Civil rights Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

I... [am] convinced [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

— Thomas Jefferson

Those who sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither.

— Thomas Jefferson

The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions.

— Thomas Jefferson

the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

— Thomas Jefferson

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

— Thomas Jefferson

The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties.

— Thomas Jefferson

Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone.

— Thomas Jefferson

Private enterprise manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal.

— Thomas Jefferson

The rights of the people to the exercise and fruits of their own industry can never be protected against the selfishness of…

— Thomas Jefferson

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should…

— Thomas Jefferson

It behooves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We…

— Thomas Jefferson

Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

— Thomas Jefferson

Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may…

— Thomas Jefferson

The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.

— Thomas Jefferson

Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting…

— Thomas Jefferson

Our wish is that...[there be] maintained that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry…

— Thomas Jefferson

No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact,…

— Thomas Jefferson

The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity…

— Thomas Jefferson

The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of…

— Thomas Jefferson

Your sect [the Jews] by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent in every…

— Thomas Jefferson

A single good government becomes... a blessing to the whole earth, its welcome to the oppressed restraining within certain limits the measure…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is left... to the juries, if they think the permanent judges are under any bias whatever in any cause, to take…

— Thomas Jefferson

By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against…

— Thomas Jefferson

Considering the great importance to the public liberty of the freedom of the press, and the difficulty of submitting it to very…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all. It is agreed…

— Thomas Jefferson

A first attempt to recover the right of self government may fail, so may a second, a third, etc. But as a…

— Thomas Jefferson

Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no…

— Thomas Jefferson

“...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people…

— Thomas Jefferson

Most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the…

— Thomas Jefferson

The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood.

— Thomas Jefferson

Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.

— Thomas Jefferson

The merchants will manage [commerce] the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves.

— Thomas Jefferson

Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson

The opinions of men should not be the object of any government. Our civil rights are no more dependent on our religious…

— Thomas Jefferson

No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is time enough, for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere [in the propagation of religious teachings]…

— 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

The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and in-grafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against…

— Thomas Jefferson

I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

— Thomas Jefferson

The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume.

— Thomas Jefferson