Libertarian Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

— Thomas Jefferson

Dependence leads to subservience.

— Thomas Jefferson

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

— Thomas Jefferson

I have sworn upon the altar of god.

— Thomas Jefferson

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

— Thomas Jefferson

Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves.

— Thomas Jefferson

Free men do not ask permission to bear arms

— Thomas Jefferson

No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.

— Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

— Thomas Jefferson

Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.

— Thomas Jefferson

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

— Thomas Jefferson

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.

— Thomas Jefferson

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

— Thomas Jefferson

“That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)”

— Thomas Jefferson

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.

— Thomas Jefferson

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones.

— Thomas Jefferson

I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe… They are…

— Thomas Jefferson

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy…

— Thomas Jefferson

If there be any among us who wish to dissolve the Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed,…

— Thomas Jefferson

Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce…

— Thomas Jefferson

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or…

— Thomas Jefferson

The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he…

— 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

The future inhabitants of [both] the Atlantic and Mississippi states will be our sons. We think we see their happiness in their…

— Thomas Jefferson

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…

— Thomas Jefferson

I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political…

— Thomas Jefferson

... legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property... Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt…

— Thomas Jefferson

When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will…

— Thomas Jefferson

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a…

— Thomas Jefferson

The public school system: "Usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the…

— Thomas Jefferson

Up until the late unpleasantness of the Civil war, then, the right of secession was more or less taken for granted in…

— Thomas Jefferson

I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

— Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

— Thomas Jefferson

Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.

— Thomas Jefferson

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

— Thomas Jefferson

ONLY a government that is AFRAID of its citizens tries to control them.

— Thomas Jefferson

For an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

— Thomas Jefferson

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

— Thomas Jefferson

I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared... We must…

— Thomas Jefferson

I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve…

— Thomas Jefferson