--- title: "3 Letter Quotes By Thomas Jefferson" description: "3 Letter quotes by Thomas Jefferson. Plus more from Thomas Jefferson and more Letter sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58e/thomas-jefferson-43_books_i-have-received-the-favor-of-your-letter_84256.jpg" --- > [“I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/i-have-received-the-favor-of-your-letter-of-august-17th-and-with-it/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58e/thomas-jefferson-43_books_i-have-received-the-favor-of-your-letter_84256.jpg) > [SIR,-Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the request of the history of my physical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/sir-your-letter-of-february-the-18th-came-to-hand-on-the-1st-instant/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f56/thomas-jefferson-43_animal_sir-your-letter-of-february-the-18th-cam_2961427.jpg) > [Sir, Your letter of the 15th is received, but Age has long since obliged me to withhold my mind from Speculations of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/sir-your-letter-of-the-15th-is-received-but-age-has-long-since/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/65d/thomas-jefferson-43_age_sir-your-letter-of-the-15th-is-received_3021525.jpg) ## Other authors on Letter ## More by Thomas Jefferson > [A man has a right to use a saw, an axe, a plane, separately; may he not combine their uses on the same piece…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/a-man-has-a-right-to-use-a-saw-an-axe-a-plane-separately-may-he-not/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/believing-with-you-that-religion-is-a-matter-which-lies-solely/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [ \[States and the Federal government are\] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/states-and-the-federal-government-are-coordinate-departments-of-one/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/i-am-for-freedom-of-religion-and-against-all-maneuvers-to-bring-about/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/single-acts-of-tyranny-may-be-ascribed-to-the-accidental-opinion-of-a/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [“Perceiving the order of nature to be that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue, I am willing to hope it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/perceiving-the-order-of-nature-to-be-that-individual-happiness-shall/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/free-government-is-founded-in-jealousy-and-not-in-confidence-it-is/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/though-you-cannot-see-when-you-take-one-step-what-will-be-the-next/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/a-well-informed-citizenry-is-the-best-defense-against-tyranny/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/the-two-principles-on-which-our-conduct-towards-the-indians-should-be/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Knowledge is power...knowled ge is safety...knowle dge is happiness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/knowledge-is-power-knowled-ge-is-safety-knowle-dge-is-happiness/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/there-is-an-artificial-aristocracy-founded-on-wealth-and-birth/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/nothing-but-free-argument-raillery-and-even-ridicule-will-preserve/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/when-the-people-are-afraid-of-the-government-that-s-tyranny-but-when/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [“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,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/we-hold-these-truths-to-be-self-evident-that-all-men-are-created/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/letter/thomas-jefferson/#itemlist", "name": "3 Letter Quotes By Thomas Jefferson", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the Literature of Negroes. Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunities for the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. 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I live so much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as a history of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating very little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principle diet.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Jefferson" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/sir-your-letter-of-february-the-18th-came-to-hand-on-the-1st-instant/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f56/thomas-jefferson-43_animal_sir-your-letter-of-february-the-18th-cam_2961427.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f56/thomas-jefferson-43_animal_sir-your-letter-of-february-the-18th-cam_2961427.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f56/thomas-jefferson-43_animal_sir-your-letter-of-february-the-18th-cam_2961427.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“SIR,-Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the request of the history of my…” — Thomas Jefferson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Sir, Your letter of the 15th is received, but Age has long since obliged me to withhold my mind from Speculations of the difficulty of those of your letter, that their are means of artificial buoyancy by which man may be supported in the Air, the Balloon has proved, and that means of directing it may be discovered is against no law of Nature and is therefore possible as in the case of Birds, but to do this by mechanical means alone in a medium so rare and unassisting as air must have the aid of some principal not yet generally known.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Jefferson" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/sir-your-letter-of-the-15th-is-received-but-age-has-long-since/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/65d/thomas-jefferson-43_age_sir-your-letter-of-the-15th-is-received_3021525.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/65d/thomas-jefferson-43_age_sir-your-letter-of-the-15th-is-received_3021525.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/65d/thomas-jefferson-43_age_sir-your-letter-of-the-15th-is-received_3021525.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Sir, Your letter of the 15th is received, but Age has long since obliged me to withhold my mind from…” — Thomas Jefferson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/letter/thomas-jefferson/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/letter/thomas-jefferson/", "name": "Letter Quotes by Thomas Jefferson", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/letter/thomas-jefferson/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58e/thomas-jefferson-43_books_i-have-received-the-favor-of-your-letter_84256.jpg" }, "description": "3 Letter quotes by Thomas Jefferson. 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