Thomas Jefferson Quotes - Page 4

A Man's management of his own purse speaks volumes about character

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large...

The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

I like the dreams for the future better than the history of the past.

. . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

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

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

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.

It is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail.

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

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.

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.

I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality [in Europe] producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property,...[One] means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.

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.

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

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

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

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

Everything yields to diligence

...it is not to be understood that I am with him [Jesus] in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist, he takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward forgiveness of sin. I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it... Among the sayings & discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence: and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same

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

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.

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

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

Thomas Jefferson asked himself “In what country on earth would you rather live ” He first answered “Certainly in my own where are all my friends my relations and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life.” But he continued “which would be your second choice ” His answer “France.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed.

If you serve humanity, you serve humanity's God.

‎We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

[n regard to Jesus believing himself inspired]This belief carried no more personal imputation than the belief of Socrates that he was under the care and admonition of a guardian demon. And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these inspirations while perfectly sane on all other subjects (Works, Vol. iv, p. 327).

I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Vir

Our 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.

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

A republican government is slow to move yet when once in motion its momentum becomes irresistible.

I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it

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

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.

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

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

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

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

The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure.

The dead should not rule the living.

I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another.

Question with boldness even the existence of aGod; because, if there be one, he must more approve ofthe homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.