Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.

~ 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.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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.

~ Thomas Jefferson

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.

~ Thomas Jefferson

All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

~ Thomas Jefferson

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

~ Thomas Jefferson

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.

~ Thomas Jefferson

May it [American independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately... These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.]

~ Thomas Jefferson

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence.

~ Thomas Jefferson

They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument.

~ Thomas Jefferson

A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I know 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 by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.

~ Thomas Jefferson

If it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public debt... merits the consideration of Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults?...Or shall it rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union

~ Thomas Jefferson

Determine never to be idle. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry...

~ Thomas Jefferson

May it [American independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately... These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to

~ Thomas Jefferson

While the art of printing is left to us science can never be retrograde what is once acquired of real knowledge can never be lost.

~ Thomas Jefferson

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none

~ Thomas Jefferson

Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace

~ 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.

~ Thomas Jefferson

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

~ Thomas Jefferson

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.

~ Thomas Jefferson

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

~ Thomas Jefferson

If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

~ Thomas Jefferson

And 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 the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

~ Thomas Jefferson

He [Weishaupt] says, no one ever laid a surer foundation for liberty than our grand master, Jesus of Nazareth.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government.

~ Thomas Jefferson