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If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation ... to a continuance in union ... I have no hesitation in saying, 'let us separate. By Thomas Jefferson

Health, learning and virtue will ensure your happiness; they will giveyou a quiet conscience, private esteem and public honour. By Thomas Jefferson

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

We must endeavor to forget our former love for them [the British] and to hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. By Thomas Jefferson

It is in the love of one's family only that heartfelt happiness is known. By Thomas Jefferson

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential. By Thomas Jefferson

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it. By Thomas Jefferson

Not for ourselves alone, but for all humanity ... Let us hasten to find the path that leads to liberty, safety, and peace for everyone. By Thomas Jefferson

It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed. If not then, it never is afterward. By Thomas Jefferson

It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. By Thomas Jefferson

The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven. I can scarcely expect bread. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Some other natural rights ... [have] not yet entered into any declaration of rights. By Thomas Jefferson

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. By Thomas Jefferson

It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war as much as possible. By Thomas Jefferson

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind. By Thomas Jefferson

I have always said that a studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands. By Thomas Jefferson

Most men die at age 25, but aren't buried until 70. By Thomas Jefferson

The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time. 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

Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity By Thomas Jefferson

A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims. By Thomas Jefferson

I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. By Thomas Jefferson

Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people. By Thomas Jefferson

No one has a right to obstruct another exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature. By Thomas Jefferson

Above all I hope that the education of the common people will be attended to so they won't forget the basic principles of freedom. By Thomas Jefferson

Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. By Thomas Jefferson

How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the earth were it not for misgovernment and a diversion of his energies to selfish interests. By Thomas Jefferson

I'd prefer to have dangerous freedom,than have peaceful slavery By Thomas Jefferson

Take more pleasure in giving what is best to another than in having it for yourself, and then all the world will love you. By Thomas Jefferson

The past stays put, I just keep moving farther away from it. By Thomas Jefferson

A room without books is like a life without meaning. By Thomas Jefferson

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God By Thomas Jefferson

Never spend your money before you have it. By Thomas Jefferson

The only thing a man can take beyond this lifetime is his ethics. By Thomas Jefferson

I leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take care when young. By Thomas Jefferson

Delay is preferable to error. By Thomas Jefferson

A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither. By Thomas Jefferson

The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters. By Thomas Jefferson

Aristocrats fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society. By Thomas Jefferson

When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty. By Thomas Jefferson

For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum By Thomas Jefferson

A great deal of love given to a few is better than a little to many. By Thomas Jefferson

Do not write me studied letters but ramble as you please. By Thomas Jefferson

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. By Thomas Jefferson

we declared that an attack on any one colony should be considered as an attack on the whole. This By Thomas Jefferson

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. By Thomas Jefferson

The price of barbecue is eternal vigilance. By Thomas Jefferson

The merchants will manage [commerce] the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves. By Thomas Jefferson

The more a subject is understood, the more briefly it may be explained. By Thomas Jefferson

The uniform tenor of a man's life furnishes better evidence of what he has said or done on any particular occasion than the word of any enemy. By Thomas Jefferson

Idleness begets ennui, ennui the hypochondriac, and that a diseased body. No laborious person was ever yet hysterical. 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 information of the people at large can alone make them the safe as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious freedom. By Thomas Jefferson

The plough is to the farmer what the wand is to the sorcerer. Its effect is really like sorcery. By Thomas Jefferson

Principle will, in ... most ... cases open the way for us to correct conclusion. By Thomas Jefferson

New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature. By Thomas Jefferson

Never trust a man who won't accept that there is more than one way to spell a wordParaphrased By Thomas Jefferson

The rational and peacable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people. By Thomas Jefferson

It would not be for the public good to have [a majority in Congress of one party] greater [than] two to one. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. By Thomas Jefferson

Taste cannot be controlled by law. By Thomas Jefferson

It is my disposition to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself. By Thomas Jefferson

Knowledge is power ... knowled ge is safety ... knowle dge is happiness. By Thomas Jefferson

My general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything purely domestic. By Thomas Jefferson

