Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Quotes

• Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

• My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

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

• I contemplate with sovereign 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.

• 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.

• Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

• Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

• I like the dreams of the future, better than the history of the past.

• 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.

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

• 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.

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

• 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.

• Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

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

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

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

• 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.

• 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.

• Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the general progress of the human mind.