Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Quotes

• I cannot live without books.

• We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

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

• 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.

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

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

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

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

• There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.

• Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.

• The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

• Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

• Our friendships are precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life;and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part is sunshine.

• Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

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

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

• Question with boldness even the existance of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

• I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.

• Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.

• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are 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.