Thomas Jefferson quotes - page 19

A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible. (Thomas Jefferson)
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes, should be one of the principal studies and endeavours of our lives. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on them offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
A government big enough to supply you with everything you need is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.... The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
No instance exists of a person's writing two language perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
I sincerely believe ... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers; is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one. (Thomas Jefferson)
I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Health is worth more than learning. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
This commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-states are, to submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men, on earth. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
I say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
It is more a subject of joy that we have so few of the desperate characters which compose modern regular armies. But it proves more forcibly the necessity of obliging every citizen to be a soldier; this was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free State. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. (Thomas Jefferson)
Yours is one of the few lives precious to mankind, and for the continuance of which every thinking man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
To ourselves, in strict language, we can owe no duties, obligation requiring also two parties. Self-love, therefore, is no part of morality. Indeed, it is exactly its counterpart. View quote
Thomas Jefferson
The last appellation of aristocrats and democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all. View quote
Thomas Jefferson