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Thomas Jefferson Quotes about Freedom

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My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph”, p.239

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Freedom, Gun
Letter toWilliam Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Judging, Political
Thomas Jefferson “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, Lulu.com

When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Rights, Hands
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.137, Cambridge University Press

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, War, Gun
Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Paine and Jefferson on Liberty”, p.89, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Order, Practice
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.246

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Media, Liberty
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.71, Rowman & Littlefield

The man who would choose security over freedom deserves neither.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Men, He Man

When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Truth, Knowledge
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.216

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

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, War, Patriotic
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.

The constitutional freedom of religion is the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Rights, Political
Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.593, Library of America

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Thomas Jefferson
Education, Freedom, War
Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, 6 January 1816

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

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, 4th Of July, Men
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.238, Cosimo, Inc.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Government, Political
Letter to Archibald Stewart, 23 Dec. 1791

What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Thomas Jefferson
Country, Freedom, Gun
Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

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

Thomas Jefferson
Religious, Truth, Freedom
Notes on the State of Virginia, query 17 (1781 - 1785)

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, 4th Of July, Thinking
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.379

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Thomas Jefferson
Motivational, Truth, Freedom
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.37

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

Thomas Jefferson
Trust, Freedom, Educational
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.106, Rowman & Littlefield

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Men, Liberty
Letter to Benjamin Rush, 21 Apr. 1803

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. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

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

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Believe, Taken

In every country where man is free to think and to speak, difference of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences, when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently, and leaving our horizon more bright and serene.

Thomas Jefferson
Happiness, Country, Freedom
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.378

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, Patriotic, Equality
First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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