Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Money & Wealth (14 Quotes)

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.

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

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 glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents for with these it would belong to the first class.

... the science of calculation also is indispensable as far as the extraction of the square and cube roots Algebra as far as the quadratic equation and the use of logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases but all beyond these is but a luxury a delicious luxury indeed but not to be in indulged in by one who is to have a profession to follow for his subsistence.

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.

Money, not morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

I have not observed men's honesty to increase with their riches.

Believing that happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on these alone a stable prosperity can be founded, that the evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come, I have used