Asks Quotes by Thomas Jefferson
All Asks quotes Thomas Jefferson’s page
Thomas Jefferson’s eleven brief observations treat asking as a civic duty and a personal habit. The excerpts show how the founding father linked inquiry with liberty and progress.
![“While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato's Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c92/thomas-jefferson-43_asks_while-wading-through-the-whimsies-the-pu_2513325.jpg)
![“But, you may ask, if the two departments [i.e., federal and state] should claim each the same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable ground…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d33/thomas-jefferson-43_aloof_but-you-may-ask-if-the-two-departments-i_1638614.jpg)
![“On the subject of the history of the American Revolution, you ask who shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it? Nobody, except merely its external facts... all its councils, designs and discussions having been conducted by Congress [behind] closed doors - and no…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1ae/thomas-jefferson-43_able_on-the-subject-of-the-history-of-the-ame_314441.jpg)
![“[States and the Federal government are] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/401/thomas-jefferson-43_branches_states-and-the-federal-government-are-co_2619.jpg)
![“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/00c/thomas-jefferson-43_change_single-acts-of-tyranny-may-be-ascribed-t_5515.jpg)
![“Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of [any difficult situation] in the easiest manner possible...” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ebe/thomas-jefferson-43_difficult_though-you-cannot-see-when-you-take-one_9828.jpg)
