Jefferson Quotes – Wisdom and Insight from Founding Father Thomas Jefferson

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

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Every generation needs a new revolution.

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

Delay is preferable to error.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

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

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

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Jefferson Quotes – Wisdom and Insight from Founding Father Thomas Jefferson part 2

I have learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason and give more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions.

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

The glow of one warm thought is to be worth more than money.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

No instance exists of a person’s writing two languages perfectly.

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries…

I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine doctrine of Epicurus as the basis of modern science.

I cannot live without books.

The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.

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.

I am a sect by myself, as far as I know.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.