Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Every honest man will suppose honest acts to flow from honest principles, and the rogues may rail without intermission.

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

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

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

Knowledge is power...knowled ge is safety...knowle dge is happiness.

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

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

No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced [in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination.

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

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

We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever.

Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art .

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.

I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.

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

The best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of the first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful.

The provisions we have made [for our government] are such as please ourselves; they answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered.

Take painsto write a neat round, plain hand, and you will find it a great convenience through life to write a small and compact hand as well as a fair and legible one.

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.

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

What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.

The constitution of the United States is the result of the collected wisdom of our country.

Let the farmer forevermore be honored in his calling; for they who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.

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

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

We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.

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

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

The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army

The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.

It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.

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.

Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.

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

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

I never before knew the full value of trees. Under them I breakfast, dine, write, read and receive my company.

God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

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.

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

Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nation. But it is not the highest duty.

The Declaration of Independence . . . [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.

The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticism, fancies, and falsehoods.

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

I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.

Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves.

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

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

I... [am] convinced [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.