Thomas Jefferson

I love the portrait of Jefferson below. I strikes me now, a thought!: Portraiture (the greatest of the arts) was long perfected even 200 years ago. It's fascinating to consider: such a technical and ephemeral skill, so magical to the masses, is now being forgotten as silicone tech courageously destroys all else.

And now for some Jefferson quotes. (I hope I don't go to jail for spreading these revolutionary ideas!)...
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. "

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

"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. "

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. "

"I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive."

"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? ...The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all."

"Most bad government has grown out of too much government."

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."

"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is."

"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."

"It is better to tolerate that rare instance of a parent’s refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings by a forcible transportation and education of the infant against the will of his father."

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."