Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

One precedent in favor of power is stronger than a hundred against it.

Democrats 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.

I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our powers boundless.

No other depositories of power [but the people themselves] have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their charge.

Unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited praise has not the power to heal.

To take a single step beyond the text would be to take possession of a boundless field of power.

Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power.

All the States but our own are sensible that knowlege is power.

Many of the opposition [to the new Federal Constitution] wish to take from Congress the power of internal taxation. Calculation has convinced me that this would be very mischievous.

The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes, and they believe rightly.

A superintending power to maintain the Universe in its course and order.

The States should be urged to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive power of establishing banks of discount for paper.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.

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

The best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of the first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

One man with courage is a majority.

Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.

I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs.