I cannot live without books.

we must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus ... there will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse...

leaving little time for indulgence in my greatest of all amusements, reading.

we have in our family ... looms fixed with flying shuttles, which altho’ they do not perform the miracles ascribed to them, do, I think, double the effect of the common loom.

the plough is to the farmer, what the wand is to the Sorcerer.

before the revolution they were in the habit of coming often, & in great numbers to the seat of our government, where I was very much with them. I knew much the great Outassetè, the warrior and orator of the Cherokees. he was always the guest of my father, on his journies to & from...

I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus & Thucydides, for Newton & Euclid; & I find myself much the happier.

I would advise you, as an exercise, to write a letter to somebody every morning, the first thing after you get up. as most of the business of life, & all our friendly communications are by way of letter, nothing is more important than to acquire a facility of developing our ideas on paper;...

We are out of sallad-oil, and you know it is a necessary of life here. can any be had in Richmond? I must get you to enquire, and to be particular as to it’s quality. if fine I would be glad to have half a dozen quarts. if midling 2. or 3. bottles will do. if absolutely not good get a single...

I have wished to know what you have entered on, what progress you have made, and how your hours are distributed. for it is only by a methodical distribution of our hours, & a rigorous, inflexible observance of it that any steady progress can be made ... I would advise you to make the...