Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

3rd U.S. President

Filter quotes by topic

AllGovernmentMenLibertyPeopleIfsPoliticsShouldMayLawStatesCountryMindRightsConstitutionPoliticalNationsPrinciplesReligionReligiousWar

Famous Thomas Jefferson Quotes

“In a virtuous government, and more especially in times like these, public offices are what they should be - burdens to those appointed to them which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring them intense labor and great private loss.”

ShouldGovernmentWould BePoliticalPoliticsLossOfficeLaborBurdenIntenseDeclineVirtuousPublic OfficeForeseenTimes Like These
Book:Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness
Create image

“To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to definition.”

GovernmentPoliticalPoliticsStepsFieldsConstitutionCongressDefinitionsPossessionBoundariesFederal GovernmentBoundlessFreedom LibertyProperty RightsBill Of RightsSusceptibleAmerican GovernmentConstitutional RightsSeparation Of PowersUs ConstitutionFederalismGeneral WelfareConstitutional GovernmentSingle StepTyranny Founding FathersPower Government
Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont
Create image

“If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable.”

IfsKnowsCountryGovernmentCareSpiritRevolutionCorruptionSpreadWideSurfaceReformInevitableIndifferentIncapable
Book:Life of Thomas Jefferson: with selections from the most valuable portions of his voluminious and unrivalled private correspondence : with portrait
Create image

“To seek out the best [persons to serve in the government] though the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with ther purest motives, is something incorrect....No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.”

MenTryingPersonsWholeGovernmentActingInformationDutyUnionsMotiveExecutivesResortsRight PlaceBest PersonBest Of MeRight Man
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“The constitution has divided the powers of government into three branches, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, lodging each with a distinct magistracy. The Legislative it has given completely to the Senate and House of Representatives. It has declared that the Executive powers shall be vested in the President, submitting special articles of it to a negative by the Senate, and it has vested the Judiciary power in the courts of justice, with certain exceptions also in favor of the Senate.”

GovernmentCertainThreeHouseGivenPresidentJusticeSpecialNegativeConstitutionCourtFavorsBranchesExceptionExecutivesDividedArticlesSenateRepresentativesJudiciaryHouse Of RepresentativesExecutive Power
Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretary of state
Create image

“Stock dealers and banking companies, by the aid of a paper system, are enriching themselves to the ruin of our country, and swaying the government by their possession of the printing presses, which their wealth commands and by any other means, not always honorable to the character of our countrymen.”

MeanCountryCharacterGovernmentWealthCompanyPaperPressesPossessionAidsCommandOur CountryRuinsHonorableBankingPrintingDealerCountrymenEnrichingPrinting PressSwaying
Book:The Real Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in Government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead.”

MenYearsHumansWellsLooksBookCountryGovernmentAgeReadingCenturyHe ManConstitutionSacredTouchedFortyReverenceAmendmentsBook ReadingCovenantArkYears Of ExperienceSanctimonious
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“We think, in America, that it is necessary to introduce the people into every department of government, as far as they are capable of exercising it, and that this is the only way to ensure a long continued and honest administration of its powers.”

PeopleThinkingWayLongGovernmentAmericaHonestExerciseCapableAdministrationDepartmentIntroducing
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787
Create image

“Should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price.”

PeopleShouldLooksCountryBodyGovernmentVoicePayCorruptionSpreadPay The Price
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786
Create image

“The influence over government must be shared among all the people. If every individual which composes their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe, because the corrupting of the whole mass will exceed any private resources of wealth, and public ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this case every man would have to pay his own price.”

PeopleIfsMenWholeGovernmentIndividualWealthPayCasesInfluenceSafeAuthorityMassResourcesUltimateEvery ManExceed
Book:Jefferson: Political Writings
Create image

“We may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights and especially that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient.”

PeopleBelieveMayGovernmentEvilRightsCitizensRepublicanElementsMassElectionAgentsIngredientsCompositionEgoism
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private
Create image

“How to check these unconstitutional invasions of rights by the Federal judiciary? Not by impeachment in the first instance, but by a strong protestation of both houses of Congress that such and such doctrines advanced by the Supreme Court are contrary to the Constitution; and if afterwards they relapse into the same heresies, impeach and set the whole adrift. For what was the government divided into three branches, but that each should watch over the others and oppose their usurpations?”

IfsShouldFirstsWholeGovernmentThreeHouseStrongWatchesRightsConstitutionCourtCongressContrarySupremeChecksDoctrineInstanceBranchesDividedSupreme CourtInvasionHeresyJudiciaryUnconstitutionalImpeachmentRelapseAdriftUsurpation
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“It is important to strengthen the State governments; and as this cannot be done by any change in the Federal Constitution (for the preservation of that is all we need contend for), it must be done by the States themselves, erecting such barriers at the constitutional line as cannot be surmounted either by themselves or by the General Government. The only barrier in their power is a wise government. A weak one will lose ground in every contest.”

NeedsImportantStatesDoneGovernmentLosesLinesWiseWeakConstitutionBarriersPreservationContestsState Government
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1789-1792
Create image

“Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.”

PeopleIfsShouldWellsGovernmentCoursesForceNationsHonestPureCapableUltimateCorruptionGovernorsPreventingRestoringUltimate PowerPower Corruption
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states, in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep.”

