it's from his 3rd draft of the Virginia Constitution)
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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. (*COUGH*drug war*COUGH*)
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.
(The Supreme Court doesn't decide whether something is constitutional, they decide what will be considered constitutional, there is a big difference. They can be wrong. This is why we have jury nullification)
Most bad government has grown out of too much government.
It is better to tolerate that rare instance of a parent’s refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings by a forcible transportation and education of the infant against the will of his father.
(Although he did provide public school, it was not mandatory.)
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
And probably my favorite for today:
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
The government doesn't give us rights, we have rights, the constitution is there to protect those rights from the tyranny of government.
When I read his quotes it reminds me just how the same we are. The modern world isn't facing much difference from Jefferson's. I especially enjoy his views on education and firearms because he refutes what a lot of liberals love to say; "The founding fathers didn't imagine a world where..."
They weren't primitive. They were well learned in history and a lot of them didn't even get a formal education.
That said, please enjoy some of my favorite Thomas Jefferson quotes. I have underlined the ones which I think most apply to the problems of today.
To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.
(later in the quote, though, he does provide for keeping the super rich from being a threat to the state)
"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands or tenements]" (in quotes because it's from his 3rd draft of the Virginia Constitution)
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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. (*COUGH*drug war*COUGH*)
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.
(The Supreme Court doesn't decide whether something is constitutional, they decide what will be considered constitutional, there is a big difference. They can be wrong. This is why we have jury nullification)
Most bad government has grown out of too much government.
It is better to tolerate that rare instance of a parent’s refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings by a forcible transportation and education of the infant against the will of his father.
(Although he did provide public school, it was not mandatory.)
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
And probably my favorite for today:
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
The government doesn't give us rights, we have rights, the constitution is there to protect those rights from the tyranny of government.
