Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson (1743-1826), born in Goochland, Virginia, was a philosopher, architect, statesman, and third president of the United States.

He also served as governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, and vice president.

Jefferson is best known for being the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, and for the Louisiana purchase, which doubled the size of the country.

He spent his years after the presidency establishing the University of Virginia.

  • We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  • Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty.
  • No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
  • Information is the currency of democracy.
  • The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do.
  • When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, one hundred.
  • Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
  • I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
  • Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
  • It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

John F. Kennedy

  • For those to whom much is given, much is required. (Jan 9, 1961)
  • Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
  • And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. (Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 1961)

Abraham Lincoln

Born in the backwoods of Kentucky in 1809, Lincoln (1809-1865) worked as a rail splitter, boatman, postmaster, surveyor, storekeeper, lawyer, state legislator, and congressman before gaining national attention during debates for election to the US Senate. When he was elected the 16th US President, seven states had already seceded from the Union, to be followed by four more. He guided the US through five years of traumatic civil war and issued the Emancipation Proclimation to outlaw slavery in the United States. His Gettysburg Address, written on the train ride to the battlefield, is still considered a masterpiece.

  • Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
  • The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
  • I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
  • What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself
  • Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tired on him personally.
  • If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
  • I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
  • Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.
  • Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
  • Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
  • It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
  • No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.
  • When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
  • Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
  • Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . . We here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth