Engage with the wisdom, strength, and vision of one of America’s great founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. A remarkable intellect and a wise leader, Jefferson’s words still echo across centuries, illuminating many paths. From lessons in liberty to insights into innovation, these Thomas Jefferson quotes are sure to provide plenty of food for thought.
Best Thomas Jefferson Quotes
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson
I cannot live without books. Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. Thomas Jefferson
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. Thomas Jefferson
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Thomas Jefferson
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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. Thomas Jefferson
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Thomas Jefferson
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. Thomas Jefferson
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. Thomas Jefferson
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. Thomas Jefferson
On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add within the limits of the law because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. Thomas Jefferson
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. Thomas Jefferson
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. Thomas Jefferson
I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. Thomas Jefferson
One man with courage is a majority. Thomas Jefferson
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. Thomas Jefferson
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another. Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. Thomas Jefferson
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. Thomas Jefferson
Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry. Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. Thomas Jefferson
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Thomas Jefferson
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. Thomas Jefferson
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. Thomas Jefferson
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. What country before ever existed a century and 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. Thomas Jefferson
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. Thomas Jefferson
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. Thomas Jefferson
He who knows best knows how little he knows. Thomas Jefferson
I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give. 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. Thomas Jefferson
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. Thomas Jefferson
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government. Thomas Jefferson
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. Thomas Jefferson
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. Thomas Jefferson
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. Thomas Jefferson
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves. Thomas Jefferson
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. Thomas Jefferson
And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers. Thomas Jefferson
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms. Thomas Jefferson
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. Thomas Jefferson
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. Thomas Jefferson
Some are whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are tories, serviles, aristocrats, c. The latter fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent. Thomas Jefferson
We never repent of having eaten too little. Thomas Jefferson
When we see religion split into so many thousand of sects, and I may say Christianity itself divided into its thousands also, who are disputing, anathematizing and where the laws permit burning and torturing one another for abstractions which no one of them understand, and which are indeed beyond the comprehension of the human mind, into which of the chambers of this Bedlam would a man wish to thrust himself. Thomas Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people. Thomas Jefferson
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Thomas Jefferson
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. Thomas Jefferson
All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world. Thomas Jefferson
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. Thomas Jefferson
If you want something you’ve never had You must be willing to do something you’ve never done. Thomas Jefferson
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred. Thomas Jefferson
The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Thomas Jefferson
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty. Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. Thomas Jefferson
It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan. Thomas Jefferson
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. Thomas Jefferson
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it. Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind folded fear. Thomas Jefferson
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. Thomas Jefferson
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led. Thomas Jefferson
Never spend your money before you have earned it. Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Thomas Jefferson
Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry. Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson
How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. Thomas Jefferson
How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Thomas Jefferson
I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it’s laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another. Thomas Jefferson
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson
Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time. Thomas Jefferson
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and 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. Thomas Jefferson
Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do. Thomas Jefferson
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government. Thomas Jefferson
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. Thomas Jefferson
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. Thomas Jefferson
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. Thomas Jefferson
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Thomas Jefferson
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none. Thomas Jefferson
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Thomas Jefferson
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it. Thomas Jefferson
If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions. Thomas Jefferson
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine. Thomas Jefferson
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. Thomas Jefferson
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness. Thomas Jefferson
Be polite to all, but intimate with few. Thomas Jefferson
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it. Thomas Jefferson
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. Thomas Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor over each other. Thomas Jefferson
Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor. Thomas Jefferson
Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. Thomas Jefferson