Every man has two countries: his own and France. By Thomas Jefferson

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

The people will not understand the importance of the Second Amendment until it is too late. By Thomas Jefferson

War ... is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer. By Thomas Jefferson

All the world would be Christian if they were taught the pure Gospel of Christ!. By Thomas Jefferson

It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead. By Thomas Jefferson

Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone. By Thomas Jefferson

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

May it be to the world ... to assume the blessings and security of self-government. By Thomas Jefferson

Establish the eternal truth that acquiescence under insult is not the way to escape war. By Thomas Jefferson

The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. 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

Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God. 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

The only security of all is in a free press. By Thomas Jefferson

Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice. By Thomas Jefferson

We will be soldiers, so our sons may be farmers, so their sons may be artists By Thomas Jefferson

The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it. By Thomas Jefferson

I extremely believe in luck, and I discovered more hard work, your luck as much By Thomas Jefferson

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another. By Thomas Jefferson

The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace. By Thomas Jefferson

By making this wine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt. By Thomas Jefferson

Our business is to have great credit and to use it little. By Thomas Jefferson

While the farmer holds the title to the land, actually, it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil. By Thomas Jefferson

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? By Thomas Jefferson

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred. By Thomas Jefferson

Merchants have no country. By Thomas Jefferson

Question boldly even the existence of God. By Thomas Jefferson

Debt and revolution are inseparable as cause and effect. By Thomas Jefferson

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. By Thomas Jefferson

My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses. By Thomas Jefferson

I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object. By Thomas Jefferson

Men as well as rivers grow crooked by following the path of least resistance. By Thomas Jefferson

Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character. By Thomas Jefferson

[A]lthough a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible. By Thomas Jefferson

I am never tempted to pray but when a warm feeling for my friends comes athwart my heart. By Thomas Jefferson

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man. By Thomas Jefferson

The variety of opinions leads to questions. Questions lead to truth. By Thomas Jefferson

We might have been a free and great people together. By Thomas Jefferson

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and opressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. By Thomas Jefferson

Although we are free by the law, we are not so in practice. By Thomas Jefferson

My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind By Thomas Jefferson

There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive. By Thomas Jefferson

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another. By Thomas Jefferson

We act not for ourselves but for the whole human race. The event of our experiment is to show whether man can be trusted with self - government. By Thomas Jefferson

Of all machines, the human heart is the most complicated and inexplicable. By Thomas Jefferson

No country and no people can be free and ignorant at the same time. By Thomas Jefferson

An hereditary aristocracy ... will change the form of our governments from the best to the worst in the world. By Thomas Jefferson

Don't spend your money till you have it. By Thomas Jefferson

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory. By Thomas Jefferson

The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible. By Thomas Jefferson

In the full tide of successful experiment. By Thomas Jefferson

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. 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

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

Common sense is the foundation of all authorities, of the laws themselves, and of their construction. By Thomas Jefferson

Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves. By Thomas Jefferson

With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties. By Thomas Jefferson

Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong. By Thomas Jefferson

The law for religious freedom ... [has]put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind. By Thomas Jefferson

History teaches the young the virtues of freedom. By apprising them of the past it will enable them to judge the future. By Thomas Jefferson

Men of quality are not threatened by women of equality By Thomas Jefferson

There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him. By Thomas Jefferson

Our ancestors ... possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them. By Thomas Jefferson

A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful Land, traversing all the seas with the rich production of their Industry. By Thomas Jefferson

We must use a good deal of economy in our wood, never cutting down new, where we can make the old do. By Thomas Jefferson

No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place. By Thomas Jefferson

If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform. By Thomas Jefferson

I hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason. By Thomas Jefferson

The only greater [evil] than separation ... [is] living under a government of discretion. By Thomas Jefferson

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. By Thomas Jefferson

Agriculture is at the same time the most tranquil, healthy, and independent occupation. By Thomas Jefferson

The bloom of Monticello is chilled by my solitude. By Thomas Jefferson

I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital [Paris]. By Thomas Jefferson

