Thomas Jefferson on Moral Principles - The Moral Sense

Self-evident truth that carries with it the ability to change our thinking which in turn will change the way we govern.

clipped from etext.virginia.edu "I sincerely... believe... in the general existence of a moral instinct. I think it the brightest gem with which the human character is studded, and the want of it as more degrading than the most hideous of the bodily deformities." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 1814. ME 14:143 "The moral sense [is] the first excellence of well-organized man." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1823. ME 15:418 "The moral law of our nature... [is] the moral law to which man has been subjected by his Creator, and of which his feelings or conscience, as it is sometimes called, are the evidence with which his Creator has furnished him." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on French Treaties, 1793. ME 3:228 "Conscience [is] the only sure clue which will eternally guide a man clear of all doubts and inconsistencies." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1789. ME 7:350, Papers 15:118