Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.

Good wine is a necessity of life for me.

We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his (sic)patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.

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.

On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.