Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

~ Thomas Jefferson

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

~ Thomas Jefferson

- letter to Philip Mazzei, March 1801

I served with General Washington in die Legislature of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin in Congress. I never heard neither of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

~ Thomas Jefferson

- letter to Chandler Price, Feb. 28, 1807

Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

~ Thomas Jefferson

- Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-1785

How much have cost us the evils that never happened!

~ Thomas Jefferson

A monied aristocracy in our country ... has already set the government at defiance.

~ Thomas Jefferson

All authority belongs to the people.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I find that the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.

~ Thomas Jefferson

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

~ Thomas Jefferson

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

~ Thomas Jefferson

And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Never spend your money before you have it.

~ Thomas Jefferson

We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.

~ Thomas Jefferson

I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

~ 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 evil spirits at the dawn of day.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

~ Thomas Jefferson

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.

~ Thomas Jefferson

That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one's family and affairs.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my family.... public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one's family and affairs.

~ Thomas Jefferson

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

~ Thomas Jefferson

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Neither believe nor reject anything because any other person's rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven.

~ 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?

~ Thomas Jefferson

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The second office of the government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.

~ Thomas Jefferson

What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

~ Thomas Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

~ Thomas Jefferson