All Thomas Jefferson Quotes
- Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us. Only
- No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place. Duty
- There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Among
- The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism. Cause
- The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery. Easy
- There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me. Environmental
- The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world. Archimedes
- Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a… Decide
- I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which… Authority
- Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or… Angel
- I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough… Control
- It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may,… Behooves
- It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must… Actually Take
- Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption… Article
- In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on… Actual
- An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations… Argument
- Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter… Alliance
- We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind… Another Country
- So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done,… Confident
- In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the… Artificial
- I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman… Consider
- Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. Abstinence
- The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and… Boisterous
- The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to… Blindfold
- Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. [Misattributed] Dissent