Thomas Jefferson
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
Thomas JeffersonA coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
Thomas JeffersonA democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Thomas JeffersonA wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.
Thomas JeffersonAdvertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
Thomas JeffersonAll tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas JeffersonAll, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas JeffersonAlways take hold of things by the smooth handle.
Thomas JeffersonAn association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
Thomas JeffersonAn enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
Thomas JeffersonAn injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
Thomas JeffersonAs our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Thomas JeffersonBe polite to all, but intimate with few.
Thomas JeffersonBodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
Thomas JeffersonBooks constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
Thomas JeffersonBut friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
Thomas JeffersonCommerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Thomas JeffersonConquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Thomas JeffersonDelay is preferable to error.
Thomas JeffersonDependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
Thomas JeffersonDetermine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
Thomas JeffersonDifference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor – over each other.
Thomas JeffersonDo not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
Thomas JeffersonDo you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
Thomas JeffersonDon't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
Thomas JeffersonEducate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas JeffersonEnlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Thomas JeffersonErrors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas JeffersonEvery citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Thomas JeffersonEvery generation needs a new revolution.
Thomas JeffersonEvery government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas JeffersonExperience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Thomas JeffersonExperience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas JeffersonFix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
Thomas JeffersonFor a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas JeffersonForce is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.
Thomas JeffersonFriendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
Thomas JeffersonHappiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.
Thomas JeffersonHe who knows best knows how little he knows.
Thomas JeffersonHe who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Thomas JeffersonHistory, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
Thomas JeffersonHonesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Thomas JeffersonHow much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.
Thomas JeffersonI abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
Thomas JeffersonI am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.
Thomas JeffersonI am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.
Thomas JeffersonI believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
Thomas JeffersonI cannot live without books.
Thomas JeffersonI do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
Thomas JeffersonI do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
Thomas JeffersonI find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
Thomas JeffersonI find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas JeffersonI have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
Thomas JeffersonI have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
Thomas JeffersonI have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.
Thomas JeffersonI have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
Thomas JeffersonI have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Thomas JeffersonI hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Thomas JeffersonI 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.
Thomas JeffersonI know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
Thomas JeffersonI like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Thomas JeffersonI never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
Thomas JeffersonI 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.
Thomas JeffersonI own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
Thomas JeffersonI predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas JeffersonI think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
Thomas JeffersonI tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Thomas JeffersonI was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.
Thomas JeffersonI would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas JeffersonI'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Thomas JeffersonIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Thomas JeffersonIf God is just, I tremble for my country.
Thomas JeffersonIf the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
Thomas JeffersonIf there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
Thomas JeffersonIgnorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
Thomas JeffersonIn every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
Thomas JeffersonIn matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas JeffersonIn truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
Thomas JeffersonInformation is the currency of democracy.
Thomas JeffersonIt behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
Thomas JeffersonIt does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
Thomas JeffersonIt is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Thomas JeffersonIt is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas JeffersonIt is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
Thomas JeffersonIt is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas JeffersonIt is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Thomas JeffersonIt is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
Thomas JeffersonIt is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
Thomas JeffersonIt takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
Thomas JeffersonLeave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.
Thomas JeffersonLeave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
Thomas JeffersonLiberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.
Thomas JeffersonMankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Thomas JeffersonMerchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
Thomas JeffersonMoney, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.
Thomas JeffersonMy only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
Thomas JeffersonMy reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas JeffersonMy theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
Thomas JeffersonNever put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Thomas JeffersonNever spend your money before you have earned it.
Thomas JeffersonNo duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
Thomas JeffersonNo free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas JeffersonNo government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
Thomas JeffersonNo man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
Thomas JeffersonNo occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.
Thomas JeffersonNothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Thomas JeffersonNothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas JeffersonNothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
Thomas JeffersonOne man with courage is a majority.
Thomas JeffersonOne travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
Thomas JeffersonOnly aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
Thomas JeffersonOur country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
Thomas JeffersonOur greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
Thomas JeffersonPeace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.
Thomas JeffersonPeace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Thomas JeffersonPeace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
Thomas JeffersonPolitics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.
Thomas JeffersonPower is not alluring to pure minds.
Thomas JeffersonQuestion with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
Thomas JeffersonResort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
Thomas JeffersonRightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Thomas JeffersonSo confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
Thomas JeffersonSometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
Thomas JeffersonSpeeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
Thomas JeffersonTaste cannot be controlled by law.
Thomas JeffersonThat government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Thomas JeffersonThat government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
Thomas JeffersonThe advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.
Thomas JeffersonThe boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
Thomas JeffersonThe care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Thomas JeffersonThe Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.
Thomas JeffersonThe democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas JeffersonThe earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.
Thomas JeffersonThe glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
Thomas JeffersonThe God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
Thomas JeffersonThe good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
Thomas JeffersonThe man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas JeffersonThe moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
Thomas JeffersonThe most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Thomas JeffersonThe natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
Thomas JeffersonThe natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Thomas JeffersonThe republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
Thomas JeffersonThe second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.
Thomas JeffersonThe spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Thomas JeffersonThe spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
Thomas JeffersonThe strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas JeffersonThe tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas JeffersonThe way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.
Thomas JeffersonThe whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.
Thomas JeffersonThe world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
Thomas JeffersonThere is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
Thomas JeffersonThere is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
Thomas JeffersonThere is not a truth existing which I fear… or would wish unknown to the whole world.
Thomas JeffersonTimid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Thomas JeffersonTo compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas JeffersonTo penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
Thomas JeffersonTruth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
Thomas JeffersonWalking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
Thomas JeffersonWar is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
Thomas JeffersonWe are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.
Thomas JeffersonWe did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
Thomas JeffersonWe 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 JeffersonWe may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.
Thomas JeffersonWe never repent of having eaten too little.
Thomas JeffersonWere it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
Thomas JeffersonWhen a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
Thomas JeffersonWhen angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
Thomas JeffersonWhen the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Thomas JeffersonWhen we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas JeffersonWhen you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
Thomas JeffersonWhenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
Thomas JeffersonWhenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
Thomas JeffersonWhenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
Thomas JeffersonWhere the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
Thomas JeffersonWisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.
Thomas Jefferson