"To take from one because it is..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson
To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association-the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.
More by Thomas Jefferson
“Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing ... this enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to it's consummation. It shall have all my prayers, and these are the only weapons of an old man.”
“The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.”
“Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light.”
More on Property Rights
“When a man has accumulated a sum of money, accumulated it within the law, the Government has no right to share in its earnings.”
“Our wish is that...[there be] maintained that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry or that of his fathers.”
“It is not alone that property, in all its forms, is struck at, but that liberty, in all its forms, is challenged by the fundamental conceptions of socialism.”
More on Wealth
“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.”
“I was born into it and there was nothing I could do about it. It was there, like air or food, or any other element. The only question with wealth is what you do with it.”
“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.”