“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they must be happy.” –Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper.
Unlike that ridiculous “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” Jefferson actually said (wrote) above. (Source)
He also said this: “It behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion for taking off the surcharge [of offices and expense] that it may never be seen here that, after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, government shall itself consume the residue of what it was instituted to guard.”
Granted, Jefferson thought America should remain an agricultural society forever, but, you know, whatever.
KEN WHEATON 