Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Thomas Jefferson Quotes Anger When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, one hundred. Thomas Jefferson Arms No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. Thomas Jefferson The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson Banks I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs. Thomas Jefferson If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. Thomas Jefferson The system of banking [is] a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction... I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity ... is but swindling futurity on a large scale. Thomas Jefferson Be Quiet If a member finds that it is not the inclination of the House to hear him, and that by conversation or any other noise they endeavor to drown his voice, it is his most prudent way to submit to the pleasure of the House, and sit down. Thomas Jefferson Source:Hind's Precedents of the US House Benefits "Those who bear equally the burthens of Government should equally participate of its benefits." Thomas Jefferson Bread "Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread." -- Thomas Jefferson Censorship "I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, a fact like this can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offence against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? And are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read, and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Source: Letter, 19 April 1814 Change Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried. Thomas Jefferson Church and State Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Thomas Jefferson "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Thomas Jefferson quoted by Gerard Straub in "Salvation for Sale" "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own" Thomas Jefferson, 1814 "Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Source: letter to Miles King, September 26, 1814 Cool Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances. Thomas Jefferson Source:Power Negotiating Corporations "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson, 1812 Source:Liberty Quotes Correction "If we keep together we shall be safe, and when error is so apparent as to become visible to the majority, they will correct it." Thomas Jefferson Daddyism (i.e. Bushism) An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others. Thomas Jefferson We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather bed. Thomas Jefferson Debt ...we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds... Thomas Jefferson "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds... [we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for [another ]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Source: Letter to Samuel Kercheval, Monticello, July 12, 1816 http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.0564 Declaration of Independence May [the Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. Thomas Jefferson We hold these truths to be self-evident,--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - Declaration of Independence of the United States of America When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, having its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. . . . Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Rights "By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline." Thomas Jefferson Source:Liberty Quotes Delay Delay is preferable to error. Election Example "I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Source:Liberty Quotes Environment "While the farmer holds the title to the land, actually, it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) quoted in the Des Moines Register, July 8, 1979. http://www.epa.gov/Region2/library/quotes.htm Enemy "An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes." Thomas Jefferson Equal Rights Equal rights for all, special privileges for none. Thomas Jefferson Expectations If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. Thomas Jefferson Error and Government "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." -- Thomas Jefferson Source: Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782 Fear When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master. Thomas Jefferson God who gave us life, gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson Federal Judiciary "The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in...the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow,) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States." Thomas Jefferson, 1821 Fence Setters "Where the principle of difference [between political parties] is as substantial and as strongly pronounced as between the republicans and the monocrats of our country, I hold it as honorable to take a firm and decided part and as immoral to pursue a middle line, as between the parties of honest men and rogues, into which every country is divided." Thomas Jefferson Freedom A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement. Thomas Jefferson "If a nation expects to be ignorant -- and free -- in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson Future "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson Source:Liberty Quotes God's Purpose "The Giver of life gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness." -- Thomas Jefferson Government "The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest." Thomas Jefferson Source:Liberty Quotes "That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves." -- Thomas Jefferson I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Thomas Jefferson The happiness and prosperity of our citizens is the only legitimate object of government. Thomas Jefferson The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent ... (more) ... It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best. Thomas Jefferson The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. Thomas Jefferson Governmental Acts Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery. Thomas Jefferson Great Innovations Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities. Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1808 Habeas Corpus Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension. Thomas Jefferson Hardest Job To seek out the best [persons to serve in the government] though the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with ther purest motives, is something incorrect....No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place. Thomas Jefferson Source: Letter to Elias Shipman, Jul 12, 1801 History History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. Thomas Jefferson A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. Thomas Jefferson Impeachment "Experience has already shown that the impeachment the Constitution has provided is not even a scarecrow." Thomas Jefferson Source:Liberty Quotes Information Whenever people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government. Thomas Jefferson Jesus The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his Father, in the womb of a virgin will be classified with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated Reformer of human errors. Thomas Jefferson Law and Laws "Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals." Thomas Jefferson Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Thomas Jefferson The study of the law is useful in a variety of points of view. It qualifies a man to be useful to himself, to his neighbours, and to the public. Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to T. M. Randolph, May 30, 1790 Liberty "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." Thomas Jefferson Source: Letter, 23 December 1791 That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. Thomas Jefferson The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. Thomas Jefferson "It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others." Thomas Jefferson Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society." Thomas Jefferson 3rd US President Luck I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. Thomas Jefferson Majority "[Bear] always in mind that a nation ceases to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be the law." Thomas Jefferson Merchants Merchants have no country. Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to H. Spafford, Mar 17, 1814 Money Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations. Thomas Jefferson Natural Process The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson Never Existed An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town-meeting or a vestry. Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to John Taylor, 1798 Noise An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State. Thomas Jefferson Not The Governments Business The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction. Thomas Jefferson Source:Virginia Statute Of Religious Freedom Oath I have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. Thomas Jefferson Obedience Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. Thomas Jefferson Observation "It is an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end." Thomas Jefferson One Man One Vote Equal representation is so fundamental a principal in a true republic that no prejudice can justify its violation because the prejudices themselves cannot be justified. Thomas Jeffersom, 1819 Source:The Supreme Court in American History pp162 Opinion Monuments of the safety with which errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. - in his first inaugural address Parties "Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests. In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still and pursue the same object. The last one of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all." Thomas Jefferson In every free and deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time." Thomas Jefferson Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office, as in England, to take part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man. Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to Willian Giles, 12-31-1779 Pillars Agriculture, manufacturers, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Thomas Jefferson Politics Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived have forced me to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions. Thomas Jefferson Power Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Thomas Jefferson I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion. Thomas Jefferson In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." Thomas Jefferson "An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens." Thomas Jefferson Source: letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813 http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/9ccdbffd871f44c185256e780079de89 Press Truths Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. Thomas Jefferson Nothing can now be believed which is seen in the newpaper. Truth itself become suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. Thomas Jefferson The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson Question Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction. Thomas Jefferson Rebellion A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to James Madison, Jan 30, 1787 Religon Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from this inquiry from any fear of its consequences. If it ends in the belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise... Thomas Jefferson Source: 1787 letter to his nephew The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are only injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. Thomas Jefferson Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry. Thomas Jefferson I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature. Thomas Jefferson In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty. Thomas Jefferson "The hocus-pocus phantasy of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs." Thomas Jefferson Source:Jefferson s Works, Vol. IV, 360, Randolph's ed. "[The clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion." Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800. "Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites." Thomas Jefferson Source:Notes on the State of Virginia "Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.... If it end in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise and in the love of others it will procure for you." Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787. (original capitalization of "god" retained) "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." Thomas Jefferson Source:Letter to Alexander von Humboldt, 1813 Reputation No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it. Thomas Jefferson Resistance "What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." Thomas Jefferson Source: in a letter to William S. Smith, 13 November 1787 http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.A0A7 Rights [Our] principles [are] founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason. Thomas Jefferson Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice. Thomas Jefferson A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." Thomas Jefferson Nothing... is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man." Thomas Jefferson Self-evident We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Thomas Jefferson Service The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture. Thomas Jefferson Starvation I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple. Were we directed from Washington when to sow, when to reap, we should soon want bread. Thomas Jefferson Super Majority "It would not be for the public good to have [a majority in Congress of one party] greater [than] two to one." Thomas Jefferson Taxes To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson Vigilance The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Thomas Jefferson Unite Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled, we have yet gained little if we counternance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of a bitter and bloody persecutions. Thomas Jefferson Zealot A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victimes. Thomas Jefferson Source:Notes on the State of Virginia Vending Machines Vending Machines Vending Machines > Business Opportunities in the Yahoo! Directory North American Vending - provides vending machines featuring unique cash drawers as a business opportunity with coaching and training programs available. 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