Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Thomas Jefferson

Quote by Thomas Jefferson

Author

Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, a distinguished politician, philosopher, architect, and scientist. He was born on April 13, 1743, and died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson advocated for democracy and freedom in politics and was one of the main authors of the Declaration of Independence. His political ideas had a profound impact on the founding and development of the United States. more

You May Also Like

“If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”

IfsFirstsHumansGovernmentCareFieldsObjectsCitizensDestructionFellowsHumbleEsteemHuman LifeStationsRetirementFlagsSteelTrophiesEnviedLife And Happiness
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing.”

GovernmentSimplePrinciplesBlessingDebtSavingDevicesOfficersRevenueSalarySavingsPartisansDischargeNational DebtFrugalMultiplication
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: 1799-1803
Create image

“I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not know that it is. I have been the instrument of doing the following things; but they would have been done by others; some of them, perhaps, a little better.”

KnowsLittlesHas BeensCountrySometimesDoneInstrumentsFollowing
Book:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
Create image

“The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest models for imitation; I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as pre-eminent specimens of logic, taste, and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.”

ShouldFirstsArtMomentsLeftLinesModernTasteSpeechModelsLogicImportanceVicesReasoningImitationSparesFinestAntiquityBrevityOratoryInattentionAmplification
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may indeed injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which is the first and supreme law.”

ShouldFirstsMayLawHonestJudgingFameSafetyFortuneSupremeCommitRepublicBenchesDissolutionManiacs
Book:Memoirs Corespondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson Late, President of the United States: Now First Published the Original Manuscripts
Create image