Quotes By Thomas Jefferson

A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

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.

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.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

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

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.

The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

We never repent of having eaten too little.

Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.

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.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

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.

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

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

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

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

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.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

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

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

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?

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.