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

time, which withers the fancy, as the other faculties of the mind and body, presses on me with a heavy hand

tell Johnny Hemings to finish off immediately the frame for the round table for this place that it may come by the waggon.

we have every soil, aspect & climate of the best wine countries.

the eyes of the virtuous, all over the earth, are turned with anxiety on us, as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty, and that our falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind, and seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self government.

the happiness & prosperity of our citizens ... I believe is the only legitimate object of government, and the first duty of governors, and not the slaughter of men, & devastation of the countries placed under their care, in pursuit of a fantastic honor, unallied to virtue or happiness;...

the last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. we ought, for so dear a stake, to sacrifice every attachment & every enmity.

Since I had last the pleasure of writing to you, I have to acknolege the reciept of your favors of 1809. June 12. & Oct. 9. & 1810. March 24. with the first came the seeds of the Paullinia or Koelreuteria, one of which has germinated, and is now growing. I cherish it with particular...

my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced.

my affections were first for my own country, and then generally for all mankind.