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My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.


Thomas Jefferson

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My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government.
JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government
JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - ar...
CARL SAGAN Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?

{Letter to JOHN ADAMS Conservatives need to be just as skeptical of government claims made about foreign policy as they ar...
THOMAS WOODS Well, let me tell you something; I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine and Governor. . . ...
RONALD REAGAN Jefferson feared that Hamilton had plans radically at odds with the Constitution. As he saw it, Hami...
R.B. BERNSTEIN History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
THOMAS JEFFERSON For the most part, most of the people on this island do not demand too much of government, but when ...
HARRY KIM We have a monument here for the greatest troublemakers of our history -- Thomas Jefferson and George...
DANA ROHRABACHER The actual, long-term results of most big-government policies are opposite to the intended results.
ARCHIE M. RICHARDS, JR. History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Laws could be passed to keep the leader of a government from getting too much power
THOMAS MORE Racial rhetoric has been entwined with government from the start, all the way back to when the enemy...
RICK PERLSTEIN History is philosophy teaching by examples.
THOMAS JEFFERSON If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with r...
RUSH LIMBAUGH If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with re...
RUSH LIMBAUGH Thomas Jefferson -- still surv
JOHN ADAMS Thomas Jefferson still survives.
JOHN ADAMS Government is just spending too much money.
BOB SCHAFFER Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither lib...
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN The true art of government consists in not governing too much.
JONATHAN SHIPLEY There's not a strong history of good government in New Orleans, or strong government, or effective g...
BILL YOUNG All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to = remain silent.
THOMAS JEFFERSON A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution.
RICHARD DAWKINS We make no saint of Thomas Jefferson—we leave the mindless business of canonization and the worshi...
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS Government workers often get a bad rap, but it's rare for them to receive much appreciation when...
MATTHEW LESKO End results that work that don't involve government threaten liberals
RUSH LIMBAUGH Harriet Washington, in 'Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black ...
GREG GRANDIN I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which t...
JOHN ADAMS I want my candidacy for the presidency of the United States to stand for a moment when we the people...
MICHELE BACHMANN Big money causes me too much trouble with my ex-wives and the government. All I want is to keep busy...
JAKE LAMOTTA The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
RONALD REAGAN I would like Americans to make things with their hands. Thomas Jefferson and I feel that makes for a...
NICK OFFERMAN Do we believe that the goal of government is to promote equal opportunity for all Americans to make ...
PAUL RYAN That results in more money for everybody in the government.
DAN MILLER I’m not Thomas Jefferson. He was a pussy!
CHARLIE SHEEN The business of government ought to be government, not business. I do think there's been too much of...
DARRYL PAULSON There are two types of encryption: one that will prevent your sister from reading your diary and one...
BRUCE SCHNEIER The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if...
DALAI LAMA Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson hated each other so much. But that hate that they had for ea...
DAVID SCOTT The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Most of the tasks we do are for humans. For example, a tax calculation is counting numbers so the go...
YUKIHIRO MATSUMOTO We have seen a central government promote the power of labor-union bosses, and in turn be supported ...
ROBERT W. WELCH, JR. I resent the government being too generous with taxes collected from me toward people who refuse to ...
TROY J. GAINEY There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people...
RAY BRADBURY We know of no spectacle more ridiculous—or more contemptible—than that of the religious reaction...
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS The fact is, my friends, most Americans don't want more government. They want less government.
MIKE HUCKABEE Liberty never came from government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history o...
WOODROW WILSON Dylan Thomas is now as much a case history as a chapter in the history of poetry.
SEAMUS HEANEY We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.
THOMAS JEFFERSON A slave government is an oligarchy; and one, too, of the most arbitrary and criminal character.
LYSANDER SPOONER One thing my wife says is bad about me, is that I still care too much.
AARON SPELLING I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war on liberty, ...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN It is the most important site because of the fact that it is very much the seat of the government.
JAYANTHA DHANAPALA Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON What I'm thinking about more and more these days is simply the importance of transparency, and J...
ESTHER DYSON In American history, this is the most outrageous giveaway ever extended by the federal government to...
BARMAK NASSIRIAN I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been ...
JOHN F. KENNEDY I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been ...
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY A government of, for and by the people, requires much from the people.
ERNIE FLETCHER The founders had a strong distrust for centralized power in a federal government. So they created a ...
EZRA TAFT BENSON The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fa...
DONALD TRUMP When I walk into my office, the other portraits that I look at in addition to (Thomas) Jefferson, th...
DEAN ACHESON No, I feel pressure from myself to deliver good results. The level of unemployment is not my bag - I...
BO BYLUND A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.
JEANE J. KIRKPATRICK Rome tolerated every abominable practice, embraced every foul idea in the name of freedom and the ri...
FRANCINE RIVERS I've heard that in the history of the Student Government Association, there's never been this big of...
JOE FRANCO I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.
ANTONIN SCALIA We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here highly resolve that we shall pass them ...
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, le...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been ...
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been ...
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY People have always said - those words, 'too conservative,' is fairly relative. I'm sure ...
SHARRON ANGLE Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history...
WOODROW WILSON Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it... The histo...
WOODROW T. WILSON The problem is government spends too much. So raising taxes is what politicians do, instead of reduc...
GROVER NORQUIST If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, a...
FRED WOODWORTH Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect th...
MILTON FRIEDMAN There's really not much that people can pick on me for my work, so obviously they find other rea...
SONAKSHI SINHA Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The his...
WOODROW WILSON Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The his...
NADIA BOULANGER I think people understand I'm not actually the real Thomas Jefferson.
DAVEED DIGGS The most important thing I want to get from that is 'What's the preparedness of the federal governme...
BOB LAY Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And e...
RONALD REAGAN If there were no God, the Government wouldn’t take too much time to take the position.
VIKRANT PARSAI This opera is my Nunc Dimittis, in that it dismisses me peacefully and convinces me I have achieved.
E. M. FORSTER That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons...
ALDOUS HUXLEY Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons ...
ALDOUS HUXLEY People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To th...
OSCAR WILDE History has repeatedly shown that the costs of many government healthcare programs far exceed early ...
RICK SCOTT The government is committed to getting the results of the investigation as quickly as possible.
ERIC CAREY This society [Jesuits] has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or JOHN ADAMS A limited government is much more likely to be a competent government.
RON DESANTIS You can't say based upon tonight's results that the City of Jefferson wants a Wal-Mart,
DAVID OLSEN I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promi...
CARL SAGAN Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inf...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Most of the poverty and misery in the world is due to bad government, lack of democracy, weak states...
GEORGE SOROS

