“Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”
John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644
“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.”
Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, August 17, 1811
“Reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical to honour and love only what is true, declining to follow traditional opinions, if these be worthless. For not only does sound reason direct us to refuse the guidance of those who did or taught anything wrong, but it is incumbent on the lover of truth, by all means, and if death be threatened, even before his own life, to choose to do and say what is right.”
Justin Martyr, First Apology, c. 155-157 AD
“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, from his Argument in the Case of Howell vs. Netherland (April 1770)
“Always drink upstream from the herd.”
Will Rogers, in The Friars Club Bible of Jokes, Pokes, Roasts, and Toasts (2001), by Nina Colman, p. 316
“Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.”
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-83)
“As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book with you.”
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr (August 19, 1785)
A DECALOGUE OF CANONS FOR OBSERVATION IN PRACTICAL LIFE
Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Thomas Jefferson, in Henry S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3 (1858)
“Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation’s competitive needs.”
Jonathan Kozol
“The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.”
H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)