Nations' History of Quotes | Thomas Jefferson
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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.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
Cherish... the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them.
The danger is that the indulgence and attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair after he becomes a dotard, that reelection through life shall become habitual and election for life follow that.
The declaration of rights is, like all other human blessings, alloyed with some inconveniences and not accomplishing fully its object. But the good in this instance vastly outweighs the evil.
The duty of an upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of both parties.
An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental.
Every generation needs a new revolution.
Every nation has a right to govern itself internally under what forms it pleases, and to change these forms at its own will.
For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Thomas Jefferson inDeclaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.
I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.
I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.
I, ... having no motive to public service but the public satisfaction, would certainly retire the moment that satisfaction should appear to languish.
I like to see the people awake and alert. The good sense of the people will soon lead them back if they have erred in a moment of surprise.
I love to see honest and honorable men at the helm, men who will not bend their politics to their purses nor pursue measures by which they may profit and then profit by their measures.
[An occasional insurrection] will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies.
It is but common decency to leave to my successor the moulding of his own business.
It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. -- Thomas Jefferson to James Lewis, Jr., 1798
[It is] the people, to whom all authority belongs.
If we keep together we shall be safe, and when error is so apparent as to become visible to the majority, they will correct it.
My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Nothing is more incumbent on the old than to know when they should get out of the way and relinquish to younger successors the honors they can no longer earn, and the duties they can no longer perform.
Our fellow citizens have been led hoodwinked from their principles by a most extraordinary combination of circumstances. But the band is removed, and they now see for themselves.
The patronage of public office should no longer be confided to one who uses it for active opposition to the national will.
The people... are not qualified to exercise themselves the Executive department; but they are qualified to name the person who shall exercise it. With us, therefore, they choose this officer every four years.
Reflection,... with information, is all which our countrymen need, to bring themselves and their affairs to rights.
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.
Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.
There are extraordinary situations which require extraordinary interposition. An exasperated people who feel that they possess power are not easily restrained within limits strictly regular.
To insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of government.
The tree of liberty, from time to time, must be replenished with the blood of patriots.
Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety.
Whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense of the people will interpose and set them to rights.
The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes has been devoted to the attainment of trial by jury. It should be the creed of our political faith. -- Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address 1801
With those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only truth to set it to rights, I cannot be as passive.