Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Quotes

• That government is best which governs the least because its people discipline themselves.

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

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

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

• Health is worth more than learning.

• Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

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

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

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

• Never spend your money before you have it.

• 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.

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

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

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

• 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.

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

• Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

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

• I live for books.

• Delay is preferable to error.