Friday, April 15, 2011

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson!

Welcome!

This is the first in hopefully a long line of Friday posts that I am calling, "Heirloom Pearls of History."  Fridays we will celebrate our American Heritage in all sorts of ways.  I hope you are ready for the wonderful and exciting people that we will discover and learn about together!


This week, on Wednesday, April 13th, it was Thomas Jefferson's Birthday!  So, in honor of his birthday, we will celebrate him today by viewing the links below and thanking God for this wonderful man that we are privileged to call one of our Founding Fathers!

 









"Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly. Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death."

(Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, DC: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1903), Vol. 5, pp. 82-83, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr on August 19, 1785.)

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of mankind."

(Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. XV, p. 383.)

"I concur with the author in considering the moral precepts of Jesus as more pure, correct, and sublime than those of ancient philosophers."

(Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. X, pp. 376-377. In a letter to Edward Dowse on April 19, 1803.)

No comments: