I set out on this ground ...

I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living. . . . We seem not to perceive that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independent nation is to another. . . . The earth belongs always to the living generations.
I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living. . . . We seem not to perceive that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independent nation is to another. . . . The earth belongs always to the living generations.
 Thomas Jefferson

Quotes from the same author

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
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 Thomas Jefferson
Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
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 Thomas Jefferson
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
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 Thomas Jefferson
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
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 Thomas Jefferson
I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
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 Thomas Jefferson