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Thomas Jefferson Quotes - Page 44

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The foundation on which (our government is) built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a pre-eminence by birth.

The foundation on which (our government is) built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a pre-eminence by birth.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Office, Foundation

When two parties make a compact, there results to each a power of compelling the other to execute it.

Thomas Jefferson
Party, Two, Results
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.203

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community. The objects of their desires are changed; what they were fond of before has become indifferent; they were free while under the restraint of laws, but they would fain now be free to act against law.

Thomas Jefferson
Ambition, Law, Community

I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared

Thomas Jefferson
Philosophy, Political, Important

The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters.

Thomas Jefferson
Friendship, Heart, Character
Thomas Jefferson (2006). “The Quotable Jefferson”

He who is permitted by law to have no property of his own, can with difficulty conceive that property is founded in anything but force.

Thomas Jefferson
Law, Force, Difficulty
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.447, Cosimo, Inc.

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. I knew that age well; I belonged to and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in Government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Book, Reading
1816 Letter to Samuel Kercheval, 12 Jul.

I have nothing but contempt for anyone who can spell a word in only one way.

Thomas Jefferson
Way, Contempt, Spells

We need a revolution every 20 years just to keep government honest.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, Years, Needs

The Constitution on which our Union rests, shall be administered by me [as President] according to the safe and honest meaning contemplated by the plain understanding of the people of the United States at the time of its adoption - a meaning to be found in the explanations of those who advocated, not those who opposed it, and who opposed it merely lest the construction should be applied which they denounced as possible.

Thomas Jefferson
People, Adoption, Understanding

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical...A wise and frugal government...shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned...Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated...Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands?

Thomas Jefferson
Wise, Men, Hands
A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, Chapter 82, 1779.

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, Cures, Monarchy
Thomas Jefferson (1853). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.314

That the enthusiasm which characterizes youth should lift its parricide hands against freedom and science would be such a monstrous phenomenon as I cannot place among possible things in this age and country.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Freedom, Science
Letter to William Green Mumford, June 18, 1799.

The best (remedy) I can devise would be to give future commissions to (federal) judges for six years with a re-appointability by the President with the approbation of both houses. If this would not be independence enough, I know not what would be.

Thomas Jefferson
Years, Giving, Judging

Morals were too essential to the happiness of man, to be risked on the uncertain combinations of the head. Nature laid their foundation, therefore, in sentiment, not in science.

Thomas Jefferson
Men, Foundation, Essentials
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.53

But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its strength, by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that, it is a noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Liberty, Noble
Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.273, Cambridge University Press

Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money lenders, and are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.

Thomas Jefferson
Self, Mercy, States
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.205

I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old.

Thomas Jefferson
Israel, Hands, Needs
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.45

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.

Thomas Jefferson
Boisterous, Delight, Pursuit
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.219, Rowman & Littlefield

Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on these alone a stable prosperity can be founded, that the evils of war are great in their endurance, and have a long reckoning for ages to come, I have used my best endeavors to keep our country uncommitted in the troubles which afflict Europe, and which assail us on every side.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Peace, War
Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.232, Algora Publishing

The tumults in America I expected would have produced in Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has not. On the contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to have given more confidence in the firmness of our governments. The interposition of the people themselves on the side of government has had a great effect on the opinion here in Europe.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Government, Europe
Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.153, Cambridge University Press

That government that governs least governs best.

Thomas Jefferson
Government

The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities, of citizens of the United States; and, in the mean time, they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess.

Thomas Jefferson
Mean, Rights, Liberty
Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Bishop, United States. President (1801-1809 : Jefferson) (1971). “Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826: chronology-documents-bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

It is a cruel thought, that, when we feel ourselves standing on the firmest ground in every respect, the cursed arts of our secret enemies, combining with other causes, should effect, by depreciating our money, what the open arms of a powerful enemy could not.

Thomas Jefferson
Art, Powerful, Enemy
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1771 - 1779, the Summary View, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.378, Cosimo, Inc.

[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.

Thomas Jefferson
Government, People, Soil