“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 Copy Share Image
No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The greatest calamity which could befall us would be submission to a government of unlimited powers. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“The policy of the American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.” — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
With all the defects in our Constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our government with those of Europe, is like… — 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… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that i wish it to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The opinions of men should not be the object of any government. Our civil rights are no more dependent on our religious… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If government have a right of demanding ad libitum and of taxing us themselves to the full amount of their demand if… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
no one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in it's effect… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being from the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
You know well that government always kept a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To seek out the best [persons to serve in the government] though the whole Union, we must resort to the information which… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[Emigrants] will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The best commentary on the principles of government which has ever been written. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government. — 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
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The persons and property of our citizens are entitled to the protection of our government in all places where they may lawfully… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I pledge undying hostility to any government restrictions on the free minds of the people. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Every man has a commission to admonish, exhort, convince another of error. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The right of self-government does not comprehend the government of others. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny! — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse. — 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
![“That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/289/thomas-jefferson-43_altruism_that-liberty-is-pure-which-is-to-go-to-a_2503235.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)
![“[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/cfa/thomas-jefferson-43_action_t-he-opinion-which-gives-to-the-judges-t_2055401.jpg)
![“You know well that government always kept a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, invented and put into the papers whatever might serve the [government] ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/60a/thomas-jefferson-43_army_you-know-well-that-government-always-kep_2551285.jpg)
![“To seek out the best [persons to serve in the government] though the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with ther purest motives, is something incorrect…No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/7f5/thomas-jefferson-43_acting_to-seek-out-the-best-persons-to-serve-in_1035539.jpg)
![“[Emigrants] will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/451/thomas-jefferson-43_able_emigrants-will-bring-with-them-the-princ_1395724.jpg)
![“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f83/thomas-jefferson-43_citizens_the-most-sacred-of-the-duties-of-a-gover_3100529.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)
