Reason Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Questions of natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man.

— Thomas Jefferson

The art of printing secures us against the retrogradation of reason and information.

— Thomas Jefferson

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous. . . .

— Thomas Jefferson

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

— Thomas Jefferson

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

— Thomas Jefferson

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

— Thomas Jefferson

Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason.

— Thomas Jefferson

A government held together by the bands of reason only, requires much compromise of opinion.

— Thomas Jefferson

I am... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason…

— Thomas Jefferson

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of…

— Thomas Jefferson

The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.

— Thomas Jefferson

In a republican nation whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning…

— Thomas Jefferson

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding…

— Thomas Jefferson

in the spring he will attend your botanical course. his natural turn is very strongly to the objects of your two courses…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.

— Thomas Jefferson

It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose…

— Thomas Jefferson

When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions…

— Thomas Jefferson

“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of…

— Thomas Jefferson

If there be any among us who wish to dissolve the Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed,…

— Thomas Jefferson

Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been…

— Thomas Jefferson

What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery…

— Thomas Jefferson

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error... They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only...…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has…

— Thomas Jefferson

Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who…

— 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

Reason and free inquiry are the only effective agents against error. Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion…

— Thomas Jefferson

I join cordially in admiring and revering the Constitution of the United States, the result of the collected wisdom of our country.…

— Thomas Jefferson

“The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the…

— Thomas Jefferson

Shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and…

— Thomas Jefferson

To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to…

— Thomas Jefferson

Up until the late unpleasantness of the Civil war, then, the right of secession was more or less taken for granted in…

— Thomas Jefferson

The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous confines…

— Thomas Jefferson

“May it [American independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but…

— Thomas Jefferson

“If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on…

— Thomas Jefferson

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity…

— Thomas Jefferson

Your own reason is the only oracle given to you by God.

— Thomas Jefferson

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.

— Thomas Jefferson

I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of…

— Thomas Jefferson

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth…

— Thomas Jefferson

I like the power given the Legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely approve of the greater house being chosen…

— Thomas Jefferson