Something to reflect on in these troubling times to draw strength, our Founding Fathers are still here in these words and are depending on us to fight on........Reciprocity.





http://freepatriot.org/2013/04/05/35...ferson-quotes/

1. “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800

2. “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery” – Thomas Jefferson letter to James Madison, January 30, 1787

3. “I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing. – Thomas Jefferson, Source: Vice President THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Elbridge Gerry, January 26, 1799.

4. “In questions of power…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” –Thomas Jefferson: Kentucky Resolutions, 1798.

5. “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Archibald Stuart, Philadelphia, December 23, 1791; “The Works of Thomas Jefferson,” Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5) Vol. 6

6. “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” – Thomas Jefferson, this phrase was a motto suggested for the Seal of the United States.

7. “God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all and always well-informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon, and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thomas Jefferson, Year: 1787, Context: Letter to William S. Smith

8. “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield,[1] and government to gain ground.” – Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, Paris, 27 May 1788[2]

9. “The way to have good safe government, is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to. Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the state governments with the civil rights, laws, police and administration of what concerns the state generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best”. Thomas Jefferson letter to joseph C. Cabell, February 2 1816

10. “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. This is the sum of good government, and In the Washington, D.C.this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.” – Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1801

11. “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for the people of good conscience to remain silent”.

12. “That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.”

13. “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;… – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 18

14. “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” – Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 1787[2]
15. “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers 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, & the fruits acquired by it.” – Thomas Jefferson’s translation of Destutt de Tracy’s Treatise on Political Economy:

16. “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

17. “None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed & disciplined, is, therefore, at all times, important, but especially so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been violated…” – Thomas Jefferson to the state governors, 1803

18. “It is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations.—Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political:—peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none:—the support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies:—the preservation of the General government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad: a jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided:—absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of the despotism:—a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them:—the supremacy of the civil over the military authority:—economy in the public expence, that labor may be lightly burthened:—the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith:—encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid:—the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason:—freedom of religion; freedom of the press; and freedom of person, under the protection of the Habeas Corpus:—and trial by juries impartially selected.” Thomas Jefferson – Inaugural Address of 1800

19. “I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”

20. “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;… “- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 18

21. “I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”

22. “I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God — my daughter to my country.” – Thomas Jefferson’s last words to his family, according to B. L. Rayner’s “Life of Thomas Jefferson,”

23. “Whenever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” –Thomas Jefferson: Kentucky Resolutions, 1798.

24. “If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:58

25. “I am… for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.” –Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799.

26. “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 endeavors 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. These considerations, and others such as these, may enable us in some measure to surmount the difficulties thrown in our way; to bear up with a tolerable degree of patience under the burden of life; and to proceed with a pious and unshaken resignation, till we arrive at our journey’s end, when we may deliver up our trust into the hands of Him who gave it, and receive such reward as to him shall seem proportioned to our merit.” – THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John Page, Jul. 15, 1763

27. “The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed.” –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Religion, 1776. Papers 1:548

28. “I apprehend… that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation (term limits) in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 1788. ME 7:81

29. “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people…They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty”.

30. “That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”

31. “Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up the Earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose, that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you.” Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785

32. “The conclusion then, is, that neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:457, Papers 15:398n

33. “Aware of the tendency of power to degenerate into abuse, the worthies of our country have secured its independence by the establishment of a Constitution and form of government for our nation, calculated to prevent as well as to correct abuse.” -Thomas Jefferson to Washington Tammany Society, 1809.

34. “Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty.” –Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787.

35. “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.” –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.