I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson
I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. - Thomas Jefferson
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. - Thomas Jefferson
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. - Thomas Jefferson
I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. - Thomas Jefferson
A little rebellion now and then...is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. - Thomas Jefferson
Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object. - Thomas Jefferson
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. - Thomas Jefferson
It behoves 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. - Thomas Jefferson
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office. - Thomas Jefferson
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. - Thomas Jefferson
I live for books. - Thomas Jefferson
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. - Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. - 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 our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. - Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. - Thomas Jefferson
asked himself In what country on earth would you rather live He first answered Certainly in my own where are all my friends my relations and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. But he continued which would be your second choice His answer France. - Thomas Jefferson
I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. - Thomas Jefferson
To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others. - Thomas Jefferson
There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people. - Thomas Jefferson
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitudefrom achieving his goal.Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude. - Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. - Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.- - Thomas Jefferson
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever. - Thomas Jefferson
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. - Thomas Jefferson
That government is best which governs the least because its people discipline themselves. - Thomas Jefferson
no people can be both ignorant and free. - Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson
That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798) - Thomas Jefferson
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred. - Thomas Jefferson
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another. - 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
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. - Thomas Jefferson
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property - Thomas Jefferson
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. - Thomas Jefferson
Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace - Thomas Jefferson
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. - Thomas Jefferson
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people. - Thomas Jefferson
The dead should not rule the living. - Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. - Thomas Jefferson
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction. - Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none - Thomas Jefferson
Never spend your money before you have it. - Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. - Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. - Thomas Jefferson
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred. - Thomas Jefferson
I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor. - Thomas Jefferson
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion. - Thomas Jefferson
Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument. - Thomas Jefferson
Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one. - Thomas Jefferson
No people who are ignorant can be truly free. - Thomas Jefferson
A republican government is slow to move, yet once in motion it's momentum becomes irresistible. - Thomas Jefferson
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. - Thomas Jefferson
Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. - Thomas Jefferson
I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another. - Thomas Jefferson
Is it the Fourth? - Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future, better than the history of the past. - Thomas Jefferson
We have the wolf by the ears; and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. - Thomas Jefferson
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work. - Thomas Jefferson
I believe that justice is instinct and innate, the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as the threat of feeling, seeing and hearing. - Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existance of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. - Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. - Thomas Jefferson
...We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans. - Thomas Jefferson
No man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it. The honeymoon would be as short in that case as in any other, and its moments of ecstasy would be ransomed by years of torment and hatred. - Thomas Jefferson
Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. - Thomas Jefferson
The happiest moments of my life have a been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. - 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
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
Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry. - Thomas Jefferson
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. - Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. - Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. - Thomas Jefferson
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error. - Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded faith. - Thomas Jefferson
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed. - Thomas Jefferson
It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice - Thomas Jefferson
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. - Thomas Jefferson
Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. - Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. - Thomas Jefferson
Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. - Thomas Jefferson
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. - 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
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom. - Thomas Jefferson
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment - Thomas Jefferson
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. - Thomas Jefferson
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will. - Thomas Jefferson
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it. - Thomas Jefferson
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. - Thomas Jefferson
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. - Thomas Jefferson
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me. - Thomas Jefferson
The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government. - Thomas Jefferson
If it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience. - Thomas Jefferson
A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be. - Thomas Jefferson
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. - Thomas Jefferson
My views and feelings (are) in favor of the abolition of war--and I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair. - Thomas Jefferson
No instance exists of a person's writing two languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth. - Thomas Jefferson
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best. - Thomas Jefferson
Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day. - Thomas Jefferson
The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson
If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions. - Thomas Jefferson
Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself. - Thomas Jefferson
Be polite to all, but intimate with few. - Thomas Jefferson
Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. - Thomas Jefferson
In a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance - Thomas Jefferson
If 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
We never regret having eaten too little. - Thomas Jefferson
Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. - Thomas Jefferson
I have never believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man. - Thomas Jefferson
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. - Thomas Jefferson
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led. - Thomas Jefferson
I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another. - Thomas Jefferson
That peace, safety, and concord may be the portion of our native land, and be long enjoyed by our fellow-citizens, is the most ardent wish of my heart, and if I can be instrumental in procuring or preserving them, I shall think I have not lived in vain. - Thomas Jefferson
How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! - Thomas Jefferson
Health is worth more than learning. - Thomas Jefferson
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. - Thomas Jefferson
Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the general progress of the human mind. - Thomas Jefferson
I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial. - Thomas Jefferson
In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution. - Thomas Jefferson
This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. - Thomas Jefferson
The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure. - Thomas Jefferson
I cannot live without books. - Thomas Jefferson
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. - Thomas Jefferson
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. - Thomas Jefferson
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will. - Thomas Jefferson
Our friendships are precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life;and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part is sunshine. - Thomas Jefferson
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. - Thomas Jefferson
The contest is not between Us and Them, but between Good and Evil, and if those who would fight Evil adopt the ways of Evil, Evil wins. - Thomas Jefferson
Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident. - Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. - Thomas Jefferson
A Man's management of his own purse speaks volumes about character - Thomas Jefferson
They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live. - Thomas Jefferson
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. - Thomas Jefferson
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. - Thomas Jefferson
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it. - Thomas Jefferson
When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. - Thomas Jefferson
Nothing is more likely than that [the] enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case of all human works. Let us then go on perfecting it by adding by way of amendment to the Constitution those powers which time and trial show are still wanting - Thomas Jefferson
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape. - Thomas Jefferson
Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be. - Thomas Jefferson
I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another. - Thomas Jefferson
Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment. - Thomas Jefferson
Delay is preferable to error. - Thomas Jefferson
It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness. - Thomas Jefferson
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty. - Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existence of aGod; because, if there be one, he must more approve ofthe homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. - Thomas Jefferson
The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. - Thomas Jefferson
Everything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue. - Thomas Jefferson
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. - Thomas Jefferson
Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%. - Thomas Jefferson
No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap. - Thomas Jefferson
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. - Thomas Jefferson