Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

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.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Vir

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

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.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

Plato offers the amazing idea that contemplation of the way things really are is, in itself, a purifying process that can bring human beings into the only divinity there is.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

The hole and the patch should be commensurate.

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

I have no ambition to govern men it is a painful and thankless office.

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.