To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
An hereditary aristocracy... will change the form of our governments from the best to the worst in the world. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
With all the imperfections of our present government, it is without comparison the best existing, or that ever did exist. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To me... it appears that there have been differences of opinion and party differences, from the first establishment of government to the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government, so modeled as to rest continually on the will of the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
How to check these unconstitutional invasions of rights by the Federal judiciary? Not by impeachment in the first instance, but by a… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What an augmentation of the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The States should be urged to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive power of establishing… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Each generation has a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its happiness. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In a free society with a government based on reason, it is inevitable that there will be no uniform opinion about important… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being from the… — 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 Image
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 Image
[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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Knowledge is power...knowled ge is safety...knowle dge is happiness. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
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 Image
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