Famous Thomas Jefferson Quotations

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"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"It 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
by Thomas Jefferson
"In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail."
by Thomas Jefferson
"My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
by Thomas Jefferson
"The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Be polite to all, but intimate with few."
by Thomas Jefferson
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state."
by Thomas Jefferson
"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
by Thomas Jefferson
"The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression."
by Thomas Jefferson
"There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents."
by Thomas Jefferson
"We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"We 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Always take hold of things by the smooth handle."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Nothing 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Taste cannot be controlled by law."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Information is the currency of democracy."
by Thomas Jefferson
"It 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."
by Thomas Jefferson
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."
by Thomas Jefferson
"The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money."
by Thomas Jefferson
"...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
by Thomas Jefferson
"...probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone."
by John F. Kennedy
"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences"
by 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A little rebellion now and then...is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible"
by Thomas Jefferson
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."
by Thomas Jefferson
"A 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 the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise"
by Thomas Jefferson
"All, 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
by Thomas Jefferson
"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."
by Thomas Jefferson
"An 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"An injured friend is the bitterest of foes."
by Thomas Jefferson
"An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes."
by Thomas Jefferson
"As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education and free discussion are the antidotes of both."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Books 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind."
by Thomas Jefferson
"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?"
by Thomas Jefferson
"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Defamation is becoming a necessity of life; inasmuch as a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant"
by Thomas Jefferson
"Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Difference of opinion is helpful in religion."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Determine 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
by H. Jackson Browne
"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo DaVinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
by Anonymous
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Every man has two countries his own and France."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Experience 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Experience 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Fix 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."
by Thomas Jefferson
"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Friendship 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?"
by Thomas Jefferson
"Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind."
by Thomas Jefferson
"He is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad."
by Thomas Jefferson
"He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."
by Thomas Jefferson
"He who receives ideas from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me"
by Thomas Jefferson


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