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Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 Aug. 1785 [Quote]

give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself & all it contains rather than do an immoral act. and never suppose that in any possible situation or under any circumstances that it is best for you to do a dishonourable thing however slightly it may appear to you. whenever...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 Aug. 1785 [Quote]

if ever you find yourself environed with difficulties & perplexing circumstances, out of which you are at a loss how to extricate yourself, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate you the best out of the worst situations. tho’ you cannot see when you fetch one step, what...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 Aug. 1785 [Quote]

nothing is so mistaken as the supposition that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. this increases the difficulties tenfold, & those who pursue these methods, get themselves so involved at...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 Aug. 1785 [Quote]

it is of great importance to set a resolution, never not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. there is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible & he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second & third time, till at length it becomes habitual, he...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 25 Sept. 1785 [Quote]

I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens & not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, & that Missionaries of that description from hence would avail...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, 27 Aug. 1786 [Quote]

knowlege indeed is a desireable, a lovely possession, but I do not scruple to say that health is more so. it is of little consequence to store the mind with science if the body be permitted to become debilitated. if the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong. the sovereign invigorator of the...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787 [Quote]

4. Religion. your reason is now mature enough to examine this object. in the first place divest yourself of all bias in favour of novelty & singularity of opinion. indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. it is too important, & the consequences of error may be too...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787 [Quote]

above all things lose no occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful to be generous, to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, couragious etc. consider every act of this kind as an exercise which will strengthen your moral faculties, & increase your worth.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787 [Quote]

be good, be learned, & be industrious, & you will not want the aid of travelling to render you precious to your country, dear to your friends, happy within yourself. I repeat my advice to take a great deal of exercise, & on foot. health is the first requisite after morality.

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787 [Quote]

3. Moral philosophy. ... man was destined for society. his morality therefore was to be formed to this object. he was endowed with a sense of right & wrong merely relative to this. this sense is as much a part of his nature as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling ... the moral sense, or...

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