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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

3rd U.S. President

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Famous Thomas Jefferson Quotes

“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.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object.”

ReligiousLibertyChristianityStruggleFailingObjectsPrimariesReligious Freedom
Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans
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“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the States.”

Has BeensMadeStatesGovernmentLawReligiousUnitedResultsLibertyUnited StatesDisciplineExerciseAuthorityConstitutionInstitutionsAssumingDoctrineEstablishmentReservesProvisionChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateSeparation Between Church And StateReligious LibertyReligion ChristianReligion And Government
Book:Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers
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“Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion.”

MenMindWellsReligionBeliefReligiousLibertyOpinionPlansInfluenceDependsHabitMoralityHolyEvidenceSupremePunishmentHypocrisyAlmightyRestraintDepartureBegetsMeannessAlmighty GodMind FreeOpinions And Beliefs
Book:Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way
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“The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty...”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.”

GovernmentReligiousLibertyDisciplineExerciseConstitutionInstitutionsDoctrineFounding Fathers ReligiousReligious Liberty
Book:Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way
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“Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

GovernmentFreedomLibertyCitizensMouthsCapitalismEconomicsLaborLibertarianSocialismBreadFoundersFoundingGoverningFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyPrivate PropertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentDemocracies HaveBill Of RightsUs Founding FathersForefathersAmerican GovernmentLimiting GovernmentFounding AmericaLibertarian PartyEconomic FreedomInauguralConstitutional RightsFrugalLimited FreedomInaugural AddressGovernment RegulationFounding Fathers DemocracyRestrainingLimiting FreedomDistribution Of WealthConstitutional GovernmentFree Market CapitalismTyranny Founding FathersRedistribution Of WealthDemocracy In AmericaGovernment And PoliticsNot VotingGovernment PoliticsFuture Of AmericaVoting Founding FathersRobber Baron
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”

MayGovernmentPoliticsLibertyOpinionPlansPeriodsProveSlaverySeriesLibertarianTyrannyOppressionMinistersDeliberateDistinguishedPursuedReducingSystematicGovernment Tyranny
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled, we have yet gained little if we counternance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of a bitter and bloody persecutions.”

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Book:The portable Thomas Jefferson
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“What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

PeopleIfsTwoCountryFactsSpiritLostPresidentNaturalFreedomHalfLibertyTreeBloodCenturyArmsGunResistancePreservesPatriotismRebellionTyrantsRulersRemedyPatriotPardonRight To Bear ArmsBearing ArmsManureLiberty Tree
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent ... It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.”

WayMayEndsDoneGovernmentEyeLibertySafeFunctionAdministrationRepublicFarmsDividesCompetentDividingLimiting GovernmentSubordinationEveryman
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension.”

ShouldMindWellsHas BeensRealDoneGovernmentMightLawNationsPartyLibertyCasesEnglandConstantPreparedWorthyOperationsPlotRebellionShamefulHabitualSuspensionInsurrectionCorpusHabeas Corpus
Book:Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers
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“I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice.”

MenArtWould BeChoicesPoliticsViewsCitiesLibertyMoralVirtueHealthPerfectionThriveElsewhereElegantGreat Cities
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: 1799-1803
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“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.”

ShouldBodyGovernmentLibertyPrinciplesLimitsConstitutionDividedBalancedFoundersDespotismLimited GovernmentBill Of RightsFederalistLimiting GovernmentConstitutional RightsSeparation Of PowersBalance Of PowerRevolution Founding FathersConstitutional GovernmentPower GovernmentDivided GovernmentIndividual Power
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”

PeopleHumansHeartBodyGovernmentLawSpiritPoliticsCitiesLibertySupportPureConstitutionAddMannersPreservesRepublicHuman BodyVigorGreat Cities
Book:The Essential Jefferson
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“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”

PeopleShouldBelieveGovernmentI BelieveFreedomLibertyTakenDangerousStandingArmyInstitutionsRaisedBankingDefianceAristocracyNew World OrderFederal ReserveCentral BanksMonetary SystemCentral BankingCentral Government
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State.”

ThinkingStatesIndividualPresidentLibertyNoiseInjured
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State
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“In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes.”

MenHas BeensCountryAgePurposePresidentWealthLibertyMysteryMankindEffectsReturnEasierAbuseProtectionCombinationAcquirePriestsHostileAlliancesDeservingJargonDespots
Book:Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness
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“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”

PeopleIfsWellsCountryFactsSpiritFreedomLibertyArmsQuietImportanceResistancePreservesProportionPatriotismRulersMisconceptionRight To Bear ArmsLethargyForerunnersLiberty Tree
Book:Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers
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“When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state”

PeopleMadeStatesBodyHandsLostFreedomLibertyRightsDangerousOfficeValuableRepresentativesContinuingConstituentsFounding Fathers Democracy
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private
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“No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . . their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice . . . . These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.”

PeopleMindGovernmentOrderLibertyVirtueHabitBasesStructureVicesBe Encouraged
Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont
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“I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.”

WarStatesGovernmentFormPoliticalNationsInterestUnitedLibertyPrinciplesUnited StatesBalanceEternalEuropeFundamentalsComplicatedActiveLibertarianMutualLibertarianismQuarrelsAlliancesBalance Of Power
Book:Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers
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“The future inhabitants of [both] the Atlantic and Mississippi states will be our sons. We think we see their happiness in their union, and we wish it. Events may prove otherwise; and if they see their interest in separating why should we take sides? God bless them both, and keep them in union if it be for their good, but separate them if it be better.”

IfsThinkingShouldMayStatesWishSidesInterestLibertyEventsSonProveUnionsLibertarianBlessLibertarianismGod BlessMississippiSeparatingMississippi State
Book:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
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