In the constitution of Spain as proposed by the late Cortes, there was a principle entirely new to me:... that no person born after that day should ever acquire the rights of citizenship until he could read and write. It is impossible sufficiently to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of all those which have been thought of for securing fidelity in the administration of the government, constant reliance to the principles of the constitution, and progressive amendments with the progressive advances of the human mind or changes in human affairs, it is the most effectual.
Thomas JeffersonOur civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.
Thomas JeffersonNothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas JeffersonThe mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.
Thomas Jefferson