Thomas Jefferson
sitemanagerThere is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.
Thomas Jefferson
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.
Thomas Jefferson
It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can…
Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
Thomas Jefferson
It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.
Thomas Jefferson
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Thomas Jefferson
I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
Thomas Jefferson
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.
Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none.
Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Thomas Jefferson
The flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they…
Thomas Jefferson
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Thomas Jefferson
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas Jefferson
The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.
Thomas Jefferson
If you are obliged to neglect any thing, let it be your chemistry. It is the least useful and the least amusing to a country gentleman of all the ordinary…
Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
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
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Thomas Jefferson
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…
Thomas Jefferson
The government is best which governs least.
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.
Thomas Jefferson
It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.
Thomas Jefferson
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.
Thomas Jefferson
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
Thomas Jefferson
Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.
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.