I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. – Thomas Jefferson
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness. – Thomas Jefferson
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. – Thomas Jefferson
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security. – Thomas Jefferson
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master. – Thomas Jefferson
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. – Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. – Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
Power is not alluring to pure minds. – Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. – Thomas Jefferson
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. – Thomas Jefferson
He who knows best knows how little he knows. – Thomas Jefferson
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. – Thomas Jefferson
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. – Thomas Jefferson
Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. – Thomas Jefferson
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property. – 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? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. – Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. – Thomas Jefferson
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. – Thomas Jefferson
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. – Thomas Jefferson
We never repent of having eaten too little. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. – Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another. – Thomas Jefferson
Never spend your money before you have earned it. – Thomas Jefferson
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory. – Thomas Jefferson
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia. – Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
I cannot live without books. – Thomas Jefferson
One man with courage is a majority. – Thomas Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. – Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. – Thomas Jefferson
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office. – Thomas Jefferson
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. – Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. – Thomas Jefferson
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. – Thomas Jefferson
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? – Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival. – Thomas Jefferson
One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more. – Thomas Jefferson
Taste cannot be controlled by law. – Thomas Jefferson
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. – Thomas Jefferson
It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read. – Thomas Jefferson
There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me. – Thomas Jefferson
