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Thomas Jefferson Quotes - Page 37

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A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.

A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.

Thomas Jefferson
Kings, Independent, Government
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.346

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Book, Fate
Thomas Jefferson (2012). “Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird, or as a being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs.

Thomas Jefferson
Children, Learning, Eggs
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.138, Rowman & Littlefield

We love and we value peace; we know its blessings from experience. We abhor the follies of war, and are not untried in its distresses and calamities.

Thomas Jefferson
Peace, War, Blessing
Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.115, Algora Publishing

The monopoly of a single bank is certainly an evil. The multiplication of them was intended to cure it; but it multiplied an influence of the same character with the first, and completed the supplanting the precious metals by a paper circulation. Between such parties the less we meddle the better.

Thomas Jefferson
Party, Character, Evil
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.440

The moral sense is the first excellence of well-organized man.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Excellence, Firsts
Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State”, p.275

Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.

Thomas Jefferson
Self, Morality, Interest
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.349

It is wonderful to me that old men should not be sensible that their minds keep pace with their bodies in the progress of decay.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Mind, Progress
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong.

Thomas Jefferson
Two, Agree Upon, Positive Atheism
Letter to John Adams, January 11, 1817.

When you are doubting whether a thing is worth the trouble of going to see, recollect that you will never again be so near it. You may repent not having seen it, but you can never repent having seen it.

Thomas Jefferson
Doubt, May, Trouble
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.99, Rowman & Littlefield

Those who wish to be ignorant and free, believe in something that never was and never shall be.

Thomas Jefferson
Believe, Ignorant, Wish

The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Law, Civil Rights
Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.257

I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not know that it is. I have been the instrument of doing the following things; but they would have been done by others; some of them, perhaps, a little better.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Done, Littles
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”, p.142

We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.

Thomas Jefferson
Self, Justice, Ears
On slavery in the United States, 1820, in J. C. Miller 'The Wolf by the Ears' (1977)

The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor I.

Thomas Jefferson
Office, Innovation, Prepared
Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.27, Cambridge University Press

I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations.

Thomas Jefferson
Crush, Political, Aristocracy
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.44, Cosimo, Inc.

A lottery is a salutary instrument and a tax... laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility of a higher prize.

Thomas Jefferson
Gambling, Risk, Tickets
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.440

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Grace, Liberty
Letter to Roger C.Weightman, 24 June 1826.

The people cannot be all, and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.

Thomas Jefferson
Patriotic, Tyrants, People
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.268

[T]he dignity of parliament it seems can brook no opposition to it's power. Strange that a set of men who have made sale of theirvirtue to the minister should yet talk of retaining dignity!

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Strange, Dignity
Thomas Jefferson, Lyman Henry Butterfield, Charles T. Cullen (1950). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1760-1776”

Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.

Thomas Jefferson
Majority Rule, Tyranny Of The Majority, Minorities
First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

Long accustomed to the use of European manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] are as incapable of returning to their habits of skinsand furs as we are, and find their wants the less tolerable as they are occasioned by a war [the American Revolution] the event of which is scarcely interesting to them.

Thomas Jefferson
War, Long, Interesting

It has been thought that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law. But I do not know this to be true, and, if doubtful, we should follow principle.

Thomas Jefferson
Law, People, Judging
Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.241, Hackett Publishing

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Thomas Jefferson
Trust, Kings, Angel
Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

He wove those three threads into a talk ranging from annually spending a week at Halloween as a child collecting candy to giving candy to hundreds of children at Halloween as an adult; from childhood assistance he received from adults, particularly after his parents divorced, to saying I challenge you to be a caring adult in someone's life ... Great times call forth great leaders.

Thomas Jefferson
Children, Halloween, Caring