Revolution Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

We need a revolution every 20 years just to keep government honest.

— Thomas Jefferson

A little rebellion is a good thing.

— Thomas Jefferson

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

— Thomas Jefferson

One war, such as that of our Revolution, is enough for one life.

— Thomas Jefferson

“A little rebellion is good now and then.”

— Thomas Jefferson

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.

— Thomas Jefferson

A little revolution is a good thing.

— Thomas Jefferson

Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God.

— Thomas Jefferson

All men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

— Thomas Jefferson

When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.

— Thomas Jefferson

The day is not distant when we must bear and adopt [the abolition of slavery], or worse will follow.

— Thomas Jefferson

I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

— Thomas Jefferson

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

— Thomas Jefferson

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.

— Thomas Jefferson

A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

— Thomas Jefferson

“all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the Atmosphere.”

— Thomas Jefferson

If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its…

— Thomas Jefferson

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions…

— Thomas Jefferson

It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our…

— Thomas Jefferson

Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of…

— Thomas Jefferson

On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a…

— Thomas Jefferson

That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes…

— Thomas Jefferson

Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these…

— Thomas Jefferson

To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what…

— Thomas Jefferson

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as…

— Thomas Jefferson

Let it be signified to me through any channelthat the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, andin…

— Thomas Jefferson

The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance…

— Thomas Jefferson

The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen…

— Thomas Jefferson

In short I must confide in you to take such care of the men under you as an economical householder would of…

— Thomas Jefferson

What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of…

— Thomas Jefferson

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever: that, considering numbers, nature,…

— Thomas Jefferson

This formidable censor of the public functionaries [the press], by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which…

— Thomas Jefferson

“Our Revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an album on which we were free to write what we pleased.…

— Thomas Jefferson

“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance…

— Thomas Jefferson

Debt and revolution are inseparable as cause and effect.

— Thomas Jefferson

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them.

— Thomas Jefferson

Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.

— Thomas Jefferson

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as…

— Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

— Thomas Jefferson