I never before knew the full value of trees ... What would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown. By Thomas Jefferson

The bulk of mankind are schoolboys through life. By Thomas Jefferson

Laws abridging the natural right of the citizen should be restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest limits. By Thomas Jefferson

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education. By Thomas Jefferson

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master. By Thomas Jefferson

I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian. By Thomas Jefferson

It was one of the rules which above all others made Doctr. Franklin the most amiable of men in society, never to contradict anybody. By Thomas Jefferson

Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands. By Thomas Jefferson

I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial. By Thomas Jefferson

Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits? By Thomas Jefferson

I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts. By Thomas Jefferson

I find as I grow older that I love those most whom I loved first. By Thomas Jefferson

I find as I grow older, I love those most, whom I loved first. By Thomas Jefferson

No knowledge can be more satisfactory to a man than that of his own frame, its parts, their functions and actions. By Thomas Jefferson

I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man ... By Thomas Jefferson

I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man. By Thomas Jefferson

Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right. By Thomas Jefferson

The cutting of heads is become so much a la mode, that one is apt to feel of a morning whether their own is on their shoulders. By Thomas Jefferson

Taxation is, in fact, the most difficult function of government and that against which their citizens are most apt to be refractory. By Thomas Jefferson

Should things go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights. By Thomas Jefferson

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. By Thomas Jefferson

Was the government to prescribe us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. - Thomas Jefferson By Thomas Jefferson

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended. By Thomas Jefferson

Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. By Thomas Jefferson

The worst day in a man's life is when he sits down and begins thinking about how he can get something for nothing. By Thomas Jefferson

I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates the present state of things. By Thomas Jefferson

Bind them down by the chains of the Constitution where they can do no mischief. By Thomas Jefferson

It is every Americans' right and obligation to read and interpret the Constitution for himself. By Thomas Jefferson

The dead should not rule the living. By Thomas Jefferson

No society can make a perpetual constitution ... The earth belongs always to the living generation. By Thomas Jefferson

God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men. By Thomas Jefferson

Experience has already shown that the impeachment the Constitution has provided is not even a scarecrow. By Thomas Jefferson

The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please. By Thomas Jefferson

Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction. By Thomas Jefferson

The moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing. By Thomas Jefferson

In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution. By Thomas Jefferson

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

To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse. By Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force. By Thomas Jefferson

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

The contest is not between Us and Them, but between Good and Evil, and if those who would fight Evil adopt the ways of Evil, Evil wins. By Thomas Jefferson

We must be contented to amuse, when we cannot inform. By Thomas Jefferson

Beer, if drank with moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health. By Thomas Jefferson

We are now vibrating between too much and too little government, and the pendulum will rest finally in the middle. By Thomas Jefferson

An occasional insurrection will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies. By Thomas Jefferson

Government as well as religion has furnished its schisms, its persecutions and its devices for fattening idleness on the earnings of the people. By Thomas Jefferson

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798) By Thomas Jefferson

The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government. By Thomas Jefferson

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. By Thomas Jefferson

[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government. By Thomas Jefferson

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. By Thomas Jefferson

I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whiskey which kills sone-third of our citizens and ruins their families. By Thomas Jefferson

It is wonderful to me that old men should not be sensible that their minds keep pace with their bodies in the progress of decay. By Thomas Jefferson

The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds. By Thomas Jefferson

It is an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end. 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

The patient, treated on the fashionable theory, sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. By Thomas Jefferson

The only true corrective of Constitutional abuses is education. By Thomas Jefferson

Music furnishes a delightful recreation for the hours of respite from the cares of the day, and lasts us through life. By Thomas Jefferson

Easter was when they nailed Him to the cross. And He never said a mumbling word. By Thomas Jefferson

The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being By Thomas Jefferson

The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy]. By Thomas Jefferson

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

The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression. By Thomas Jefferson

All ... natural rights may be abridged or modified in [their] exercise by law. By Thomas Jefferson

I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty. By Thomas Jefferson

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. By Thomas Jefferson

The only foundation for useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. By Thomas Jefferson

Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty. By Thomas Jefferson

We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. By Thomas Jefferson

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures. By Thomas Jefferson

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns and the federal government our foreign ones. By Thomas Jefferson

Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual. By Thomas Jefferson

My heart trembles when I reflect that God is just By Thomas Jefferson

The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American. By Thomas Jefferson

Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. By Thomas Jefferson

No person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six. By Thomas Jefferson

My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave consequences to him who has the disposal of them. By Thomas Jefferson

The chief purpose of government is to protect life. Abandon that and you have abandoned all. By Thomas Jefferson

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. By Thomas Jefferson

A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence, and good-humor, will go far toward securing to you the estimation of the world. By Thomas Jefferson

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Questions of natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man. By Thomas Jefferson

The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights. By Thomas Jefferson

Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established. By Thomas Jefferson

Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. By Thomas Jefferson

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him. By Thomas Jefferson

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. By Thomas Jefferson

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

I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance. By Thomas Jefferson

Each generation has a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its happiness. By Thomas Jefferson

Religious leaders will always avail themselves of public ignorance for their own purpose. By Thomas Jefferson

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part. By Thomas Jefferson

Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself. By Thomas Jefferson

The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms in practice the freedom asserted by the laws in theory. By Thomas Jefferson

The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance By Thomas Jefferson

Let the eye of vigilance never be closed. By Thomas Jefferson

Eternal Vigilance is the price of democracy. By Thomas Jefferson

We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies. By Thomas Jefferson

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. By Thomas Jefferson

It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers but by their distribution that good government is effected. By Thomas Jefferson

The qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. they are the result of habit and long training. By Thomas Jefferson

Man is not made for the State but the State for man and it derives its just powers only from the consent of the governed. By Thomas Jefferson

The hole and the patch should be commensurate. By Thomas Jefferson

We love and we value peace; we know its blessings from experience. We abhor the follies of war, and are not untried in its distresses and calamities. By Thomas Jefferson

My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice, and to keep my name out of the newspapers. By Thomas Jefferson

Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities. By Thomas Jefferson

Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%. By Thomas Jefferson

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. By Thomas Jefferson

An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy. By Thomas Jefferson

The best defense of democracy is an informed electorate. By Thomas Jefferson

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

A properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate. By Thomas Jefferson

In a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance By Thomas Jefferson

The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate. By Thomas Jefferson

How sublime to look down on the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet! By Thomas Jefferson

I see no comfort in outliving one's friends, and remaining a mere monument of the times which are past. By Thomas Jefferson

Whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun. By Thomas Jefferson

I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies. By Thomas Jefferson

Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise. By Thomas Jefferson

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

I can never fear that things will go far wrong where common sense has fair play. By Thomas Jefferson

In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant. By Thomas Jefferson

I pledge undying hostility to any government restrictions on the free minds of the people. By Thomas Jefferson

Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality. By Thomas Jefferson

Certain teachings in the Bible are as diamonds in a dung-heap. By Thomas Jefferson

No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one. By Thomas Jefferson

We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans. By Thomas Jefferson

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. By Thomas Jefferson

An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental. By Thomas Jefferson

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others. By Thomas Jefferson

This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force. By Thomas Jefferson

A machine for making revolutions is doing precisely the wrong thing at just the right time. By Thomas Jefferson

Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office, ... to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man. By Thomas Jefferson

May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion. By Thomas Jefferson

When you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither. By Thomas Jefferson

The soil is the gift of God to the living. By Thomas Jefferson

When two parties make a compact, there results to each a power of compelling the other to execute it. By Thomas Jefferson

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. By Thomas Jefferson

The wisdom of our ages and the blood of our heroes has been devoted to the attainment of trial by jury. It should be the creed of our political faith. By Thomas Jefferson

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance. By Thomas Jefferson

Laws ... proportionate and mild should never be dispensed with. Let mercy be the character of the law-giver, but let the judge be a mere machine. By Thomas Jefferson

They are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes. By Thomas Jefferson

The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government By Thomas Jefferson

Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, cheerfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends By Thomas Jefferson

Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error. By Thomas Jefferson

The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties. By Thomas Jefferson

When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality. By Thomas Jefferson

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread. By Thomas Jefferson

The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart. By Thomas Jefferson

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for. By Thomas Jefferson

The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty. By Thomas Jefferson

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free. By Thomas Jefferson

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people ... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. By Thomas Jefferson

Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. By Thomas Jefferson

The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. By Thomas Jefferson

I value peace, and I should unwillingly see any event take place which would render war a necessary resource. By Thomas Jefferson

He who is permitted by law to have no property of his own, can with difficulty conceive that property is founded in anything but force. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one's family and affairs. By Thomas Jefferson

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is. By Thomas Jefferson

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

That one generation of men in civil society have no right to make acts to bind another, is a truth that cannot be confused. By Thomas Jefferson

But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed. By Thomas Jefferson

I like the power given the Legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely approve of the greater house being chosen by the people directly. By Thomas Jefferson

I long to be in the midst of the children, and have more pleasure in their little follies than in the wisdom of the wise. By 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. By Thomas Jefferson

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act. By Thomas Jefferson

Government is being founded on opinion, the opinion of the public, even when it is wrong, ought to be respected to a certain degree. By Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. By Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. By Thomas Jefferson

To learn, you have to listen. To improve, you have to try. By Thomas Jefferson

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them. By Thomas Jefferson

Never trust quotes you find on the internet. By Thomas Jefferson

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. By Thomas Jefferson

One war, such as that of our Revolution, is enough for one life. By Thomas Jefferson

The field of knolege is the common property of all mankind By Thomas Jefferson

I have not observed mens honesty to increase with their riches. By Thomas Jefferson

While prudence will endeavor to avoid this issue of war, bravery will prepare to meet it. By Thomas Jefferson

A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life. By Thomas Jefferson

A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated citizenry. By Thomas Jefferson

Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other. By Thomas Jefferson

Motherhood is the keystone of the arch of matrimonial happiness. By Thomas Jefferson

The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind. By Thomas Jefferson

My passion strengthens daily to quit political turmoil, and retire into the bosom of my family, the only scene of sincere and purehappiness. By Thomas Jefferson

All that is necessary for a student is access to a library. By Thomas Jefferson

Any woodsman can tell you that in a broken and sundered nest, one can hardly find more than a precious few whole eggs. So it is with the family. By Thomas Jefferson

It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour By Thomas Jefferson

Nothing betrays imbecility so much as the being insensible of it. By Thomas Jefferson

A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle. By Thomas Jefferson

People generally have more feeling for canals and roads than education. However, I hope we can advance them with equal pace. By Thomas Jefferson

I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise. By Thomas Jefferson

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. By Thomas Jefferson

Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils of misgovernment. By Thomas Jefferson

Music, drawing, books, invention & exercise will be so many resources to you against ennui. By Thomas Jefferson

The greatest calamity which could befall us would be submission to a government of unlimited powers. By Thomas Jefferson

Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. By Thomas Jefferson

The boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them. By Thomas Jefferson

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. By Thomas Jefferson

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. By Thomas Jefferson

I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality. By Thomas Jefferson

The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor I. By Thomas Jefferson

I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one. By Thomas Jefferson

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

It will take a thousand years for the frontier to reach the Pacific By Thomas Jefferson

I firmly believe in luck. And I noticed: the more I work, the luckier I become. By Thomas Jefferson

Free men do not ask permission to bear arms By Thomas Jefferson

If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation, none. By Thomas Jefferson

Never use one word when two will do. By Thomas Jefferson

Our attachment to no nation on earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. By Thomas Jefferson

What we learn to do, we learn by doing. By Thomas Jefferson

From the nature of things, every society must at all times possess within itself the sovereign powers of legislation. By Thomas Jefferson

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

We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education. By Thomas Jefferson

We wish the happiness and prosperity of every nation. By Thomas Jefferson

From candlelight to early bedtime, I read. By Thomas Jefferson

Be polite to all, but intimate with few. By Thomas Jefferson

Travelling is good for your health and necessary for your amusement. By Thomas Jefferson

