Thomas Jefferson

And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for the second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Thomas Jefferson…

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia: Query 19 1787

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. Thomas Jefferson Letter to Archibald Stewart December 23, 1791

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Thomas Jefferson Letter to William Ludlow September 6, 1824