The second office of this government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The chief purpose of government is to protect life. Abandon that and you have abandoned all. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The freedom of the press is on of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am not myself apt to be alarmed at innovations recommended by reason. That dread belongs to those whose interests or prejudices… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government, so modeled as to rest continually on the will of the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We think, in America, that it is necessary to introduce the people into every department of government, as far as they are… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To constrain the brute force of the people, the European governments deem it necessary to keep them down by hard labor, poverty… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no… — 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
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
A single good government becomes... a blessing to the whole earth, its welcome to the oppressed restraining within certain limits the measure… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Each generation has a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its happiness. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
With all the imperfections of our present government, it is without comparison the best existing, or that ever did exist. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government.” — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on the earth. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The Governor would serve a five-year term and be ineligible for reelection. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We are completely saddled and bridled, and... the bank is so firmly mounted on us that we must go where it will… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Government is being founded on opinion, the opinion of the public, even when it is wrong, ought to be respected to a… — 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
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
[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
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
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
“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
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
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
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
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
Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
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
“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
![“[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/thomas-jefferson-43_acquiescence_the-purpose-of-a-written-constitution-is_244689.jpg)
![“Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run from moral right.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba5/thomas-jefferson-43_character_political-interest-can-never-be-separate_2925329.jpg)
