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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

3rd U.S. President

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Famous Thomas Jefferson Quotes

“The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.”

MenLibertyPressesLibertarianSecureInchesLibertarianismTake TimeIt Takes Time
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private
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“The contradictory experiments of chemists leave us at liberty to conclude what we please. My conclusion is, that art has not yet invented sufficient aids to enable such subtle bodies [air, light, &c.] to make a well-defined impression on organs as blunt as ours; that it is laudable to encourage investigation but to hold back conclusion.”

WellsArtBodyLightScienceLibertyAirPleaseAidsExperimentsImpressionConclusionDefinedSufficientSubtleChemistryOrgansInvestigationContradictoryBluntChemist
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce...”

PeopleMenShouldHumansPersonsWarChristianLibertyRightsHuman NatureKingsNegativeSlaverySacredDeterminedPracticalsMiserableBritainCommerceWarfareOffendedTransportationDeclaration Of IndependenceGreat BritainInfidelHemisphereCaptivatingE CommerceSuppressing
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.”

GovernmentPoliticalReligionChurchReligiousLibertyAtheismInternetConstitutionLibertarianSeparationFree SpeechSecularCoercionChurch And StateFreedom And LibertySeparation Of Church And StateFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsReligious FreedomReligious BeliefLimited GovernmentFounding Fathers ChristianState GovernmentUs Founding FathersForefathersFounding Fathers ReligionSeparation Between Church And StateFounding Fathers ReligiousAmerican GovernmentReligious LibertyLimiting GovernmentFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistDeismChristian AtheistChristian FatherSeparation Of PowersReligion And GovernmentTheocracyChristian RightLimiting FreedomConstitutional GovernmentDrug ProhibitionReligious TruthPower GovernmentNon ReligiousChristian FreedomLegitimate GovernmentLegitimate Power
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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“What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment ... inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.”

MenMomentsAgeNextHoursCompassionLibertyMachinesFellowsMiseryRoseEndureTyrannyRebellionToilBondageFellow ManFamineImprisonmentOne HourInhumanityStripesVindication
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“It is left... to the juries, if they think the permanent judges are under any bias whatever in any cause, to take on themselves to judge the law as well as the fact. They never exercise this power but when they suspect partiality in the judges; and by the exercise of this power they have been the firmest bulwarks of English liberty.”

IfsThinkingWellsHas BeensFactsLawLeftCausesLibertyJudgingExerciseCivil RightsPermanentSuspectsBiasJuryPartiality
Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont
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“If the question [before justices of the peace] relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact.”

IfsMayFactsLawJusticeLibertyJudgingCivil RightsRelateBiasJuryJury DutyNullificationJudge And Jury
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786
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“The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.”

MindHumansChristianLibertyOriginalsSimplicityPositive AtheismCivil RightsPurityFriendlyHuman MindExpansionBenevolentRagsClergy
Book:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
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“I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it's soil, it's climate, it's equality, liberty, laws, people & manners. my god! how little do my countrymen know.”

PeopleKnowsMayLittlesCountryLawWishPleasureLibertyGreaterClimateMannersSoilAdoreSincerelyUtilityConvenientWish YouCountrymenAdore You
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786
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“Being myself a warm zealot for the attainment & enjoiment by all mankind of as much liberty as each may exercise without injury to the equal liberty of his fellow citizens, I have lamented that in France the endeavors to obtain this should have been attended with the effusion of so much blood.”

ShouldMayHas BeensLibertyBloodMankindCitizensExerciseEqualShould HaveFellowsWarmFranceInjuryEndeavorShould Have BeenAttainmentBeing MyselfZealot
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798
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“We owe gratitude to France, justice to England, good will to all, and subservience to none ... it was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.”

FallJusticeLibertyCitizensGratitudeEnglandFranceAgencySoberGood WillMonarchyRepublicanismSubservience
Book:Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph
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“It's only merit was in being the first publication which carried the claim of our rights their whole length, and asserted that there was no rightful link of connection between us and England but that of being under the same king.”

