Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Thomas Jefferson Quotations
We found 100 matching quotations.
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.
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.
It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.
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.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
Health is worth more than learning.
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
No more good must be attempted than the people can bear.
It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.
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.
Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. 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 blindfolded fear.
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.
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.
He is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
In matters of style, swim with the current in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.
If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.
Never spend your money before you have it.
The Price Of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance.
I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.
Is it the Fourth?
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.
I live for books.
When a man has cast his longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
I cannot live without books.
The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
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.
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Information is the currency of democracy.
Delay is preferable to error.
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
...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.
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none.
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.
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
The bulk of mankind are schoolboys through life.
One man with courage is a majority.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
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.
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
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.
The happiest moments of my life have a been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it we respect that of others, without fearing it.
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
A little rebellion now and then...is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
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.
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.
Difference of opinion is helpful in religion.
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
When angry, count ten before you speak if very angry, an hundred.
The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.
We never regret having eaten too little.
Every man has two countries his own and France.
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.