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Presidents Day

My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution. – George Washington, letter, 1789

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. – Thomas Jefferson

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. – Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom. – Thomas Jefferson

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia

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

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. – Thomas Jefferson

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. – Thomas Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. – Thomas Jefferson

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. – Thomas Jefferson

We never repent of having eaten too little. – Thomas Jefferson

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. – Thomas Jefferson

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. – James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. – James Madison

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul. – John Quincy Adams

If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country. – James Buchanan to Abraham Lincoln, 1861

A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the unsolved ones. – Abraham Lincoln

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser – in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. – Abraham Lincoln

I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot. – Abraham Lincoln

I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him. – Abraham Lincoln