169 Quotes By Thomas Jefferson


In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
Thomas Jefferson on age

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas Jefferson on alone

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson on alone

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
Thomas Jefferson on alone

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
Thomas Jefferson on anger

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 on attitude

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.
Thomas Jefferson on beauty

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson on best

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas Jefferson on best

He who knows best knows how little he knows.
Thomas Jefferson on best

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
Thomas Jefferson on best

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
Thomas Jefferson on change

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas Jefferson on cool

One man with courage is a majority.
Thomas Jefferson on courage

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Thomas Jefferson on dreams

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
Thomas Jefferson on education

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson on experience

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Thomas Jefferson on experience

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Thomas Jefferson on fear

Question with boldness even the existence of a God because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
Thomas Jefferson on fear