Thomas Jefferson citáty

strana 14

„Věřím v štěstí, a přijde mi, že čím tvrději pracuji, tím víc toho mám.“

„Chcete vědět, kdo jste? Neptej se. Jednejte! Jednání vás vymezí a definuje.“

„Nemůžu žít bez knih.“

„Nejcennější ze všech talentů je to, že nikdy neřeknete dvě slova, když postačí i jedno.“

„Nemluvte o tom, co jste udělali nebo co se chystáte udělat.“

„Vše, co potřebuje tyranie, aby získala pevnou půdu pod nohama, je, když lidé dobré vůle zůstanou zticha.“

„Historie tím, že lidi zpravuje o minulosti, umožňuje jim soudit přítomnost.“

„Všichni lidé jsou stvořeni jako sobě rovní a jejich Stvořitel je opatřil určitými nezcizitelnými právy, mezi něž patří život, svoboda a usilování o štěstí. K zajištění těchto práv se ustavují vlády, jejichž spravedlivá moc vyplývá ze souhlasu těch, kterým vládnou. Kdykoli se nějaká forma vlády zprotiví těmto cílům, má lid právo ji změnit nebo zrušit…“

„Když se lidé bojí své vlády, pak existuje tyranie.“

„Pokládáme za samozřejmé pravdy, že všichni lidé jsou stvořeni sobě rovni, že jsou obdařeni svým Stvořitelem určitými nezcizitelnými právy, že mezi tato práva náleží život, svoboda a sledování osobního štěstí; že k zajištění těchto práv se ustanovují mezi lidmi vlády, odvozující svojí oprávněnou moc ze souhlasu těch, jimž vládnou; že kdykoliv počne být některá vláda těmto cílům na překážku, má lid právo jí změnit nebo zrušit a ustanovit vládu novou, která by byla založena na takových zásadách a měla svoji pravomoc upravenou takovým způsobem, jak uzná lid za nejvhodnější pro zajištění své bezpečnosti a svého štěstí.“

„Nic není v knize osudu psáno s větší jistotou než to, že tito lidé (černoši) mají být svobodní. Ani není o nic méně jisté, než že tyto dvě rasy, stejně svobodné, nemohou žít pod jednou vládou. Jejich povahy, zvyky a názory mezi nimi vytvořily nesmazatelné rozdíly“

„Bůh, který nám dal život, nám zároveň dal svobodu; síla je může zničit, ale ne rozdělit.“

„Člověk, který se nikdy nepodívá do novin, je lépe informován než ten, kdo je čte, protože ten, kdo nic neví, je pravdě blíže než ten, jehož mysl je naplněna lží a omyly.“

„Strom svobody musí být čas od času osvěžen krví vlastenců a tyranů.“

„Kousíček pravdivé historie je tak vzácná věc, že si jí musíme velice vážit.“

„Chůze je nejlepší možné cvičení.“

„Člověk, který nikdy nečte noviny, je informován lépe než ten, který je čte.“

„Dokud nepřestaneme ubližovat ostatním živým tvorům, budeme pořád barbary.“

„Nikdy jsem nebyl svědkem, že by se jeden nebo oba diskutující vzájemně přesvědčili na základě hádky.“

„Pokud příroda učinila alespoň jednu věc méně náchylnou k výlučnému vlastnictví než ty ostatní, pak je to čin schopnosti myslet zvaný myšlenka, kterou může jedinec vlastnit výlučně, dokud si ji nechává pro sebe; ale jakmile je zveřejněna, nutí se do vlastnictví všech, a její příjemce o ni nemůže přijít. Její zvláštní vlastností je též, že nikdo jí nemá méně proto, že ji celou mají i ostatní. Kdo ode mne obdrží myšlenku, obdrží návod, aniž bych já o něj přišel; jako kdo si zapálí svíčku o moji, obdrží světlo, aniž by mě uvrhl do tmy. Aby se myšlenky volně šířily od jednoho člověka ke druhému napříč zeměkoulí, pro morální a vzájemné poučení člověka, a vylepšení jeho podmínek, se zdá být zvláštně a laskavě navrženo přírodou, když myšlenky učinila, stejně jako oheň, rozšiřitelné všude po prostoru, aniž by snížila jejich hustotu v nějakém místě, a, jako vzduch, ve kterém dýcháme, hýbeme se a fyzicky existujeme, neschopné zajetí či výlučného přivlastnění. Vynálezy tedy nemohou být, v povaze věci, být předmětem vlastnictví.“

„V otázce stylu, plav s proudem; v otázce zásad, stůj jako skála.“

„Neexistuje pravda, které bych se bál nebo kterou bych si přál ukrýt před světem.“

„Až budeme natlačeni jeden na druhého ve velkoměstech jako v Evropě, budeme také zkažení jako v Evropě.“

„Zjišťuji, že čím tvrdší práci odvádím, tím mám víc štěstí.“

„Čestnost je první kapitolou v Knize moudrosti.“

„Zákony, které zakazují nošení zbraní, jsou takové povahy, že odzbrojí pouze ty, kteří nejsou odhodláni ani nakloněni páchání zločinů… Takové zákony činí věci horšími pro napadeného a snadnějšími pro útočníka, slouží spíše ku podpoře než k zabránění vraždám, neboť neozbrojený člověk může být napaden s větší sebedůvěrou než ozbrojený.“

