This is related to my post, Tweeting wisdom of the ages, attempting to debunk the notion that something less than 140 characters must be shallow. These are quotations from Thomas Jefferson that would fit in tweets:
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
He who knows best knows how little he knows.
I cannot live without books.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
I should acknowledge the obvious here. Jefferson’s most famous passage was too long to fit into a tweet: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
[...] Thomas Jefferson [...]