Thomas Jefferson Quotes:- Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was a statesman, diplomat, architect, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level.
Inspirational Thomas Jefferson Quotes
“A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.”–Thomas Jefferson
“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.”-Thomas Jefferson
“An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.”-Thomas Jefferson
“An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.”-Thomas Jefferson
“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Delay is preferable to error.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor – over each other.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.”-Thomas Jefferson
“For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.”-Thomas Jefferson
“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”-Thomas Jefferson
“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”-Thomas Jefferson
“History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”-Thomas Jefferson
“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I cannot live without books.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”-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 like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”-Thomas Jefferson
“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.”-Thomas Jefferson
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.”-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
“If God is just, I tremble for my country.”-Thomas Jefferson
“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”-Thomas Jefferson
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”-Thomas Jefferson
“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”-Thomas Jefferson
“It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.”-Thomas Jefferson
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”-Thomas Jefferson
“It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.”-Thomas Jefferson
“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”-Thomas Jefferson
“It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.”-Thomas Jefferson
“My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Never spend your money before you have earned it.”-Thomas Jefferson
“No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.”-Thomas Jefferson
“No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.”-Thomas Jefferson
“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”-Thomas Jefferson
“No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.”-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
“Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.”-Thomas Jefferson
“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”-Thomas Jefferson
“One man with courage is a majority.”-Thomas Jefferson
“One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Power is not alluring to pure minds.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Taste cannot be controlled by law.”-Thomas Jefferson
“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.”-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
“The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.”-Thomas Jefferson
“The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”-Thomas Jefferson
“There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”-Thomas Jefferson
“There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.”-Thomas Jefferson
“There is not a truth existing which I fear… or would wish unknown to the whole world.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”-Thomas Jefferson
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”-Thomas Jefferson
“To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.”-Thomas Jefferson
“War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.”–Thomas Jefferson
“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.”-Thomas Jefferson
“We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.”-Thomas Jefferson
“We never repent of having eaten too little.”-Thomas Jefferson
“When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.”-Thomas Jefferson
“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”-Thomas Jefferson
“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”-Thomas Jefferson
“Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.”-Thomas Jefferson
