"The Gothic idea that we were to look……" — Thomas Jefferson
"The Gothic idea that we were to look backwards instead of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, in religion and in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion and government by whom it has been recommended, and whose purposes it would answer. But it is not an idea which this country will endure."
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Thomas Jefferson
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1,437 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson has 1,437 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Religious leaders will always avail themselves of public ignorance for their own purpose.
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Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your…
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[Emigrants] will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able…
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The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted…
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It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral…
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The sentiments of men are known not only by what they receive, but what they reject also.
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If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.
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We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever.
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I have always said that a studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better…
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The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
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It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature,…
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Motherhood is the keystone of the arch of matrimonial happiness.
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More Ancestor Quotes
This quote is filed under Ancestor Quotes,
one of 479 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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For an economy built to last we must invest in what will fuel us for generations to come. This is…
— Cory Booker
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As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin…
— Daniel J. Boorstin
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My ancestors wandered lost in the wilderness for forty years because even in biblical times, men would not stop to…
— Elayne Boosler
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People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
— Edmund Burke
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Somebody would think I was trying to get favored treatment because my ancestors had the name Moon. And that's a…
— Buzz Aldrin
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Most of the ancestors that I can trace were born here in the United States of America. And then it…
— Herman Cain
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My ancestors were fighters, something I have inherited.
— Eric Cantona
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Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.…
— Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Nearly all Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans-liberty-loving risk takers in search of an ideal-the largest voluntary migrations in…
— George H. W. Bush
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We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to…
— Woodrow Wilson
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Nearly all Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans - liberty-loving risk takers in search of an ideal - the…
— George W. Bush
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An irrefutable proof that such single-celled primaeval animals really existed as the direct ancestors of Man, is furnished according to…
— Ernst Haeckel
See all 479 Ancestor Quotes »