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.

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.

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.

Information is the currency of democracy.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But 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 right of an individual." --;

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms...

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms. . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Free government is founded in jealousy, not confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind those we are obliged to trust with power.... In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be.

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.

[Oppose] with manly firmness [any] invasions on the rights of the people.

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.

This page will NOT be up forever. Please feel free to make yourself some backup copies of it. "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on Earth... and what no just government should refuse.

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.

I have a right to nothing which another has a right to take away.

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association --the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.

[If government have] a right of demanding ad libitum and of taxing us themselves to the full amount of their demand if we do not comply with it, [this would leave] us without anything we can call property.

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

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 laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all.

I own I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million human beings collected together are not under the same moral laws which bind them separately.

[Montesquieu wrote in Spirit of the Laws, VIII,c.12:] 'When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.'

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.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion; 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.

In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

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

In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, we shall become as corrupt as in Europe, and go to eating one another as they do there.

Most bad government comes from too much government

Fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it.

Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

Zaiste, drżę o swój kraj, gdy pomyślę, że bóg jest sprawiedliwy.

May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook.

Nigdy nie kupuj tego, czego nie chcesz, bo to jest tanie, będzie ci drogie.

Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

A difference of opinion is not a difference of principle

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants

A little rebellion now and then is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government

No man will carry out of the presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants

The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it...To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.

The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers wthout government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers, and be capable of reading them.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Information is the currency of democracy.

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.

This institution will be based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. - on the University of Virginia

We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - from the first draft of the US Declaration of Independence

When a man has cast his longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.

The clergy believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyrrany known to the mind of man.

Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for 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 blind faith.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed.

I sincerly believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.

Będziemy żołnierzami, by nasi synowie mogli być rolnikami, a ich synowie artystami.

We will be soldiers, so our sons may be farmers, so their sons may be artists.

Jeśli chcesz czegoś, czego nigdy nie miałeś, musisz być gotów zrobić coś, czego nigdy nie zrobiłeś.

If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done.

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Whenever you do something, act as if all the world were watching.

A private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army... We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

Every generation needs a revolution.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground.