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Thomas Jefferson Quotes - Page 13

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I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Anchors, Law
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.71

No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.

Thomas Jefferson
Wine, Drunk, Politics

A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life.

Thomas Jefferson
Paris, Lessons, Eiffel Tower

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Ignorance, Law
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph”

The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government

Thomas Jefferson
Government, America, Principles
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Caldwell Calhoun (1832). “The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and '99: With Jefferson's Original Draught Thereof. Also, Madison's Report, Calhoun's Address, Resolutions of the Several States in Relation to State Rights. With Other Documents in Support of the Jeffersonian Doctrines of '98”, p.15

The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent ... It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.

Thomas Jefferson
Eye, Government, Liberty

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

Thomas Jefferson
President, Newspapers, Freedom Of The Press
Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.400, Penguin

The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These covering our land with officers, and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of produce and property.

Thomas Jefferson
Doors, Land, Office
Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Government, Reform
B. L. Rayner, Thomas Jefferson (1834). “Life of Thomas Jefferson: with selections from the most valuable portions of his voluminious and unrivalled private correspondence : with portrait”, p.349

Never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many on their getting warm, becoming rude and shooting one another.

Thomas Jefferson
Military, War, Men
Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.279, Cambridge University Press

Nothing is more incumbent on the old than to know when they should get out of the way and relinquish to younger successors the honors they can no longer earn, and the duties they can no longer perform.

Thomas Jefferson
Honor, Way, Should
Thomas Jefferson, J. Jefferson Looney (2004). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815”, p.247, Princeton University Press

Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of wisdom. Let it be our endeavor to merit the character of a just nation.

Thomas Jefferson
Honesty, Book, Character

I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing.

Thomas Jefferson
Blessing, Simple, Government
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: 1799-1803”, p.18, Cosimo, Inc.

The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one.

Thomas Jefferson
Night, Government, Crow
Letter to Charles Hammond, August 18, 1821.

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, 4th Of July, Law
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.591

I prefer to be remembered for what I have done for others, not what others have done for me.

Thomas Jefferson
Done, Preference, Remembered

Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.

Thomas Jefferson
Religious, Children, Hypocrite
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.80, Cosimo, Inc.

Good wine is a necessity of life for me.

Thomas Jefferson
Food, Wine, Cooking
"The Man from Monticello: An Intimate Life of Thomas Jefferson". Book by Thomas J. Fleming, p. 250, 1969.

A little rebellion is a good thing.

Thomas Jefferson
Change, Littles, Rebellion

Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

Thomas Jefferson
Fidgeting, Done, Kindergarten

New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature.

Thomas Jefferson
New York, Toilets, London

Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

Thomas Jefferson
Funny, Yield, Law Students
"Thomas Jefferson, His Words and Vision".

The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Media, Mind
Thomas Jefferson, H. A. Washington (2011). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private”, p.324, Cambridge University Press

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
Law, Tyrants, People
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.82, Rowman & Littlefield

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, People, Fields
Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.556