Posted by Thomas Jefferson on June 13, 19103 at 15:48:23:
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." --Thomas Jefferson
=Inalienable Rights=
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and
inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter
or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness." --Declaration of Independence as originally written by
Thomas Jefferson, 1776.
"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the
hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them." --Thomas
Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774.
"Nothing... is unchangeable but the inherent and inalienable
rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824.
"Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and
with an innate sense of justice." --Thomas Jefferson to William
Johnson, 1823.
"Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes
into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the
liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is
called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature,
because necessary for his own sustenance." --Thomas Jefferson:
Legal Argument, 1770.
"The evidence of [the] natural right [of expatriation], like that
of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the
pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical
investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every
man. We do not claim these under the charters of kings or
legislators, but under the King of Kings." --Thomas Jefferson to
John Manners, 1817.
"The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be
contented to secure what we can get from time to time and
eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to
persuade men to do even what is for their own good." --Thomas
Jefferson to Charles Clay, 1790.
"God has formed us moral agents... that we may promote the
happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by
acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall within
our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and
cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value
our own." --Thomas Jefferson to Miles King, 1814.
"Nature [has] implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense
of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us
irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses." --Thomas
Jefferson to Thomas Law, 1814
"The true fountains of evidence [are] the head and heart of every
rational and honest man. It is there nature has written her moral
laws, and where every man may read them for himself." --Thomas
Jefferson: French Treaties Opinion, 1793.
"Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a
nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free."
--Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, 1789.
"It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or
unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust
and examine well his own opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to William
Findley. 1801.
"The human character, we believe, requires in general constant and
immediate control to prevent its being biased from right by the
seductions of self-love." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel
Dupont de Nemours, 1816.
"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could
propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over
others." --Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811.
"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be
borne, resistance becomes morality." --Thomas Jefferson M.
deStael, 1807