Law is often the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual. By Thomas Jefferson

Newspapers ... serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke. By Thomas Jefferson

If you have any duty which must be done, and it seems disagreeable, do it promptly and have it over. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Postpone to the great object of Liberty every smaller motive and passion. By Thomas Jefferson

Letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation. By Thomas Jefferson

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad. By 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. By Thomas Jefferson

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. By Thomas Jefferson

In the environment, every victory is temporary, every defeat permanent. By Thomas Jefferson

Our minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country. By Thomas Jefferson

[A] lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Gaming corrupts our disposition and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind. By Thomas Jefferson

People are strange, when you are a stranger ... Faces come out in the rain, When you're strange ... By Thomas Jefferson

The cement of this union is in the heart blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis. By Thomas Jefferson

I do not know whether you are fond of chemical reading. There are some things in this science worth reading. By Thomas Jefferson

If Americans desire to be both ignorant and free, they want what never has been and what never will be. By Thomas Jefferson

The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper. By Thomas Jefferson

The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. By Thomas Jefferson

The Giver of life gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness. By Thomas Jefferson

Travelling ... when men of sober age travel, they gather knowlege which they may apply usefully for their country By Thomas Jefferson

The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.The Fruit Hunters By Thomas Jefferson

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own. By Thomas Jefferson

I do not pretend that language is science. It isan instrument for the attainment of science. By Thomas Jefferson

The earth belongs always to the living generations. By Thomas Jefferson

Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. By Thomas Jefferson

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried. By Thomas Jefferson

We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church. By Thomas Jefferson

Private enterprise manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an eye witness. By Thomas Jefferson

One single object ... [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation. By Thomas Jefferson

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property. By Thomas Jefferson

The moral sense is the first excellence of well-organized man. By Thomas Jefferson

We discover in the gospels a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication . By Thomas Jefferson

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

The more ignorant we become the less value we set on science, and the less inclination we shall have to seek it. By Thomas Jefferson

I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is the most unfit man I know for such a place. By Thomas Jefferson

Government governed least is government governed best. By Thomas Jefferson

I cannot live without my books" - By Thomas Jefferson

Nobody is better than you and remember, you are better than nobody. Thomas Jefferson By Thomas Jefferson

It may be regarded as certain that not a foot of land will ever be taken from the Indians without their own consent. By Thomas Jefferson

The lamp of war is kindled here, not to be extinguished but by torrents of blood. By Thomas Jefferson

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes. By Thomas Jefferson

Religions are all the same ... Based upon legends and fantasies By Thomas Jefferson

Dependence leads to subservience. By Thomas Jefferson

It is proof of sincerity, which I value above all things; as, between those who practice it, falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain. By Thomas Jefferson

Never use two words when one will do. By Thomas Jefferson

The genius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions over this land. By Thomas Jefferson

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. By Thomas Jefferson

A strong body makes the mind strong. By Thomas Jefferson

I apprehend ... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse. By Thomas Jefferson

The government you elect is the government you deserve. By Thomas Jefferson

No race of kings has ever presented above one man of common sense in twenty generations. By Thomas Jefferson

Knowledge indeed is a desirable, a lovely possession. By Thomas Jefferson

Revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts. By Thomas Jefferson

Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? By Thomas Jefferson

The best commentary on the principles of government which has ever been written. By Thomas Jefferson

We commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. By Thomas Jefferson

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

A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry By Thomas Jefferson

Coffee - the favorite drink of the civilized world. By Thomas Jefferson

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. By Thomas Jefferson

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us. By Thomas Jefferson

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself By Thomas Jefferson

We are completely saddled and bridled, and ... the bank is so firmly mounted on us that we must go where it will guide. By Thomas Jefferson

It must be observed that our revenues are raised almost wholly on imported goods. By Thomas Jefferson

The most uninformed mind with a healthy body is happier than the wisest valetudinarian. By Thomas Jefferson

Preachers dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight. By Thomas Jefferson

Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself. By Thomas Jefferson

No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence. By Thomas Jefferson

Tranquility is the old man's milk. By Thomas Jefferson

Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. By Thomas Jefferson

The evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Above all things, and at all times, practice yourself in good humor. By Thomas Jefferson

[F]alsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions. By Thomas Jefferson

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. By Thomas Jefferson

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms. By Thomas Jefferson

Ambition is a tricky little animal to tame. It is very skillful at concealing itself from its master. By Thomas Jefferson

If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption. By Thomas Jefferson

The juries are our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it. By Thomas Jefferson

The persons and property of our citizens are entitled to the protection of our government in all places where they may lawfully go. By Thomas Jefferson

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. By Thomas Jefferson

Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise. By Thomas Jefferson

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. By Thomas Jefferson

The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience. By Thomas Jefferson

The Earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in. By Thomas Jefferson

The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves. By Thomas Jefferson

The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism. By Thomas Jefferson

Without health there is no happiness. An attention to health, then, should take the place of every other object. By Thomas Jefferson

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts. By Thomas Jefferson

[A] spirit of justice and friendly accomodation ... is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations. By Thomas Jefferson

The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. By Thomas Jefferson

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

Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility By Thomas Jefferson

Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies. By Thomas Jefferson

One had rather have no opinion than a false one. By Thomas Jefferson

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family By Thomas Jefferson

The happiest hours of my life have been spent in the flow of affection among friends. By Thomas Jefferson

Communities should be planned with an eye to the effect on the human spirit of being continually surrounded by a maximum of beauty. By Thomas Jefferson

What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong. By Thomas Jefferson

If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. By Thomas Jefferson

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism. By Thomas Jefferson

To every obstacle oppose patience, perseverance and soothing language. By Thomas Jefferson

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others. By Thomas Jefferson

Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. By Thomas Jefferson

Who better to so softly bind the wound of one, than she who has suffered the wound herself. By Thomas Jefferson

Everything yields to diligence By Thomas Jefferson

I prefer to be remembered for what I have done for others, not what others have done for me. By Thomas Jefferson

When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. By Thomas Jefferson

The introduction of so powerful an agent as steam to a carriage on wheels will make a great change in the situation of man. By Thomas Jefferson

A man's moral sense must be unusually strong if slavery does not make him a thief. By Thomas Jefferson

In matters of principal stand like a rock. By Thomas Jefferson

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. By Thomas Jefferson

Whiskey claims to itself alone the exclusive office of sot-making. By Thomas Jefferson

I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence. By Thomas Jefferson

We often repent of what we have said, but never, never, of that which we have not. By Thomas Jefferson

An acre of the best ground for hemp, is to be selected and sewn in hemp and be kept for a permanent hemp patch. By Thomas Jefferson

No society is so precious as that of one's own family. By Thomas Jefferson

All men are created equal. By Thomas Jefferson

The interests of a nation, when well understood, will be found to coincide with their moral duties. By Thomas Jefferson

No man has done everything he can who has done only his best. By Thomas Jefferson

If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed, By Thomas Jefferson

The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state. By Thomas Jefferson

History, by apprising [the people] of the past, will enable them to judge of the future. By Thomas Jefferson

On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock. By Thomas Jefferson

Freedom, the first-born of science. By Thomas Jefferson

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. By Thomas Jefferson

I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom & happiness of man. By Thomas Jefferson

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

There is no justification for taking away individuals' freedom in the guise of public safety. By Thomas Jefferson

[Oppose] with manly firmness [any] invasions on the rights of the people. By Thomas Jefferson

Our minds and hearts are free to believe everything or nothing at all - and it is our duty to protect and perpetuate this sacred culture of freedom. By Thomas Jefferson

In a government bottomed on the will of all, the ... liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to all. By Thomas Jefferson

In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object. By Thomas Jefferson

Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. By Thomas Jefferson

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error. By Thomas Jefferson

It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order. By Thomas Jefferson

Those who would trade safety for freedom deserve neither. By Thomas Jefferson

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery. By Thomas Jefferson