Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [181-210] of 257 Thomas Jefferson quotesThomas Jefferson QuotesThomas Jefferson Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.~ Thomas Jefferson Laws provide against injury from others, but not from ourselves.~ Thomas Jefferson ...Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more.. .a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain 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. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.~ Thomas Jefferson At home, fellow citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These covering our land with officers, and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of produce and property.~ Thomas Jefferson I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.~ Thomas Jefferson I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice.~ Thomas Jefferson But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.~ Thomas Jefferson Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts.~ Thomas Jefferson I believe the States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers established by the constitution for the limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold as at market.~ Thomas Jefferson The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.~ Thomas Jefferson The general [federal] government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.~ Thomas Jefferson A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.~ Thomas Jefferson An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.~ Thomas Jefferson The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.~ Thomas Jefferson To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association -- the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.~ Thomas Jefferson Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.~ Thomas Jefferson The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors~ Thomas Jefferson If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.~ Thomas Jefferson Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people.~ Thomas Jefferson War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.~ Thomas Jefferson No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government.~ Thomas Jefferson Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.~ Thomas Jefferson My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. That government is best which governs least.~ Thomas Jefferson The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.~ Thomas Jefferson The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.~ Thomas Jefferson The constitutions of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property and freedom of the press.~ Thomas Jefferson I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.~ Thomas Jefferson If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.~ Thomas Jefferson An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State.~ Thomas Jefferson In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes.~ Thomas Jefferson Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print