Thomas Jefferson

"If it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience."

"A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be."

"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."

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

"They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live."

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led."

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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."

"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

"Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom."

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty."

"I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor."

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine."

"In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue."

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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."

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."

"Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom."

"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people."