Quotes from Thomas Jefferson
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...
- Thomas Jefferson
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
- Thomas Jefferson
If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.
- Thomas Jefferson
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.
- Thomas Jefferson
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
- Thomas Jefferson
Every human being must be viewed according to what it is good for. For not one of us, no, not one, is perfect. And were we to love none who had imperfection, this world would be a desert for our love.
- Thomas Jefferson
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
- Thomas Jefferson
When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
- Thomas Jefferson
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
- Thomas Jefferson
The dead should not rule the living.
- Thomas Jefferson
The government you elect is the government you deserve.
- Thomas Jefferson
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
- Thomas Jefferson