Thomas Jefferson quotes
Born
April 13, 1743, Shadwell, Virginia, British America.
Died
July 4, 1826.
Occupation
President, politician.
Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809.
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
– Thomas Jefferson
Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
– Thomas Jefferson
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
– Thomas Jefferson
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
– Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
– Thomas Jefferson
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
– Thomas Jefferson
I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
– Thomas Jefferson
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
– Thomas Jefferson
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
– Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
– Thomas Jefferson
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
– Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
– Thomas Jefferson
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
– Thomas Jefferson
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
– Thomas Jefferson
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
– Thomas Jefferson
Power is not alluring to pure minds.
– Thomas Jefferson
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
– Thomas Jefferson
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
– Thomas Jefferson
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
– Thomas Jefferson
It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
– Thomas Jefferson
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
– Thomas Jefferson
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
– Thomas Jefferson
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
– Thomas Jefferson
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
– Thomas Jefferson
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.
– Thomas Jefferson
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
– Thomas Jefferson
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
– Thomas Jefferson
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
– Thomas Jefferson
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
– Thomas Jefferson
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.
– Thomas Jefferson
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
– Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
– Thomas Jefferson
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
– Thomas Jefferson
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.
– Thomas Jefferson
There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
– Thomas Jefferson
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.
– Thomas Jefferson
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
– Thomas Jefferson
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
– Thomas Jefferson
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
– Thomas Jefferson
The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
– Thomas Jefferson
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
– Thomas Jefferson
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.
– Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
– Thomas Jefferson
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
– Thomas Jefferson
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
– Thomas Jefferson
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.
– Thomas Jefferson
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
– Thomas Jefferson
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
– Thomas Jefferson