Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Government (40 Quotes)


    We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the principles of our government

    I place economy among the first and important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

    The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government

    It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

    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.


    Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

    ... whenever any form of government becomes destructive ... it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it...

    I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

    A wise and frugal Government, which shall retrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

    The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

    Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

    No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as of duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad ones the former only.

    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. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

    I served with General Washington in the Legislature of Virginia... and... with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point.

    The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

    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.

    The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

    When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.

    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.

    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.

    The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

    Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

    I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

    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.

    Those who bear equally the burdens of government should equally participate in the benefits.

    A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.


    When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

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

    There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents.... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy.

    History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes Letter to von Humboldt, 1813.

    My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

    Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

    A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible

    That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

    I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

    The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

    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.

    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.

    The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.


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