Jefferson, Thomas quotes
1743-1826 Third President of the USAThe most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
Jefferson, Thomas
Brevity
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
Jefferson, Thomas
Debt
The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.
Jefferson, Thomas
Business
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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Citizenship
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
Jefferson, Thomas
Coward and Cowardice
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Jefferson, Thomas
Dreams
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.
Jefferson, Thomas
Happiness
I cannot live without books.
Jefferson, Thomas
Books - Reading
It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.
Jefferson, Thomas
Character
I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
Jefferson, Thomas
Censure
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
Jefferson, Thomas
Happiness
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
Jefferson, Thomas
Books - Reading
A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.
Jefferson, Thomas
Happiness
If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
Jefferson, Thomas
Conquest
Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Jefferson, Thomas
Control
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
Jefferson, Thomas
Freedom
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
Jefferson, Thomas
Exercise
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Jefferson, Thomas
Equality
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
Jefferson, Thomas
Government
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
Jefferson, Thomas
Government
Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed.
Jefferson, Thomas
Free Enterprise
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Jefferson, Thomas
Government
The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.
Jefferson, Thomas
Pain
I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office
Jefferson, Thomas
Government
In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.
Jefferson, Thomas
Fanatics and Fanaticism
The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.
Jefferson, Thomas
Generals
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
Jefferson, Thomas
Generals
Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. The small landowners are the most precious part of a state.
Jefferson, Thomas
Farming and Farmers
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.
Jefferson, Thomas
Gardening and Gardens
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
Jefferson, Thomas
Government
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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Friends and Friendship
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
Jefferson, Thomas
Honesty
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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Greed
To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.
Jefferson, Thomas
Friends and Friendship
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.
Jefferson, Thomas
Lies and Lying
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Jefferson, Thomas
Guilt
This is the fourth?
Jefferson, Thomas
Famous Last Words
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
Jefferson, Thomas
Friends and Friendship
We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.
Jefferson, Thomas
Generations
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
Jefferson, Thomas
Health
We seldom report of having eaten too little.
Jefferson, Thomas
Food and Eating
Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nation. But it is not the highest duty.
Jefferson, Thomas
Law and Lawyers
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
Jefferson, Thomas
Law and Lawyers
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
Jefferson, Thomas
Family
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Jefferson, Thomas
Liberty
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
Jefferson, Thomas
Medicine
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
Jefferson, Thomas
Manners
Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it as earned.
Jefferson, Thomas
Labor
I m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Luck
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Jefferson, Thomas
Luck
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Jefferson, Thomas
Liberty
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
Jefferson, Thomas
Martyrdom
Information is the currency of democracy.
Jefferson, Thomas
Information
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
Jefferson, Thomas
Ignorance
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
Jefferson, Thomas
Liberty
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
Jefferson, Thomas
Liberty
It behooves 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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Liberty
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Liberty
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
Jefferson, Thomas
Procrastination
Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
Jefferson, Thomas
Life and Living
Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
Jefferson, Thomas
Innovation
Traveling makes a man wiser, but less happy.
Jefferson, Thomas
Travel and Tourism
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Jefferson, Thomas
Injustice
Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.
Jefferson, Thomas
Morality
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely happier for it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Newspapers
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Pleasure
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.
Jefferson, Thomas
Newspapers
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
Jefferson, Thomas
Occupation
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing, but newspapers.
Jefferson, Thomas
Newspapers
In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
Jefferson, Thomas
Principles
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Strength
I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
Jefferson, Thomas
Power
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Jefferson, Thomas
Power
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
Jefferson, Thomas
Trade
How much pain worries have cost us that have never happened?
Jefferson, Thomas
Worry
The advertisements are the most truthful part of a newspaper.
Jefferson, Thomas
Newspapers
While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato s Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?
Jefferson, Thomas
Philosophers and Philosophy
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Jefferson, Thomas
Opinions
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Peace
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
Jefferson, Thomas
Politicians and Politics
Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.
Jefferson, Thomas
Politicians and Politics
Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Opinions
Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
Jefferson, Thomas
Pride
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
Jefferson, Thomas
President
I have not observed men s honesty to increase with their riches.
Jefferson, Thomas
Money
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
Jefferson, Thomas
Tyranny
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Jefferson, Thomas
Tyranny
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
Jefferson, Thomas
Thoughts and Thinking
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
Jefferson, Thomas
Ridicule
We rarely repent of having eaten too little.
Jefferson, Thomas
Regret
The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
Jefferson, Thomas
Republican
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
Jefferson, Thomas
Speech
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Jefferson, Thomas
Resignation
Tranquility is the old man s milk.
Jefferson, Thomas
Tranquility
For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
Jefferson, Thomas
Truth
Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one s family and affairs.
Jefferson, Thomas
Public Office
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
Jefferson, Thomas
Taste
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. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
Jefferson, Thomas
Rebellion
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Slavery
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Jefferson, Thomas
Truth
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
Jefferson, Thomas
Revolutions and Revolutionaries
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Jefferson, Thomas
Soldier
The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.
Jefferson, Thomas
Truth
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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Questions
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
Jefferson, Thomas
Age and Aging
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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Attitude
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
Jefferson, Thomas
Aristocracy
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
Jefferson, Thomas
Alliances
Never spend your money before you have earned it.
Jefferson, Thomas
Economy and Economics
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Jefferson, Thomas
Bankers and Banking
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Jefferson, Thomas
Education
An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
Jefferson, Thomas
Argument
When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
Jefferson, Thomas
Anger
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.
Jefferson, Thomas
Bankers and Banking
Victory and defeat are each of the same price.
Jefferson, Thomas
Victory
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Jefferson, Thomas
Vigilance