Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas Jefferson

Liberty, Whole, Sure

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Thomas Jefferson

Law, Liberty, Others

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

Ideas, Sinful, Tyrannical

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas Jefferson

Best, Mean, Free

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

Rock, Stand, Style

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

Happiness, Life, Men

All, too, will 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

Mind, Law, Rights

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
Thomas Jefferson

Nothing, Everything, Talk

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

Free, Soldier, State

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Thomas Jefferson

God, Mind, Against

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Thomas Jefferson

Knowledge, Truth, Mind

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Thomas Jefferson

History, Dreams, Future

One man with courage is a majority.
Thomas Jefferson

Courage, Majority

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

Cool, Nothing, Person

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas Jefferson

Government, Alone, Themselves

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
Thomas Jefferson

Power, Corruption, Country

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
Thomas Jefferson

Anger, Angry, Before

Never spend your money before you have earned it.
Thomas Jefferson

Money, Before, Spend

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Thomas Jefferson

Peace, Friendship, May

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Thomas Jefferson

Motto, Nations, Commerce

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

Life, Happiness, Good

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.
Thomas Jefferson

Important, Keep, Nation

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

Free, Nation, State

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson

Government, Truth, Alone

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 more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
Thomas Jefferson

God, Fear, Opinion

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: President

Born: April 13, 1743

Died: July 4, 1826

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