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Thomas Jefferson Quotes and Quotations


No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will.
- Thomas Jefferson | Censorship Quotes
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson | Government and Rule Quotes
Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to enjoy the fruits of his labours and the produce of his property in peace and safety, and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished, all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered.
- Thomas Jefferson | Government and Rule Quotes
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
- Thomas Jefferson | Government and Rule Quotes
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on office, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
- Thomas Jefferson | Politicians Quotes
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.
- Thomas Jefferson | Revolution and Reform Quotes
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
- Thomas Jefferson | Sport Quotes
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
- Thomas Jefferson | Taste Quotes
The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
- Thomas Jefferson | Truth Quotes
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.
- Thomas Jefferson | Happiness Quotes
Happiness is not being pained in body nor troubled in mind.
- Thomas Jefferson | Happiness Quotes
It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson | Happiness Quotes
It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson | Happiness Quotes
When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil, while fretting and fuming only increase your own torments.
- Thomas Jefferson | Acceptance Quotes
Happiness is not being pained in body, or troubled in mind.
- Thomas Jefferson | Forgiveness Quotes
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
- Thomas Jefferson | Prayer Quotes
No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any.
- Thomas Jefferson | One Day Quotes
I like the dreams for the future better than the history of the past.
- Thomas Jefferson | The Past Quotes
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
- Thomas Jefferson | The Future Quotes
I steer my bark with hope in my heart, leaving fear astern.
- Thomas Jefferson | Hope Quotes
The hole and the patch should be commensurate.
- Thomas Jefferson | Right Quotes
I steer my bark with hope in my heart, leaving fear astern.
How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.
- Thomas Jefferson | Worry Quotes
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
- Thomas Jefferson | Courage Quotes
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
- Thomas Jefferson | Luck Quotes
When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practical. This lessons the evil, while fretting and fuming only serve to increase your own torments.
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
- Thomas Jefferson | Family Quotes
The sun - my almighty physician.
- Thomas Jefferson | Nature Quotes
I succeed him; no one could replace him.
- Thomas Jefferson | Business Quotes
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
- Thomas Jefferson | Success Quotes
Advertisements contain the only truth to be relied on in a newspaper.
- Thomas Jefferson | Advertising Quotes
All authority belongs to the people.
- Thomas Jefferson | Authority Quotes
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
- Thomas Jefferson | Bank Quotes
No knowledge can be more satisfactory to a man than that of his own frame, its parts, their functions and actions.
- Thomas Jefferson | Body Quotes
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.
- Thomas Jefferson | Censorship Quotes
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.
- Thomas Jefferson | Constitution Quotes
It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.
- Thomas Jefferson | Despotism Quotes
The habit of using ardent spirits by men in office has occasioned more injury to the public, and more trouble to me, than all other causes. Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate for office would be, Does he use ardent spirits?
- Thomas Jefferson | Drinking Quotes
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson | Equality Quotes
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
- Thomas Jefferson | Family Quotes
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if He ever had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.
- Thomas Jefferson | Farming Quotes
France, freed from that monster, Bonaparte, must again become the most agreeable country on earth. It would be the second choice of all whose ties of family and fortune give a preference to some other one, and the first choice of all not under those ties.
- Thomas Jefferson | France Quotes
I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.
- Thomas Jefferson | Cowardice Quotes
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
- Thomas Jefferson | Government Quotes
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
- Thomas Jefferson | Government Quotes
Of all calamities this is the greatest.
- Thomas Jefferson | Intemperance Quotes
The sword of the law should never fall but on those whose guilt is so apparent as to be pronounced by their friends as well as foes.
- Thomas Jefferson | Justice Quotes
The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.
- Thomas Jefferson | Land Quotes
The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them.
- Thomas Jefferson | Law Quotes
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
- Thomas Jefferson | Liberty Quotes
It is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail.
- Thomas Jefferson | Majority Quotes
I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.
- Thomas Jefferson | Morality Quotes
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
- Thomas Jefferson | Newspapers Quotes
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.
- Thomas Jefferson | Office Quotes
It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine well his own opinion.
- Thomas Jefferson | Opinion Quotes
If I could not go to Heaven but with a party I would not go there at all.
- Thomas Jefferson | Party Quotes
The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson | People Quotes
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.
- Thomas Jefferson | Politics Quotes
I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
- Thomas Jefferson | Power Quotes
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
- Thomas Jefferson | Presidency Quotes
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
- Thomas Jefferson | Press Quotes
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
- Thomas Jefferson | Punishment Quotes
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
- Thomas Jefferson | Reason Quotes
The hole and the patch should be commensurate.
- Thomas Jefferson | Reform Quotes
A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible.
- Thomas Jefferson | Republic Quotes
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
- Thomas Jefferson | Ridicule Quotes
Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.
- Thomas Jefferson | Rights Quotes
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
- Thomas Jefferson | Soldier Quotes
For God's sake, let us freely hear both sides!
- Thomas Jefferson | Speech Quotes
Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none.
- Thomas Jefferson | Statesmanship Quotes
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
- Thomas Jefferson | Trust Quotes
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
- Thomas Jefferson | Tyranny Quotes
War is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer.
- Thomas Jefferson | War Quotes
No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote to the bane of whiskey.
- Thomas Jefferson | Wine and Spirits Quotes


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