„Přátelství je jen jiný název pro spojenectví se šílenstvím a neštěstím druhých. Náš vlastní podíl na utrpení je dostatečný: proč se tedy jako dobrovolníci zapojovat do utrpení druhého?“

„Křesťanství není, ani nebylo část zvykového práva.“

„Muž, který nečte vůbec nic, je vzdělanější než muž, který nečte nic jiného než noviny.“

„V Americe nemáme vládu většiny. Máme vládu většiny, která se na té vládě podílí.“

„Raději bych byl vystaven nepříjemnostem, které jsou spojeny s příliš velkou svobodou, než těm, které jsou spojeny s příliš malou mírou svobody.“

„Rozdílné názory v politice, náboženství nebo filozofii nikdy nepovažuji za důvod, proč se od přítele distancovat.“

„Rozum a svobodné zkoumání jsou jedinými účinnými prostředky proti omylům.“

„Doufám, že naše moudrost poroste spolu s naší mocí a naučí nás, že čím méně budeme naši moc používat, tím větší bude.“

“Whensoever hostile aggressions…require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.”

“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.”

“Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsifications of His doctrines, led me to try to sift them apart.”

“The Constitution has made no provision for our holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our Union. The Executive, in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the Constitution. The Legislature, in casting behind them metaphysical subtleties and risking themselves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing for them unauthorized what we know they would have done for themselves had they been in a situation to do it.”

“Treasury notes of small as well as high denomination, bottomed on a tax which would redeem them in ten years, would place at our disposal the whole circulating medium of the United States… The public… ought never more to permit its being filched from them by private speculators and disorganizers of the circulation.”

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”

“I shall within a few days divest myself of the anxieties and the labors with which I have been oppressed, and retire with inexpressible delight to my family, my friends, my farms, and books. There I may indulge at length in that tranquillity and those pursuits from which I have been divorced by the character of the times in which I have lived, and which have forced me into the line of political life under a sense of duty and against a great and constant aversion to it.”

“I observe an idea of establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution. The nation is at this time so strong and united in its sentiments that it cannot be shaken at this moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur sufficient to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the union, acting by command and in phalanx may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this Bank of the United States, with al its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?”

“It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it, and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams. … what has no meaning admits no explanation.”

“My religious reading has long been confined to the moral branch of religion, which is the same in all religions; while in that branch which consists of dogmas, all differ”

“History has informed us that bodies of men, as well as individuals, are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.”

“The small and imperfect mixture of representative government in England, impeded as it is by other branches, aristocratical and hereditary, shows yet the power of the representative principle towards improving the condition of man. With us, all the branches of the government are elective by the people themselves, except the judiciary, of whose science and qualifications they are not competent judges. Yet, even in that department, we call in a jury of the people to decide all controverted matters of fact, because to that investigation they are entirely competent, leaving thus as little as possible, merely the law of the case, to the decision of the judges. And true it is that the people, especially when moderately instructed, are the only safe, because the only honest, depositories of the public rights, and should therefore be introduced into the administration of them in every function to which they are sufficient; they will err sometimes and accidentally, but never designedly, and with a systematic and persevering purpose of overthrowing the free principles of the government. Hereditary bodies, on the contrary, always existing, always on the watch for their own aggrandizement, profit of every opportunity of advancing the privileges of their order, and encroaching on the rights of the people.”

“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.”

“I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did. The being described in his 5 points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent governor of the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. Indeed I think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to Atheism by their general dogma that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a god.”

“These contributions [federal taxes on consumption of foreign goods] enable us to support the current expenses of the Government, to fulfill contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the native right of soil within our limits, to extend those limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts as places at a short day their final redemption, and that redemption [of debt] once effected," he said, "the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just repartition among the States and a corresponding amendment of the Constitution, be applied, in time of peace, to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each State. In time of war,—if injustice, by ourselves or others, must sometimes produce war,— increased as the same revenue will be increased by population and consumption, and aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses of the year without encroaching on the rights of future generations by burdening them with the debts of the past. War will then be but a suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace a return to the progress of improvement.”

“Nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed doubt.”

“While the art of printing is left to us science can never be retrograde; what is once acquired of real knowlege can never be lost.”

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.”

“Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on.”

“There is not a truth existing which I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

“What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong.”

“The question therefore now comes forward, To what other objects shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when the purposes of war shall not call for them? Shall we suppress the impost and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few articles of more general and necessary use the suppression in due season will doubtless be right, but the great mass of the articles on which impost is paid are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them.
Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of Federal powers. By these operations new channels of communications will be opened between the States, the lines of separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which though rarely called for are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country and some of them to its preservation.”

“The second office of the government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.”

“But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants and others to be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found so convenient? I answer, let us have banks; but let them be such as are alone to be found in any country on earth, except Great Britain. There is not a bank of discount on the continent of Europe (at least there was not one when I was there) which offers anything but cash in exchange for discounted bills.”

“Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges.”

“In a democratic republic, where the mass of the people of all parties have the same interest at stake, some respect must be had to the feelings and wishes of the minority, especially when that minority is large and clamorous; otherwise, it will be impossible to avoid discord, and discord weakens the bonds of union.”

“When, in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“[I]f ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.”

“We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”