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Thomas Jefferson Quotes - Page 31

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A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of

A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Freedom, Mean

I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

Thomas Jefferson
Change, Religious, Religion
Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.143, Algora Publishing

Our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to that all personal and local considerations.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Sacrifice, Safety
Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of 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
Law, Guilt, President
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1853). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.399

Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.

Thomas Jefferson
War, Justice, Humanity
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.21, Rowman & Littlefield

Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

Thomas Jefferson
Peculiar, Paper, Notable
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Age, Ark
1816 Letter to Samuel Kercheval, 12 Jul.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, Done, Intention
Thomas Jefferson (1855). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.135

I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.

Thomas Jefferson
Book, Use, Fewer
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.263

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

Thomas Jefferson
Humility, Exercise, Power
Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.416, Penguin

It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, America, Giving
Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson memorial association of the United States (1907). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson”

letters are not the first, but the last step in the progression from barbarism to civilisation.

Thomas Jefferson
Educational, Letters, Lasts
Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.303

I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man.

Thomas Jefferson
Educational, Men, Light
Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretarry of state”, p.263

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Independent, Garden
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.62, Rowman & Littlefield

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.

Thomas Jefferson
Ocean, Passion, Commitment
Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.32, Cambridge University Press

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.

Thomas Jefferson
Promise, President, Liberty
Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.517

If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

Thomas Jefferson
Religious, Atheist, Religion
Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.428, Penguin

Government as well as religion has furnished its schisms, its persecutions and its devices for fattening idleness on the earnings of the people.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, People, Politics
Thomas Jefferson, J. Jefferson Looney (2004). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815”, p.212, Princeton University Press

Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen, people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

Thomas Jefferson
People, Peculiar, Earth
Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.182, Penguin

When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.

Thomas Jefferson
Often Is, Views, Public Opinion
Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, Principles, Spirit
Thomas Jefferson, Barbara B. Oberg (1950). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 29: 1 March 1796 to 31 December 1797”, p.271, Princeton University Press

My construction of the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal.

Thomas Jefferson
Independent, Different, Action
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.325

God has formed us moral agents... that we may promote the happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall within our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value our own.

Thomas Jefferson
Fall, Rights, Acting
Thomas Jefferson (1884). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Published by Order of Congress from the Original Manuscripts Deposited in the Department of State”

If NATURE has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea... No one possesses the less, because every other possess the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

Thomas Jefferson
Creativity, Thinking, Light
Letter to Isaac McPherson, 13 Aug. 1813

History by apprising them [the people] of the past will enable them to judge of the future. . . . It will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men: it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.

Thomas Jefferson
Life, Ambition, Past
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.64, Cosimo, Inc.