I find as I grow older that I love those most whom I loved first.

It is every Americans' right and obligation to read and interpret the Constitution for himself.

If 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.

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.

One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier.

But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.

Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.