Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

A great deal of love given to a few is better than a little to many.

Never spend your money before you have earned it.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

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.

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean . I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. [ Letter to William Short, 31 October 1819 ]

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.

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings . To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings , or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke , Tracy , and Stewart . { Letter to John Adams , from Monticello, 15 August 1820 }

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.

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly.

I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more. ( Letter to John Banister, Jr., June 19, 1787)

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.

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.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

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

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

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

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!