Thomas Jefferson (?) Quotes

Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

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.

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

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

Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.

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

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

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

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.

The dead should not rule the living

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 oft repeating an untruth, men come to believe it themselves.

Everything yields to diligence.

Never use two words when one will do.

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

Of all exercises, walking is the best.

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

The Bible makes the best people in the world.

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.

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

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.

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

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

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

The federal government is our servant, not our master.

Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself.

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

I have sworn upon the altar of god.

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.

The superiority of chocolate (hot chocolate), both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.

To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to definition.

[All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

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

The Central Bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution.

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

Knowledge indeed is a desirable, a lovely possession.

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

In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.

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

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.

There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

[The Federal Convention] is really an assembly of demigods.

A mind always employed is always happy.

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

The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties.

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.

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

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones.