Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.

I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself.

If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to me. Only let them be brim full of affection.

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to steal, murder, plunder, or bear false witness), and that we should not intermeddle with the particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected with morality.

The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most - for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?

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.