Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He served as the third President of the United States (1801–1809) and was elected the second Vice President of the United States under John Adams (1797–1801). A proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights who motivated American colonists to break from Great Britain and form a new nation, he produced formative documents and nation-building decisions at both the state and national level.
And now onto the quotes
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.
No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
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.
If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should have nothing to do with conquest
Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity
All authority belongs to the people
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
The best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights.
If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should have nothing to do with conquest
Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent with our government
I 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.
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
Delay is preferable to error.
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Is it less dishonest to do what is wrong because it is not expressly prohibited by written law? Let us hope our moral principles are not yet in that stage of degeneracy.
I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.
If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, then and only then will truth, prevail over fanaticism
On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Every generation needs a new revolution.
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
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
Leave 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.
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong
The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance
Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried
The juries are our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it.
Conscience is the chamber of justice. In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
An ethical person ought to do more than he’s required to do and less than he’s allowed to do
A nation as a society forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
When any one State in the American Union refuses obedience to the Confederation by which they have bound themselves, the rest have a natural right to compel them to obedience
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Power is not alluring to pure minds
Every generation needs a new revolution.
What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.
The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance
The merchant has no country
Tranquility is the old man’s milk
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,–that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Peace. commerce, and honest friendship with all nations–entangling alliances with none.
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
Monuments of the safety with which errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations � entangling alliances with none.
Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
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.
Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded faith.
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
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.
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labour of the industrious.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
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.
I 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.
I find that the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.
Never spend your money before you have it.
The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
It behoves 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.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. It is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to admit it.
A little rebellion now and then … is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
The hole and the patch should be commensurate.
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Victory and defeat are each of the same price.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
