...is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? ...the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No other depositories of power [but the people themselves] have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to their… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary for good government... Therefore schools and the means of educating the people should always be encouraged. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Instead of that liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of reason, if recovered by mere force or accident, it… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowlege among the people.… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
But of all the views of this law [universal education] none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the… — 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
You have lived longer than I have and perhaps may have formed a different judgment on better grounds; but my observations do… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
SIR,-Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the request of the history of my physical… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The value of science to a republican people, the security it gives to liberty by enlightening the minds of its citizens, the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared... We must… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The following [addition to the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them… — 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
My reason for fixing them in office for a term of years, rather than for life, was that they might have an… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . . their minds are to be… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to; convinced that on their good sense we… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The people are the ultimate guardians of their own liberties. In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The tumults in America I expected would have produced in Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has not.… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
what is wanting to restore us to our station among our confederates? not more money from the people. enough has been raised… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The most effective way to find ourselves enslaved will not be done openly. If weakened we will sink gradually. I ask, who… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore . . . never… — 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
I hold it certain that to open the doors of truth and to fortify the habit of testing everything by reason are… — 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
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
Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
![“No other depositories of power [but the people themselves] have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their charge.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e88/thomas-jefferson-43_committed_no-other-depositories-of-power-but-the-p_1962736.jpg)
![“But of all the views of this law [universal education] none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e89/thomas-jefferson-43_education_but-of-all-the-views-of-this-law-univers_2077845.jpg)
![“The following [addition to the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or otherwise to publish anything but false facts affecting injuriously the life, liberty or reputation of others, or affecting the peace of the…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a40/thomas-jefferson-43_bill-of-rights_the-following-addition-to-the-bill-of-ri_638662.jpg)
![“[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/img-quotes/124/thomas-jefferson-43_american-revolution_t-he-people-seem-to-have-deposited-the-m_2373138.jpg)
![“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/042/thomas-jefferson-43_ends_whenever-any-form-of-government-becomes_2626939.jpg)
![“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore . . . never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6ea/thomas-jefferson-43_concern_t-he-states-can-best-govern-our-home-con_638091.jpg)
![“[States and the Federal government are] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/401/thomas-jefferson-43_branches_states-and-the-federal-government-are-co_2619.jpg)
![“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/00c/thomas-jefferson-43_change_single-acts-of-tyranny-may-be-ascribed-t_5515.jpg)
![“Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of [any difficult situation] in the easiest manner possible...” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ebe/thomas-jefferson-43_difficult_though-you-cannot-see-when-you-take-one_9828.jpg)
