Thomas Jefferson Quotes
See All The Advertising Quotes
Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
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Be polite to all, but intimate with few.
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In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
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Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
See All The America Quotes
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
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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.
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If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
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Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
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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.
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When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
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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.
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A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
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One man with courage is a majority.
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Every generation needs a new revolution.
See All The Change Quotes
Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
See All The Character Quotes
Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
See All The Communication Quotes
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
See All The Competition Quotes
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
See All The Conscience Quotes
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.
See All The Conscience Quotes
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.
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The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.
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A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
See All The Democracy Quotes
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
See All The Democracy Quotes
Information is the currency of democracy.
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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
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Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
See All The Desire Quotes
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
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I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
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Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
See All The Education Quotes
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
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There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
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To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
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A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
See All The Equality Quotes
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
See All The Equality Quotes
Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
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Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
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An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
See All The Evil Quotes
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
See All The Evil Quotes
How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.
See All The Evil Quotes
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
See All The Evil Quotes
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
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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.
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Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
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Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal 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.
See All The Fact Quotes
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
See All The Fear Quotes
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
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We never repent of having eaten too little.
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If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
See All The Freedom Quotes
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
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The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
See All The Freedom Quotes
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
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Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
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Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
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An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
See All The Friendship Quotes
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
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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?
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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.
See All The Goal Quotes
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
See All The Government Quotes
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
See All The Government Quotes
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
See All The Government Quotes
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
See All The Government Quotes
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
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The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
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The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
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The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
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The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.
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The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
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Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.
See All The Happiness Quotes
I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
See All The Happiness Quotes
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
See All The Happiness Quotes
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.
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Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.
See All The Health Quotes
Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.
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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.
See All The History Quotes
History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
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My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
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Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
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My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
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Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
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The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
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As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
See All The Independence Quotes
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
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The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
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I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
See All The Justice Quotes
He who knows best knows how little he knows.
See All The Knowledge Quotes
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
See All The Knowledge Quotes
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.
See All The Knowledge Quotes
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
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I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
See All The Law Quotes
If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
See All The Law Quotes
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
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Taste cannot be controlled by law.
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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
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It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
See All The Leadership Quotes
No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
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One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
See All The Lonely Quotes
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
See All The Military Quotes
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
See All The Military Quotes
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
See All The Military Quotes
The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
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We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
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Delay is preferable to error.
See All The Mistake Quotes
Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.
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Never spend your money before you have earned it.
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I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.
See All The Moral Quotes
Power is not alluring to pure minds.
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So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
See All The Motivational Quotes
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
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I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
See All The News Quotes
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
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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.
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Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.
See All The Opinion Quotes
Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
See All The Opinion Quotes
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
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I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.
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The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
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It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
See All The Peace Quotes
Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.
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Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
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Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
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I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
See All The Political Quotes
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.
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When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
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Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
See All The Procrastination Quotes
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.
See All The Reading Quotes
I cannot live without books.
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I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
See All The Religion Quotes
I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.
See All The Religion Quotes
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
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It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
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The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.
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No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
See All The Reputation Quotes
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
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Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
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I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
See All The Selfless Quotes
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.
See All The Slavery Quotes
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
See All The Society Quotes
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
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When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
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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.
See All The Tax Quotes
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
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When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
See All The Tenacious Quotes
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
See All The Time Quotes
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
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I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
See All The Trust Quotes
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
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Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
See All The Truth Quotes
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.
See All The Truth Quotes
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
See All The Truth Quotes
There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.
See All The Truth Quotes
Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
See All The Truth Quotes
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
See All The Virtue Quotes
Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.
See All The War Quotes
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
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I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
See All The War Quotes
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
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The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
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War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
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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.
See All The Will Quotes
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
See All The Wisdom Quotes
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
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Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.
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I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
See All The Work Quotes
