What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment or death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him thro’ his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage,...

à propos of the Capitol. do my dear friend exert yourself to get the plan begun or set aside, & that adopted which was drawn here. it was taken from a model which has been the admiration of 16. centuries, which has been the object of as many pilgrimages as the tomb of Mahomet: which will give...

I send by this conveiance designs for the Capitol. they are simple & sublime. more cannot be said.

I fear from an expression in your letter that the people of Kentucké think of separating, not only from Virginia (in which they are right,) but also from the confederacy. I own I should think this a most calamitous event, and such an one as every good citizen on both sides should set himself...

I am making a collection of vines for wine & for the table.

honesty, knowlege & industry are the qualities which will lead you to the highest emploiments of your country, & to it’s highest esteem, and with these to that satisfaction which renders life pleasant, & death secure.

the earth is given as a common stock for man to labour & live on.

what are the objects of an useful American education? classical knowlege, modern languages & chiefly French, Spanish, & Italian; Mathematics; Natural philosophy; Natural History; Civil History; Ethics.

I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, & the independance of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital. ... for tho’ there is less wealth there, there is more freedom, more ease & less misery.

cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. they are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, & they are tied to their country & wedded to it’s liberty & interests by the most lasting bands.