Quote#Politics & Power
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very…
Quote byThomas Jefferson · 1743–1826
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington (16 January 1787) Lipscomb & Bergh ed. 6:57.
English (original)
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.
— Thomas Jefferson
More from Thomas Jefferson
Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law [this quote is referring to English Common Law].
The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state
To begin an affair of that kind now, and carry it on so long a time in form, is by no means a proper plan ... whatever assurances I may give her in private of my esteem for her, or whatever assurances I may ask in return from her, depend …
The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes, should be one of the …
A lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity, that ever were written.
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.