FirstsWholeLibertyRightsKingsConnectionsClaimsEnglandMeritLengthLinksPublication
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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“Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial, mundane system.”

BelieveHumansExistenceLibertyMoralChristianityPrinciplesHuman NatureEternalEthicsAttributesFoundingMundaneOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianUs Founding FathersFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersChristianity From Founding FathersRevolution Founding FathersMoral EthicsAttributes Of God
Book:Correspondence
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“I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

MenMindGovernmentAmericaFormReligionReligiousLibertyChristianityLibertarianTyrannyCensorshipAmerican HistorySkepticismHostilityChurch And StateFreedom And LibertySeparation Of Church And StateForms Of GovernmentFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentFounding Fathers ChristianClergyForefathersFounding Fathers ReligionSeparation Between Church And StateIndividual LibertyFounding Fathers ReligiousAmerican GovernmentReligion GodFree GovernmentLimiting GovernmentFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistDeismLimited FreedomChristianity From Founding FathersGreat PatrioticReligion ChristianFaith ReligionPrice Of FreedomRevolution Founding FathersLimiting FreedomGovernment And SocietyChristian GodDeistTyranny Founding FathersPolitical ThinkingLiberty Tree
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“We shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important struggles and sacrifices, and in the event of peace on terms which have been contemplated by some powers we shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends.”

Has BeensImportantCountryStatesFormTermLibertyEnemyStruggleSacrificeDangerousEventsAddUnionsValuableWorthyBritishBranchesCanadaEmpiresBarriersCommerceExtensionsProvincesFertileConverting
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We...solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of a right ought to be free and independent states...and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.”

MenSelfStatesGovernmentCertainLibertySupportOur LivesRightsDivineOughtEqualIndependentSacredFortuneCreatorProtectionPursuitSecureFirmHonourProvidenceEvidentDeclarationPublishReliancePursuit Of HappinessPledgeColonyDeclaration Of IndependenceInalienable RightsDivine ProvidenceUnalienable RightsLife Liberty And The Pursuit Of HappinessPursuit Of JusticeDivine ProtectionRights To Life
Book:Thomas Jefferson, His Words and Vision
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“The evidence of [the] natural right [of expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do not claim these under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King of Kings.”

MenReasonUseLeftNaturalLibertyKingsEvidenceClaimsEvery ManPursuitFacultyInvestigationImpressedPursuit Of HappinessLegislatorsCharterRight To LifeInalienable Rights
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private
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“If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.”

IfsMenHas BeensMadeFeelingsGovernmentWould BeTogetherLibertyGreaterRightsDegreesSlaveryBillsNeighborContraryRidiculousPreservationBill Of Rights
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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“When we come to the moral principles on which the government is to be administered, we come to what is proper for all conditions of society. Liberty, truth, probity, honor, are declared to be the four cardinal principles of society. I believe that morality, compassion, generosity, are innate elements of the human constitution; that there exists a right independent of force.”

BelieveHumansGovernmentForceI BelieveCompassionLibertyMoralPrinciplesFourConditionsHonorMoralityElementsConstitutionIndependentGenerosityInnateCardinalsMoral PrinciplesProbity
Book:The Essential Jefferson
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“Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. ... With hearts fortified ... we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that... we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.”

WorldMindHeartDiesCausesPerfectLibertyUnionsSlavePreservationDefianceHazardsFirmnessFreemanPerseverence
Book:Jefferson: Political Writings
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“And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them.”

ShouldCountryLightLibertyEuropeRemainsLibraryCloudsPreservesObscureDespotismBarbarism
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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“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”

LibertyCapitalismHistoricalConservativeDebtLibertarianCorporationsPerpetualRulersLoadFoundersFoundingFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentServitudeUs Founding FathersForefathersAmerican GovernmentLimiting GovernmentNational DebtFounding AmericaEconomic FreedomMonetary SystemDeficit SpendingDebt By Founding FathersVoting Founding FathersGovernment DebtGovernment Welfare
Book:Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way
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