Thomas Jefferson

Thomas_Jefferson_quotes

Thomas Jefferson- “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Thomas Jefferson

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Thomas Jefferson

I cannot live without books.

Thomas Jefferson

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Thomas Jefferson

Determine never to be idle…It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Thomas Jefferson

A republican government is slow to move, yet once in motion it’s momentum becomes irresistible.

Thomas Jefferson

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Thomas Jefferson

Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.

Thomas Jefferson

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

Thomas Jefferson

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

Thomas Jefferson

I have never believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man.

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 by education.

Thomas Jefferson

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.

Thomas Jefferson

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

Thomas Jefferson

Never spend your money before you have it.

Thomas Jefferson

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

Thomas Jefferson

No instance exists of a person’s writing two languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.

Thomas Jefferson

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

Thomas Jefferson

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

Thomas Jefferson

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. 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 blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.

Thomas Jefferson

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

Thomas Jefferson

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Thomas Jefferson

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.

Thomas Jefferson

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

Thomas Jefferson

When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson

Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

Thomas Jefferson

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson

That peace, safety, and concord may be the portion of our native land, and be long enjoyed by our fellow-citizens, is the most ardent wish of my heart, and if I can be instrumental in procuring or preserving them, I shall think I have not lived in vain.

Thomas Jefferson

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

Thomas Jefferson

Delay is preferable to error.

Thomas Jefferson

No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.

Thomas Jefferson

Health is worth more than learning.

Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson

If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

Thomas Jefferson

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

Thomas Jefferson

Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.

Thomas Jefferson

Advertisements… contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

Thomas Jefferson

I read no newspaper now but Ritchie’s, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

Thomas Jefferson

A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation.

Thomas Jefferson

It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

Thomas Jefferson

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.

Thomas Jefferson

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson