Thomas Jefferson quotes - page 16

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. (Thomas Jefferson)
It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Power is not alluring to pure minds. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Taste cannot be controlled by law. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. (Thomas Jefferson)
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory. (Thomas Jefferson)
None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. View quote
Thomas Jefferson