Tag Archives: Thomas Jefferson

First Principles: Laws That Forbid the Carrying of Arms… Disarm Only Those Who Are Neither Inclined Nor Determined To Commit Crimes

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to … Continue reading

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First Principles: I Consider Trial by Jury As the Only Anchor Ever Yet Imagined By Man, By Which A Government Can Be Held To the Principles of Its Constitution

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson

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First Principles: Dependence Begets Subservience and Venality, Suffocates the Germ of Virtue, and Prepares Fit Tools for the Designs of Ambition

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” – Thomas Jefferson (1781)

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First Principles: The Great Principles of Right and Wrong Are Legible To Every Reader; To Pursue Them Requires Not the Aid of Many Counselors

“The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors.” – Thomas Jefferson (1775)

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First Principles: This Falsehood of the Tongue Leads To That of the Heart, and In Time Depraves All Its Good Disposition

“This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” -Thomas Jefferson (1785)

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First Principles: The Principle of Spending Money To Be Paid By Posterity, Under the Name of Funding, Is But Swindling Futurity On A Large Scale

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” – Thomas Jefferson (1816)

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First Principles: The Same Prudence Which In Private Life Would Forbid Our Paying Our Own Money For Unexplained Projects, Forbids It In the Dispensation of the Public Moneys

“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.” – Thomas Jefferson (1808)

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First Principles: This Was the Object of the Declaration of Independence…To Place Before Mankind…the Common Sense of…the American Mind…Harmonizing the Sentiments of the Day

“This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common … Continue reading

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First Principles:

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?” -Thomas Jefferson (1781)

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First Principles: To Secure These Rights, Governments Are Instituted Among Mankind, Deriving Their Just Powers From the Consent of the Governed

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” – Thomas Jefferson, in The Declaration of Independence

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