Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

The government you elect is the government you deserve.

Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!

A true patriot will defend his country from its government.

No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.

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

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.

The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government.

The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

The greatest calamity which could befall us would be submission to a government of unlimited powers.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

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

The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves.

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.

The federal government is our servant, not our master.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.

The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.

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