There are two subjects, indeed, which I shall claim a right to further as long as I breathe: the public education, and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to… — 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
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Having labored faithfully in establishing the right of self-government, we see in the rising generation, into whose hands it is passing, that… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political… — 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
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Had not a conviction of the danger to which an unlimited occupation of the executive chair would expose the republican Constitution of… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The Gothic idea that we were to look backwards instead of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reeactments, because a constant hold, by the nation, of the strings of the public… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens . . . There has never… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reenactments; because a constant hold by the nation of the strings of the public… — 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… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not… — 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
We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burdening the people, and arming… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Those characters wherein fear predominates over hope may apprehend too much from...instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily that nature has… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[T]he people seem to have deposited the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease as would have attended… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves. If we are directed from Washington (heads of an organization)… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The First Amendment has created a wall of separation between the church and the State. But that wall is one directional. It… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that [a society without government, as among our Indians] is not the best.… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover, and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The foundation on which (our government is) built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I have great hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment, call (up the law for religious freedom) and make… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take… — 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
![“[T]he people seem to have deposited the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/124/thomas-jefferson-43_american-revolution_t-he-people-seem-to-have-deposited-the-m_2373138.jpg)
![“It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that [a society without government, as among our Indians] is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a02/thomas-jefferson-43_believe_it-is-a-problem-not-clear-in-my-mind-tha_1271770.jpg)
![“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. [Misattributed]” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb1/thomas-jefferson-43_arms_the-strongest-reason-for-the-people-to-r_951173.jpg)
![“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes [Letter to von Humboldt, 1813].” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cba/thomas-jefferson-43_atheism_history-i-believe-furnishes-no-example-o_491860.jpg)
