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Here's some more Jefferson quotes for you, then. May you take them to heart.
Think about those and how they apply to the person in the White House, and those that seek to be there.
"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."
"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government."
"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities."
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."
"Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism."
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own."
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people."
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
"Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence."
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done."
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property."
"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government."
"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities."
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."
"Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism."
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own."
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people."
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
"Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence."
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done."
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property."
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