More Thomas Jefferson

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
THOMAS JEFFERSON A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be sa...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
THOMAS JEFFERSON We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.
THOMAS JEFFERSON There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
THOMAS JEFFERSON When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Euro...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
THOMAS JEFFERSON For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their be...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should hav...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
THOMAS JEFFERSON One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results...
THOMAS JEFFERSON No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by who...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor...
THOMAS JEFFERSON To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful an...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wr...
THOMAS JEFFERSON No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
THOMAS JEFFERSON No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.
THOMAS JEFFERSON No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON He who knows best knows how little he knows.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have,...
THOMAS JEFFERSON To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by educat...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working unde...
THOMAS JEFFERSON When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The second office of this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid misery.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the stre...
THOMAS JEFFERSON A sense of this necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory proof that whereve...
THOMAS JEFFERSON With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliat...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been sta...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest mode...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let...
THOMAS JEFFERSON But let me beseech you, Sir, not to let this letter get into a newspaper. Tranquillity, at my age, i...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular p...
THOMAS JEFFERSON A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you ca...
THOMAS JEFFERSON the giver of life, who gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON God who gave us life gave us liberty. 1 Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imitations. It is raising up a monied aristoc...
THOMAS JEFFERSON A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but i...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Architecture worth great attention. As we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our house...
THOMAS JEFFERSON As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn fro...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said: For Heav...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they...
THOMAS JEFFERSON At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helples...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government, as a barrier against foreign...
THOMAS JEFFERSON We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the publi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depe...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pocket to pay for it, would make of our country...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate wo...
THOMAS JEFFERSON And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most indepe...
THOMAS JEFFERSON You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war....
THOMAS JEFFERSON The character of our coasts, remarkable in considerable parts of it for admitting no vessels of size...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I thought the work would be very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man;...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massach...
THOMAS JEFFERSON In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON One half of our brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of repr...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Were our State a pure democracy, in which all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free; nor is...
THOMAS JEFFERSON With your talents and industry, with science, and that stedfast honesty which eternally pursues righ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my famil...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Perfect happiness I believe was never intended by the deity to be the lot of any one of his creature...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid bu...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projec...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. are the sole objects of all legit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem an...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon want bread.
THOMAS JEFFERSON If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricul...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-governm...
THOMAS JEFFERSON To preserve the freedom of the human mind and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disb...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or bur...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nationsentangling alliances with none.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The desire to preserve our country from the calamities and ravages of war, by cultivating a disposit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any ar...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON There are two sides to every question, because, when there are no longer two sides it ceases to be a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have not observed men's honesty to increase with their riches.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to admit it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Power is not alluring to pure minds
THOMAS JEFFERSON I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none
THOMAS JEFFERSON For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON When the moral sense is wanting, we endeavor to supply the defect by education, by appeals to reason...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Conscience is the chamber of justice.
THOMAS JEFFERSON That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON ...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feeling...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil s...
THOMAS JEFFERSON And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson's secular college] by the...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our instit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to p...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If you want something you've never had
You must be willing to do something you've never done.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good gener...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of...
THOMAS JEFFERSON A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbeliev...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work Plato's R...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he...
THOMAS JEFFERSON In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by renderi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nati...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
THOMAS JEFFERSON An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of m...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then mo...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficult...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolish...
THOMAS JEFFERSON He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate ob...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office
THOMAS JEFFERSON That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
THOMAS JEFFERSON When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there...
THOMAS JEFFERSON That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my fam...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON We seldom report of having eaten too little.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Tranquility is the old man's milk.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions,...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
THOMAS JEFFERSON In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
THOMAS JEFFERSON No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON