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.

I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old.

Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in Government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead.

The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.

The most uninformed mind with a healthy body is happier than the wisest valetudinarian.

May it be to the world... to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

The past stays put, I just keep moving farther away from it.