thomas-jefferson Quotes About nations

“The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous confines of reason and religion; and a step to the right or left might place him within the grasp of the priests of the superstition, a bloodthirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.”

“Those who have once got an ascendancy, and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantage.”

Mean Nations Office Resources Advantage Possessed Immense Revenue Retaining Ascendancy

Book:Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph

Source: Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph

“I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.”

Self Government Nations Safe Authority Self-government

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

Source: Life of Thomas Jefferson: with selections from the most valuable portions of his voluminious and unrivalled private correspondence : with portrait

“From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse-jockey, a fox-hunter, an orator, or the honest advocate of my country's rights?”

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private

“The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation is ever dangerous.”

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State

“To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government as a barrier against foreign foes... is [one of the] functions of the General Government on which [our citizens] have a right to call.”

Whole Government Nations Citizens Draws Function Barriers Foe

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“I am ever unwilling that [peace] should be disturbed as long as the rights and interests of the nations can be preserved. But whensoever hostile aggressions on these require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.”

World Should Long War Nations Interest Enemy Rights Duty Brave Convince Aggression Hostile Resorts Disturbed Unwilling Just Friends

Book:Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence

Source: Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence

“Never was so much false arithmetic employed on any subject, as that which has been employed to persuade nations that it is in their interest to go to war.”

Has Beens War Nations Interest Subjects Employed Arithmetic

Book:The portable Thomas Jefferson

Source: The portable Thomas Jefferson

“I am convinced that those societies (such as the Native American peoples) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate.”

Two Government Law Nations Enjoy Moral Opinion Class Greater Degrees Mass Convinced Former Native Latter Divided Sheep Native American Public Opinion Governing Pretence

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful Land, traversing all the seas with the rich production of their Industry.”

Nations Rich Sea Land Industry Productions Spread Wide Rising

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.”

Courses Nations Silent

Book:Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution

Source: Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution

“The value of science to a republican people, the security it gives to liberty by enlightening the minds of its citizens, the protection it affords against foreign power, the virtue it inculcates, the just emulation of the distinction it confers on nations foremost in it; in short, its identification with power, morals, order and happiness (which merits to it premiums of encouragement rather than repressive taxes), are considerations [that should] always [be] present and [bear] with their just weight.”

Source: Public and private papers

“Our [Virginia's] act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The Ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe resident at this court have asked me copies of it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in the press; among others, in the new Encyclopédie. I think it will produce considerable good even in those countries where ignorance, superstition, poverty and oppression of body and mind in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped.”

Source: Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson

“Yet by such worthless beings is a great nation to be governed and even made to deify their old king because he is only a fool and a maniac, and to forgive and forget his having lost to them a great and flourishing empire.”

Made Lost Nations Forget Fool Kings Forgiving Empires Worthless Flourishing Great Nations Maniacs Forgive And Forget

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

Source: 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

“We abhor the follies of war, and are not untried in its distresses and calamities. Unmeddling with the affairs of other nations, we had hoped that our distance and our dispositions would have left us free, in the example and indulgence of peace with all the world.”

World War Left Nations Example Distance Affair Folly Distress Disposition Calamity Indulgence

Book:Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence

Source: Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence

“The whole body of the nation is the sovereign legislative, judiciary, and executive power for itself. The inconvenience of meeting to exercise these powers in person, and their inaptitude to exercise them, induce them to appoint special organs to declare their legislative will, to judge and to execute it. It is the will of the nation which makes the law obligatory.”

Persons Whole Body Law Nations Special Judging Exercise Meetings Executives Organs Sovereign Inconvenience Judiciary Executive Power

Book:The portable Thomas Jefferson

Source: The portable Thomas Jefferson

“The religion of Jesus is founded in the Unity of God, and this principle chiefly gave it triumph over the rabble of heathen gods then acknowledged. Thinking men of all nations rallied readily to the doctrine of one only God, and embraced it with the pure-morals which Jesus inculcated.”

Thinking Men Jesus Nations Moral Principles Pure Unity Doctrine Triumph Heathen Thinking Man

Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State

“We see the wisdom of Solon's remark, that no more good must be attempted than the nation can bear.”

Nations Bears Remarks

Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence

“It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.”

Done Nations Benefits Presses Melancholy Abandoned Falsehood Prostitution Suppression

Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin

“The following [addition to the Bill of Rights] would have pleased me: The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or otherwise to publish anything but false facts affecting injuriously the life, liberty or reputation of others, or affecting the peace of the [United States] with foreign nations.”

People Writing States Facts Speak Nations United Liberty United States Rights Bills Following Reputation Publish Deprived Bill Of Rights

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“I will now add what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the law of nations.”

Source: The portable Thomas Jefferson

“My general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything purely domestic.”

States Would Be Nations Plans Connected

Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence

“It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.”

Government Nations Republican Independent Supreme Branches Supreme Power Branches Of Government

Book:Democracy

Source: Democracy

“A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry”

Nations Defense Educated Citizenry

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe.... They are nations of eternal war.”

War States Nations United United States Eternal Europe Fundamentals Active Libertarian Quarrels Balance Of Power

Book:Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

Source: Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States

“The interests of the States... ought to be made joint in every possible instance in order to cultivate the idea of our being one nation, and to multiply the instances in which the people shall look up to Congress as their head.”

People Looks Made Ideas States Order Nations Interest Ought Congress Instance Look Up Joints

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

Source: 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

“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.”

People Ifs Should Wells Government Courses Force Nations Honest Pure Capable Ultimate Corruption Governors Preventing Restoring Ultimate Power Power Corruption

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

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

Important Nations Gun Standing Army All Time Gun Control Rehabilitation Gun Rights Military Discipline

Book:Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence

Source: Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence

“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”

Should War Nations Liberty Anti War Antiwar Commerce Motto Alliances Peace War Great War Forefathers Contamination

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

Source: Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson

“Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.”

Nations Church Principles Society Morality Ethics Corruption Civilized Pregnancy Commerce Civilized Nations

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.”

“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”

Men Politics Nations Argument Towns Meetings Association Quarrels

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

Source: Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson

“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.”

May Country Nations Generations Succeed Majority

Book:Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph

Source: Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph

“I considered the British as our natural enemies, and as the only nation on earth who wished us ill from the bottom of their souls. And I am satisfied that were our continent to be swallowed up by the ocean, Great Britain would be in a bonfire from one end to the other.”

Soul Ends Would Be Earth Nations Natural Enemy Ocean Bottom Ill British Satisfied Britain Continents Great Britain Bonfire Natural Enemies

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

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private

“Money, not morality, constitutes the principle of commercial nations.”

Nations Principles Morality

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object is the same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth and the resources of other nations.”

Believe Fighting Nations Wealth Liberty Sea Mankind Objects Draws Resources Britain Great Britain Bonaparte

Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816

Source: The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

Nations Liberty Conviction Secure Founders Trembling Gift From God Our Founding Fathers Us History Founding Fathers Christian Us Founding Fathers Founding America Justice Of God

Book:Thomas Jefferson: His Words and Vision

Source: Thomas Jefferson: His Words and Vision

“The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.”