Liberty Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude

— Thomas Jefferson

A single good government is a blessing to the whole earth.

— Thomas Jefferson

The Bible is the source of liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson

The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson

I have sworn upon the altar of god.

— Thomas Jefferson

Our liberty depends on freedom of the press.

— Thomas Jefferson

Dependence leads to subservience.

— Thomas Jefferson

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

— Thomas Jefferson

The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties.

— Thomas Jefferson

“That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)”

— Thomas Jefferson

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

— Thomas Jefferson

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

— Thomas Jefferson

In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object.

— Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

— Thomas Jefferson

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

— Thomas Jefferson

Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety.

— Thomas Jefferson

Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind…

— Thomas Jefferson

Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves. The power…

— Thomas Jefferson

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to…

— Thomas Jefferson

The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from…

— Thomas Jefferson

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, and they…

— Thomas Jefferson

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot,…

— Thomas Jefferson

The freedom of the press is on of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic…

— Thomas Jefferson

I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.

— Thomas Jefferson

I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect,…

— Thomas Jefferson

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them…

— Thomas Jefferson

The contradictory experiments of chemists leave us at liberty to conclude what we please. My conclusion is, that art has not yet…

— Thomas Jefferson

The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe…

— Thomas Jefferson

To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what…

— Thomas Jefferson

The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the…

— Thomas Jefferson

We shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important…

— Thomas Jefferson

The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible,…

— Thomas Jefferson

No person shall be restrained of his liberty but by regular process from a court of justice, authorized by a general law.…

— Thomas Jefferson

I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the…

— Thomas Jefferson

Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to…

— Thomas Jefferson

Political dissension is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism: but still it is a great evil, and it would…

— Thomas Jefferson

Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the…

— Thomas Jefferson

I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or…

— Thomas Jefferson

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of…

— Thomas Jefferson

The value of science to a republican people, the security it gives to liberty by enlightening the minds of its citizens, the…

— Thomas Jefferson