IdeasStatesGovernmentLastsFormThreeForceExistenceCasesInfluenceDegreesEnglandCurseRepublicSheepMonarchyGreat Ones
Book:Jefferson: Writings
Create image

“What an augmentation of the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the state powers into the hands of the general government.”

StatesHandsGovernmentWould BeFieldsBuildingOfficeAssumptionHuntingOffice Buildings
Book:Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States
Create image

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

WisdomInspirationGovernmentTimePoliticsPeaceFreedomLibertyTreeBloodStrengthRevolutionGunRevolutionaryPatriotismPatrioticTyrantsAmendmentsPatriotFoundingFreedom And LibertySecond AmendmentFreedom LibertyProperty RightsLimited GovernmentMartyrdomRefreshingBig GovernmentRight To Bear ArmsBloodshedBearing ArmsIndividual LibertyGun RightsVeterans DayFree GovernmentRights And FreedomsManurePro GunFounding Fathers GunPolitical Freedom2 AmendmentFounding Fathers Second AmendmentAmerican LibertyLiberty And JusticeSocial RevolutionPrice Of FreedomGood PatrioticConstitutional GovernmentLiberty And EqualityTyranny Founding FathersPatriot DayPolitical RevolutionTyranny Of The MajoritySmall GovernmentGovernment TyrannyPatriotism And FreedomPatriotic GunShedding BloodLiberty TreeThreats To Liberty
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

MenWisdomGovernmentPoliticsLibertyWiseIndustryCitizensMouthsCapitalismEconomicsLaborLibertarianImprovementCirclesPursuitSocialismBreadFoundingGoverningFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyPrivate PropertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveBill Of RightsUs Founding FathersForefathersFelicityAmerican GovernmentFree GovernmentLimiting GovernmentLibertarian PartyEconomic FreedomInauguralFrugalLimited FreedomInaugural AddressGovernment RegulationFounding Fathers DemocracyRestrainingLimiting FreedomDistribution Of WealthConstitutional GovernmentDemocratic GovernmentGovernment And SocietyFree Market CapitalismTyranny Founding FathersRedistribution Of WealthDemocracy In AmericaCommunism And SocialismGovernment And PoliticsNot VotingGovernment PoliticsFuture Of AmericaVoting Founding FathersRobber Baron
Book:Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way
Create image

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

BelieveGovernmentPoliticalI BelieveMoneyLibertyDangerousPoliticianStandingArmyInstitutionsI Believe InTyrannyAccountabilityFoundersFederal GovernmentBankingInflationBankersPrivate PropertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsDemocracies HaveBig GovernmentUs Founding FathersFederal ReserveForefathersCentral BanksPublic InterestEconomic FreedomRevolutionary WarMoney And PowerFinancial SystemFounding Fathers DemocracyMonetary SystemGreat LibertarianMoney PowerUsuryBankers And BanksCentral BankingTyranny Founding FathersEconomic OrderCentral GovernmentBanks And MoneyRothschild
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

CountryGovernmentLawPoliticalHopeChallengesStrengthBirthHistoricalDareTrialsSocialismOur CountryCorporationsCrushPatrioticDefianceAristocracyCorporatismPlutocracyMultinational Corporations
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826
Create image

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”

GovernmentFormPoliticalTimeDemocracyTrustLibertarianTyrannyOperationsSouthernForms Of GovernmentLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveForefathersIndividual LibertyFree GovernmentLimiting GovernmentTyranny Founding FathersCorrupt GovernmentGovernment TyrannyPower Government
Book:Jefferson: Political Writings
Create image

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

FirstsHumansGovernmentCareHappinessPoliticalPoliticsObjectsEthicsDestructionHuman RightsHuman LifeAbortionPro LifeLife And HappinessGovernment And PoliticsDemocracy And Human RightsCatholic Pro LifePurpose Of Government
Book:Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness
Create image

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

NeedsGovernmentTruthReligionPoliticsReligiousFreedomMistakeSupportAtheismTruth IsErrorsConservativeLibertarianSeparationFoundersChurch And StateFreedom And LibertySeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianState GovernmentBig GovernmentUs Founding FathersFounding Fathers ReligionSeparation Between Church And StateFounding Fathers ReligiousReligious LibertyLimiting GovernmentFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistDeismPolitical FreedomReligion ChristianChristian FatherFramersReligion And GovernmentAnti ReligionLimiting FreedomReligious TruthNon ReligiousHate ReligionHappy Alone
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

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

WarGovernmentSpiritCertainPoliticsWishFreedomLibertyAliveValuableLibertarianTyrannyResistanceOccasionsPresidentialRevolutionaryPatrioticAnti WarPatriotGun ControlDissentFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsAmerican RevolutionLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveUs Founding FathersRight To Bear ArmsForefathersBearing ArmsAmerican GovernmentLimiting GovernmentPro GunLibertarian PartyFounding Fathers GunLimited FreedomPolitical WillPolitical FreedomEternal VigilanceGreat LibertarianLiberty And JusticeAmerica FreedomPrice Of FreedomLimiting FreedomResistance To ChangeAmerican FreedomTyranny Founding FathersDemocracy In AmericaGovernment And PoliticsGovernment PoliticsGovernment TyrannyControlling GovernmentLiberty And Justice For AllVoting Founding FathersPolitical WisdomMinority GovernmentDivided Government
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787
Create image