I never before knew the full value of trees....What would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.

Common sense is the foundation of all authorities, of the laws themselves, and of their construction.

The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions.

In a world which furnishes so many employments which are useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever know what ennui [boredom] is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.

The whole body of the nation is the sovereign legislative, judiciary, and executive power for itself. The inconvenience of meeting to exercise these powers in person, and their inaptitude to exercise them, induce them to appoint special organs to declare their legislative will, to judge and to execute it. It is the will of the nation which makes the law obligatory.

Newspapers . . . serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.