Students of reading, writing and common arithmetick . . . Graecian [Greek], Roman, English and American history . . . should be… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
When we come to the moral principles on which the government is to be administered, we come to what is proper for… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. . . . [are] the sole objects of all legitimate… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I sincerely join you in abjuring all political connection with every foreign power; and tho I cordially wish well to the progress… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“. . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The people are the ultimate guardians of their own liberties. In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The evidence of [the] natural right [of expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of the public mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration between the points… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Still less, let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We owe gratitude to France, justice to England, good will to all, and subservience to none ... it was by the sober… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No man complains of his neighbor for ill management of his affairs, for an error in sowing his land, or marrying his… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The following [addition to the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A man has a right to use a saw, an axe, a plane, separately; may he not combine their uses on the same piece… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
[States and the Federal government are] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
“Perceiving the order of nature to be that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue, I am willing to hope it… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
“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,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share