Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Money, not morality, constitutes the principle of commercial nations. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Honesty and interest are as intimately connected in the public as in the private code of morality. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
State a moral case to a plowman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“Even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man. Science has liberated the ideas of those who… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Taste cannot be controlled by law. We must resist at all costs any attempt to regulate our individual freedoms and to legislate… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Morals were too essential to the happiness of man, to be risked on the uncertain combinations of the head. Nature laid their… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“Self-love is no part of morality. Indeed it is exactly its counterpart. It is the sole antagonist of virtue leading us constantly… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Is it less dishonest to do what is wrong because it is not expressly prohibited by written law? Let us hope our… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary for good government... Therefore schools and the means of educating the people should always be encouraged. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
All the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no accession to itself,… — 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
Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him (i.e. Jesus) by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nation. But it is… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Everything is useful which contributes to fix the principles and practices of virtue. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain the outlines of the sublimest system of morality that has… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
His system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If we suffer ourselves to be frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the enemy will use that weapon; for what… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan… — 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
