Thomas Jefferson

Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality . . . The moral sense, or conscience , is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given to them in a greater or lesser degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.

Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.  Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.  And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. 

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose.