Famous Quotes from ...

Thomas Jefferson

  • Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • But friendship is precious, not only in shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free government... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The States should be left to do whatever acts they can do as well as the general government... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The second office of this government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • A government big enough to supply you with everything you need is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.... The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • 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 {view}
  • 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 {view}
  • A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • A single good government is a blessing to the whole earth... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • I find as I grow older that I love those most whom I loved first.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education and free discussion are the antidotes of both.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Traveling makes men wiser, but less happy... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • What is it men cannot be made to believe!... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent with our government... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • It is not by consolidation, or concentration of powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fra... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to steal, murder, plunder, or bear false witness), and that we should n... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • No government can continue good but under the control of the people... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Most bad government has grown out of too much government.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power [the judiciary] is independent of the nation.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Governments (derive) their just powers from the consent of the governed... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • The rights of human nature are deeply wounded by this infamous practice of slavery.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • Men are disposed to live honestly, if the means of doing so are open to them.... Thomas Jefferson {view}
  • All men are created equal.... Thomas Jefferson {view}