Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [181-200] of 579 President quotesPresident QuotesPresident Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions.~ Thomas Jefferson The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.~ Thomas Jefferson The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.~ Thomas Jefferson The system of banking [is] a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction... I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity... is but swindling futurity on a large scale.~ Thomas Jefferson We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed.~ Thomas Jefferson We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.~ Thomas Jefferson Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.~ Thomas Jefferson What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment ... inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.~ Thomas Jefferson [F]alsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.~ Thomas Jefferson [The People] are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty.~ 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 When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.~ Thomas Jefferson We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.~ Thomas Jefferson It is a great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual, he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all it's good dispositions.~ Thomas Jefferson The concentrating [of powers] in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one.~ Thomas Jefferson We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.~ Thomas Jefferson What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.~ Thomas Jefferson 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.~ Thomas Jefferson Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.~ Thomas Jefferson I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box.~ Thomas Jefferson Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print