Should Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

— Thomas Jefferson

It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice

— Thomas Jefferson

The dead should not rule the living

— Thomas Jefferson

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

— Thomas Jefferson

The hole and the patch should be commensurate.

— Thomas Jefferson

Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.

— Thomas Jefferson

Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise.

— Thomas Jefferson

There is a fulness of time when men should go, and not occupy too long the ground to which others have a…

— Thomas Jefferson

A professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution [the University of Virginia]

— Thomas Jefferson

I value peace, and I should unwillingly see any event take place which would render war a necessary resource.

— Thomas Jefferson

Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.

— Thomas Jefferson

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

— Thomas Jefferson

It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute…

— Thomas Jefferson

Our attachment to no nation on earth should supplant our attachment to liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should…

— Thomas Jefferson

The opinions of men should not be the object of any government. Our civil rights are no more dependent on our religious…

— Thomas Jefferson

In a virtuous government, and more especially in times like these, public offices are what they should be - burdens to those…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is a cruel thought, that, when we feel ourselves standing on the firmest ground in every respect, the cursed arts of…

— Thomas Jefferson

Never throw off the best affections of nature in the moment when they become most precious to their object; nor fear to…

— Thomas Jefferson

There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient…

— 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

Every man cannot have his way in all things. If his opinion prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that…

— Thomas Jefferson

It has been thought that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law. But I do not know…

— Thomas Jefferson

No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact,…

— Thomas Jefferson

Not less than two hours a day should be devoded to exercise, and weather should be little regarded. A person not sick…

— Thomas Jefferson

Being myself a warm zealot for the attainment & enjoiment by all mankind of as much liberty as each may exercise without…

— Thomas Jefferson

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles,…

— Thomas Jefferson

As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous…

— Thomas Jefferson

With your talents and industry, with science, and that steadfast honesty which eternally pursues right, regardless of consequences, you may promise yourself…

— Thomas Jefferson

female education ... has occupied my attention so far only as the education of my own daughters ... I thought it essential…

— Thomas Jefferson

It should be our endeavor to cultivate the peace and friendship of every nation . . . . Our interest will be…

— Thomas Jefferson

Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the…

— Thomas Jefferson

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of…

— Thomas Jefferson

The movements of nature are in a never ending circle. The animal species which has once been put into a train of…

— Thomas Jefferson

In the constitution of Spain as proposed by the late Cortes, there was a principle entirely new to me:... that no person…

— Thomas Jefferson

I... [proposed] three distinct grades of education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges…

— Thomas Jefferson

Communities should be planned with an eye to the effect on the human spirit of being continually surrounded by a maximum of…

— Thomas Jefferson

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to…

— Thomas Jefferson

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

— Thomas Jefferson

That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected.

— Thomas Jefferson