Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art. To give praise which is not due might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who a… - Thomas Jefferson

Let those flatter, who fear: it is not an American art.

If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

My new trade of nail-making is to me in this country what an additional title of nobility or the ensigns of a new order are in Europe

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.