States Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

The constitution of the United States is the result of the collected wisdom of our country.

— Thomas Jefferson

The States should be left to do whatever acts they can do as well as the general government.

— Thomas Jefferson

The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it.

— Thomas Jefferson

Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society.

— Thomas Jefferson

I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.

— Thomas Jefferson

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

— Thomas Jefferson

An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State.

— Thomas Jefferson

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones.

— Thomas Jefferson

But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof…

— Thomas Jefferson

To make us one nation as to foreign concerns, and keep us distinct in Domestic ones gives the outline of the proper…

— Thomas Jefferson

If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world it is to your country [Italy] its music. This…

— Thomas Jefferson

The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government

— Thomas Jefferson

I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe… They are…

— Thomas Jefferson

My general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything…

— Thomas Jefferson

If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as…

— Thomas Jefferson

Our wish is that...[there be] maintained that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry…

— Thomas Jefferson

It is important to strengthen the State governments; and as this cannot be done by any change in the Federal Constitution (for…

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

— Thomas Jefferson

Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, is made a part of the United States; its white inhabitants shall be…

— Thomas Jefferson

What but education has advanced us beyond the condition of our indigenous neighbors? And what chains them to their present state of…

— Thomas Jefferson

MORAL LAW, Evidence of.- Man has been subjected by his Creator to the moral law, of which his feelings, or conscience as…

— Thomas Jefferson

The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he…

— Thomas Jefferson

I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures…

— Thomas Jefferson

I join cordially in admiring and revering the Constitution of the United States, the result of the collected wisdom of our country.…

— Thomas Jefferson

I see,... and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the…

— Thomas Jefferson

I am not fully informed of the practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall certainly vary, although it…

— Thomas Jefferson

I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or…

— Thomas Jefferson

We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all…

— Thomas Jefferson

We have no paupers ... The great mass of our [United States] population is of laborers; our rich, who can live without…

— Thomas Jefferson

The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves,…

— Thomas Jefferson

It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be…

— Thomas Jefferson

The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.

— Thomas Jefferson

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns and the federal government our foreign ones.

— Thomas Jefferson

All the States but our own are sensible that knowlege is power.

— Thomas Jefferson

[States and the Federal government are] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the…

— Thomas Jefferson

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and…

— Thomas Jefferson

What an augmentation of the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the…

— Thomas Jefferson

I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates…

— Thomas Jefferson

Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been…

— Thomas Jefferson