Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Thomas Jefferson US President

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Apr 13, 1743
  • Died: Jul 4, 1826

Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States. He was a spokesman for democracy, and embraced the principles of republicanism and the rights of the individual with worldwide influence. At the beginning of the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia, and then served as a wartime Governor of Virginia. In May 1785, he became the United States Minister to France and later the first United States Secretary of State serving under President George Washington. In opposition to Alexander Hamilton's Federalism, Jefferson and his close friend, James Madison, organized the Democratic-Republican Party, and later resigned from Washington's cabinet. Elected Vice President in 1796 in the administration of John Adams, Jefferson opposed Adams, and with Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts.

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.

If God is just, I tremble for my country.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

One man with courage is a majority.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

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

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

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

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

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

I have no ambition to govern men it is a painful and thankless office.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy the first is but a splendid misery.

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

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

Never spend your money before you have earned it.

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

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

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

It is neither wealth nor splendor but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

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

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.

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

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

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

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

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.

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