Thomas Jefferson Quotes

The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of t...

...never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disput...

I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow I may recover health by medicines I am compelled ...

...We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans.

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

Advertisements contain the only truth to be relied on in a newspaper.

The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortun...

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute o...

I find that the harder I work , the more luck I seem to have.

Thomas Jefferson asked himself “In what country on earth would you rather live ” He first answered “...

All are dead, and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know us not...

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.

I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling...

We never repent of having eaten too little.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.

If I could not go to Heaven but with a party I would not go there at all.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselve...

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to ...

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us but i...

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

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

I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength...

No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will.

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

The sword of the law should never fall but on those whose guilt is so apparent as to be pronounced b...

In questions of power let no more be heard of confidence in man but bind him down from mischief by ...

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the e...

The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of t...

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the...

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was a...

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute...

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

Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at...

No people who are ignorant can be truly free.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal that they are endowed by th...

Of all calamities this is the greatest.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans and must be that of...

No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

no people can be both ignorant and free.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on th...

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

If a due participation of office is a matter of right how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by de...

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers wi...

No knowledge can be more satisfactory to a man than that of his own frame its parts their function...

One man with courage is a majority.

It is neither wealth nor splendor but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending t...

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them o...

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with bol...

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful an...

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater...

If a due participation of office is a matter of right how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by de...

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the r...

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

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder...

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

I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect...

The sun - my almighty physician.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors ...

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have,...

Happiness is not being pained in body nor troubled in mind.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just gover...

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

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be alwa...

I succeed him no one could replace him.

There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.

For God's sake let us freely hear both sides!

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should hav...

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor ...

It be urged that the wild and uncultivated tree, hitherto yielding sour and bitter fruit only, can n...

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most indepe...

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

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political b...

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

Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth b...

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if...

It is a wise man who said there is no inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.Fillossofee: M...

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education ...

So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on...

When describing the University of Virginia: Here, We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may ...

The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my ...

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and...

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, din...

. . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to ...

I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if w...

Nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opini...

The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, i...

Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milde...