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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

3rd U.S. President

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Famous Thomas Jefferson Quotes

“Perhaps it will be found that to obtain a just republic (and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach its greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may be found in its councils free from particular interests, and giving, therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice.”

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Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798
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“The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities, of citizens of the United States; and, in the mean time, they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess.”

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Book:Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826: chronology-documents-bibliographical aids
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“In the constitution of Spain as proposed by the late Cortes, there was a principle entirely new to me:... that no person born after that day should ever acquire the rights of citizenship until he could read and write. It is impossible sufficiently to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of all those which have been thought of for securing fidelity in the administration of the government, constant reliance to the principles of the constitution, and progressive amendments with the progressive advances of the human mind or changes in human affairs, it is the most effectual.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“We are now trusting to those who are against us in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds and affections of our youth... This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and if not arrested at once, will be beyond remedy.”

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Book:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
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“My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave consequences to him who has the disposal of them.”

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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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“Having labored faithfully in establishing the right of self-government, we see in the rising generation, into whose hands it is passing, that purity of principle and energy of character which will protect and preserve it through their day, and deliver it over to their sons as they receive it from their fathers.”

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Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson
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“If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”

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

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Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State
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“Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect. My fundamental principle would be ... that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power, and not by our faith which is not within our power.”

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Book:The religious and moral wisdom of Thomas Jefferson: an anthology
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“I am persuaded myself that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors; and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution.”

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Book:Jefferson: Political Writings
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“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”

IfsWorldWarWisdomPoliticalPoliticsPayHalfPrinciplesGenerationsDebtWar Of The WorldsOne HalfIncumbentsMind Your Own BusinessNational DebtGeneration GapDebt By Founding FathersGovernment DebtIncumbency
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826
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“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

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Book:The Jefferson Bible [annotated]: Original Old English Version and Modern Updates to The Jefferson Bible
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“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.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

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Book:Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson
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“not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.”

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Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretary of state
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“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt...If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”

PeopleIfsLittlesLongWarHomeGovernmentRunningSpiritSufferingTurnsOpportunityGamesWinningLostPeacePrinciplesHorrorSightLuckDebtEnormousOppressionWitchSpellsStakesReignRecoveringHaving PatienceIncurring
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.”

PersonsAgeFormFreedomStepsPrinciplesGoneRevolutionPressesProtectionTrialsFreedom Of SpeechJuryReformationSelectedConstellationsFreedom Of The PressFreedom Of ReligionFounding Fathers DemocracyCorpusTrial By JuryHabeas Corpus
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.”

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Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826
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“[Emigrants] will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty.”

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Book:The portable Thomas Jefferson
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“We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”

WellsReasonGovernmentLawReligionOrderReligiousInterestingResultsChristianityPrinciplesSeriousComfortQuietFairsLeavingConvictionPositive AtheismExperimentsObedienceInquiryChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateReligious FreedomCompatibleFounding Fathers ChristianFounding Fathers ReligionSeparation Between Church And StateFreedom Of ReligionFounding Fathers Anti ReligionReligion ChristianChristian FatherReligion And GovernmentChristian RightChristian FreedomHate ReligionChristianity And GovernmentLaws And Government
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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“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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“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.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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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.”

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Book:Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers
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“Chemistry is yet, indeed, a mere embryon. Its principles are contested; experiments seem contradictory; their subjects are so minute as to escape our senses; and their result too fallacious to satisfy the mind. It is probably an age too soon to propose the establishment of a system.”

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Book:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
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“It is (our) duty . . . to pay especial attention to the principles of government which shall be inculcated therein (at the University), and to provide that none shall be inculcated which are incompatible with those on which the Constitutions of this State, and of the United States were genuinely based, in the common opinion; and for this purpose it may be necessary to point out specially where these principles are to be found legitimately developed.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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