Thomas Jefferson

"I have nothing but contempt for the man who can spell a word only one way."

"Our laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind."

"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the governed, our very first object should be to form that opinion rightly."

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

"No man will ever bring out of the presidency the reputation which carries him into it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends."

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

"No free man shall be debarred the use of arms."

"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have."

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."

"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time."

"It is the tyranny of the ignorant."

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government."

"I would rather believe a thing and find it so, than not believe it and find it is."

"Prudence, in the strictest sense of the word, is not to be despised."

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes."

"The good earth is rich, by the effort of working men's hands are made fruitful."

"Truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

"A boy's will is the wind's will and the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

"Rights are not given but inherent in human nature."

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as reason to withdraw from a friend."

"Every question of construction will be a question of convenience."

"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

"I'm a great believer in serendipity."

"Force is the duty of government, but it is not its only duty."

"Books are a necessary provision for civilization to extend its sway."

"Every man is under the natural duty of contributing his efforts to the eradication of vice and the diffusion of virtue."

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."

"The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world through human intermediaries or not."