Daily Quotes: 12/18-22/2006

Monday, 12/18/2006.
"Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands."

--Thomas Jefferson (letter to James Madison, 1784); Reference: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Julian P. Boyd, ed., 7:557.

Tuesday, 12/19/2006.
"It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf."

--Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776); Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (97)

Wednesday, 12/20/2006.
"The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people."

--Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Dickinson, 1801); Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford Edition, 8:76

Thursday, 12/21/2006.
"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence."

--Alexander Hamilton (Pacificus, No. 6, 7/17/1793); Reference: Alexander Hamilton: American, Brookhiser (116); original Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett et al., eds., vol. 15 (106)

Friday, 12/22/2006.
"What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

--Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Stephens Smith, 1787); Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 6:373.