Quotes from the Jefferson Memorial

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

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

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

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

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

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

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

I cannot live without books.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

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

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

I have not observed men’s honesty to increase with their riches.

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

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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

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

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.

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

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

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.

The most fortunate of us all are those who have the capacity to keep alive their interest in the widest range of subjects.

To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.

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

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

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

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 laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression.

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

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

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

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

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

It is better to be alone than in bad company.

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

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

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.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

No government ought to be without censors, and where the press is free no one ever will.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

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