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Thomas Jefferson Quotes about Wisdom

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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson
Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day
Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Men, Ideas

A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Government, Medicine
Letter to James Madison, 30 Jan. 1787

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

Thomas Jefferson
Inspirational, Positive, Wisdom
Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.112

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Thomas Jefferson
Education, Wisdom, People
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Thomas Jefferson
Life, Wisdom, Fun

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Law, Tyrants
Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.224, Cambridge University Press

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

Thomas Jefferson
Wise, Wisdom, Men
Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.65, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association-the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Father, Exercise
Thomas Jefferson (1900). “The Life and Writings of ...”

The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; and he who knows most knows best how little he knows.

Thomas Jefferson
Wise, Wisdom, Weakness
Thomas Jefferson (1941). “The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson: Including the Jefferson Bible, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,"”

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Government, History
Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State”, p.82

At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about "a public debt being a public blessing"; that the stock representing it was a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in dreams.

Thomas Jefferson
Dream, Wisdom, Blessing
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.239

preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Educational, Ignorance
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.8

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, War, Government Debt
Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.184, Cosimo, Inc.

The only way to win money out of a casino is to own one.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Winning, Casinos

If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its hearts, where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as Haman's.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Country, Heart
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.40, Cambridge University Press

We are overdone with banking institutions, which have banished the precious metals, and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium... These have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness... These are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Evil, Employment
Thomas Jefferson (1853). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.516

The banks themselves were doing business on capitals three-fourths of which were fictitious. This fictitious capital... is now to be lost, and to fall on somebody; it must take on those who have property to meet it, and probably on the less cautious part, who, not aware of the impending catastrophe, have suffered themselves to contract, or to be in debt, and must now sacrifice their property of a value many times the amount of the debt. We have been truly sowing the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Fall, Sacrifice

It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Hands, People
Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.60, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

An occasional insurrection will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Government, Aristocracy

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.

Thomas Jefferson
Death, Wisdom, Religious

The possession of facts is knowledge; the use of them is wisdom.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Use, Facts

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Peace, War
Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.254, Rowman & Littlefield

The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen states in the course of eleven years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of government prevent insurrections.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Country, Thinking
Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.277

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.

Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom, Workout, Children
Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.130, Hackett Publishing