Thomas Jefferson quote: "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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."

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be sa...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Euro...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their be...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should hav...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by who...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

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

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wr...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

He who knows best knows how little he knows.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have,...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by educat...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working unde...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The second office of this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid misery.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the stre...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

A sense of this necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory proof that whereve...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliat...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been sta...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest mode...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

But let me beseech you, Sir, not to let this letter get into a newspaper. Tranquillity, at my age, i...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular p...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you ca...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

the giver of life, who gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

God who gave us life gave us liberty. 1 Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The bank mania is one of the most threatening of these imitations. It is raising up a monied aristoc...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but i...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Architecture worth great attention. As we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our house...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn fro...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said: For Heav...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helples...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government, as a barrier against foreign...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the publi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. I would be willing to depe...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pocket to pay for it, would make of our country...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate wo...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most indepe...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war....
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The character of our coasts, remarkable in considerable parts of it for admitting no vessels of size...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I thought the work would be very innocent, and one which might be confided to the reason of any man;...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massach...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

One half of our brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of repr...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Were our State a pure democracy, in which all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free; nor is...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

With your talents and industry, with science, and that stedfast honesty which eternally pursues righ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my famil...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Perfect happiness I believe was never intended by the deity to be the lot of any one of his creature...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Believing that the happiness of mankind is best promoted by the useful pursuits of peace, that on th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid bu...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projec...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. are the sole objects of all legit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem an...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon want bread.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricul...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-governm...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

To preserve the freedom of the human mind and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disb...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or bur...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship, with all nationsentangling alliances with none.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It is, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure I have observed on the part of the British government ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The desire to preserve our country from the calamities and ravages of war, by cultivating a disposit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any ar...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

There are two sides to every question, because, when there are no longer two sides it ceases to be a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I have not observed men's honesty to increase with their riches.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to admit it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Power is not alluring to pure minds
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none
THOMAS JEFFERSON

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquillity and occupation which give happiness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

When the moral sense is wanting, we endeavor to supply the defect by education, by appeals to reason...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Conscience is the chamber of justice.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feeling...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil s...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson's secular college] by the...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

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

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON

I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our instit...
THOMAS JEFFERSON

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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.

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Thomas Jefferson

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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.

Thomas Jefferson

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