Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

Shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe?

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is Just

We seem not to perceive that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independent nation is to another.

I felt enough of the effect of withdrawing from the world then, to see that it led to an antisocial and misanthropic state of mind, which severely punished him who gives in to it. And it will be a lesson I never shall forget as to myself.

No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I as chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example. Good morning Sir. [Replying on his way to church one Sunday to a friend, who said to him "You going to church Mr. J. You do not believe a word in it."]

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family

When angry, count to 10 before you speak. If very angry, a hundred.

If you find yourself at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

I go to my fathers, I welcome the shore Which crowns all my hopes or which buries my cares. Then farewell, my dear, my lov'd daughter, adieu! The last pang of life is in parting from you! Two seraphs awaits me long shrouded in death; I will bear them your love on my last parting breath.

Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance.

Wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government

Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature.