preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people.

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...

and our own dear Monticello, where has Nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. with what majesty do we there ride above the storms! how sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our...

for assuredly nobody will care for him who cares for nobody. but friendship is precious not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life: and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.

I am never happier than when I am performing good offices for good people; and the most friendly office one can perform is to make worthy characters acquainted with one another.

Miss Jefferson’s compliments to Mr De Crevecoeur, she cannot receive the valuable present he has been so kind as to send her. she considers the offer of it as a sufficient proof of his friendly disposition and begs leave in returning it to tender to him her esteem and her thanks

I am persuaded myself that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. they may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves. the people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of...

under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate. this is a true picture of Europe. cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by...

The pleasure your agreable letter afforded me My dear girl would easily Make me forget forgive and even forget the uneasiness your silence gives me tho’ I cannot allow of the Justness of your Excuses for not writing as one sees by your letters that your time is far from being Employed in trifles....

from Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of Roman grandeur

would you believe Madam, that in [this 18th. centur]y, in France, und[er the reign of Louis XVI, they] are [at this mo]ment pulling down the circular wall of this superb remain [to pave a ro]ad? and that too from a hill which is itself an entire mass of stone just as fit, & more accessible. a...

of all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes it with so silent, yet so baneful a tooth, as indolence. body & mind both unemployed, our being becomes a burthen, & every object about us loathsome, even the dearest. idleness begets ennui, ennui the hypochondria, & that a diseased...