I find that my earliest affections are my strongest.

to satisfy myself by enquiry from the best farmers of all the circumstances which may decide on the best rotation of crops; for I take that to be the most important of all the questions a farmer has to decide.

I never before knew the full value of trees. my house is entirely embosomed in high plane trees, with good grass below, & under them I breakfast, dine, write, read & receive my company. what would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.

all the tranquillity, the happiness & security of mankind rest on justice, on the obligation to respect the rights of others.

the liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood?

I am not afraid to warrant to you any degree of success and consideration you may desire, if you qualify yourself by perseverance in study, and by an invariable determination to do, under all circumstances what reason & rigorous right shall dictate, keeping under absolute subjection all the...

I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the union into two or more parts.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

no body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men, & that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa & America....

whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of antiquity which have had the approbation of thousands of years