Thomas Jefferson Quotes

“Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”

“Our people shall be free”

“A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.”

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

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

“We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.”

“[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.”

“Honesty, disinterestedness and good nature are indispensable to procure the esteem and confidence of those with whom we live, and on whose esteem our happiness depends.”

“I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force.”

“We figure great careers aren't made. They're experienced.”

“But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have been called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

“The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exlusions, and incapacitations are removed.”

“Amplification is the vice of modern oratory. It is an insult to an assembly of reasonable men, disgusting and revolting instead ofpersuading. Speeches measured by the hour, die by the hour.”

“War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.”

“The fortune of our lives depends on employing well the short period of our youth.”

“And, in general, that branch which is to act ultimately and without appeal on any law is the rightful expositor of the validity of the law, uncontrolled by the opinions of the other coordinate authorities.”

“I have done for my country and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God - my daughter to my country.”

“The diffusion of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration.”

“besides the comfort of knowlege, every science is auxiliary to every other.”

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.”

“The uniform tenor of a man's life furnishes better evidence of what he has said or done on any particular occasion than the word of any enemy.”

“Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.”

“The physician is happy in the attachment of the families in which he practices. All think he has saved one of them, and he finds himself everywhere a welcome guest, a home in every house.”

“Above all I hope that the education of the common people will be attended to so they won't forget the basic principles of freedom.”

“Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep.”