The waves have rolled upon me, the billows are repeatedly broken over me, yet I am not sunk down.

Great advantages are often attended with great inconveniences, and great minds called to severe trials.

The origin of all power is in the people, and they have an incontestable right to check the creatures of their own creation.

The study of the human character opens at once a beautiful and a deformed picture of the soul.

The waves have rolled upon me, the billows are repeatedly broken over me, yet I am not sunk down.

Our situation is truly delicate & critical. On the one hand we are in need of a strong federal government founded on principles that will support the prosperity & union of the colonies. On the other we have struggled for liberty & made costly sacrifices at her shrine and there are still many among us who revere her name to much to relinquish (beyond a certain medium) the rights of man for the dignity of government.

A declaration of the independence of America, and the sovereignty of the United STates was drawn by the ingenious and philosophic pen of Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, a delegate from the state of Virginia