That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.
Thomas JeffersonI feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is the most unfit man I know for such a place.
Thomas JeffersonNothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas JeffersonWhenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
Thomas JeffersonIf we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.
Thomas Jefferson