The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Peace, that glorious moment in time when everyone stops and reloads. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I do not agree that an age of pleasure is no compensation for a moment of pain. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
You have never by a word or a deed given me one moment's uneasiness; on the contrary I have felt perpetual gratitude… — 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
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
I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it. The honeymoon would be as short… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Never throw off the best affections of nature in the moment when they become most precious to their object; nor fear to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am persuaded myself that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. They may… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest models for imitation; I should… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I duly acknowledge that I have gone through a long life, with fewer circumstances of affliction than are the lot of most… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless... From the conclusion of this… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all. It is agreed… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of… — 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