T

Thomas Jefferson

100 quotes

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was an American Founding Father who served as the third President of the United States. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, a champion of democracy, religious freedom, and individual rights. Jefferson was also an architect, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia.

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Men

All Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

“Power is not alluring to pure minds.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Power

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Good

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Government

“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

Fitness

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Men

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

— Thomas Jefferson

God

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Wisdom

“Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Beauty

“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”

— Thomas Jefferson

God

“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Hope

“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which 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. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Good

“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Fear

“The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Inspirational

“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Imagination

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Best

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

— Thomas Jefferson

Government

“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

Attitude

“Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Peace

“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

Government

“Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Society