Thomas Jefferson Quotes (427 Quotes)

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.

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.

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

Our constitution is a peace establishment it is not calculated for war. War would endanger its existence.

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

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

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

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

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

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on them offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it we respect that of others, without fearing it.

Thomas Jeffersons Decalogue of Canons IV. Never buy what you do not want ... because it is cheap it will be dear to you.

The good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army.

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.

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

How much pain worries have cost us that have never happened

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

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.

All authority belongs to the people.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites.

He who receives an idea from me receives instruction for himself without lessening mine as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

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.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

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

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

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

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

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

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 good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

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.

The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.

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

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

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.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State.

The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.

It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them.

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

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