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I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office


Thomas Jefferson

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I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Well, let me tell you something; I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine and Governor. . . ...
RONALD REAGAN When I walk into my office, the other portraits that I look at in addition to (Thomas) Jefferson, th...
DEAN ACHESON I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.
ANTONIN SCALIA Thomas Jefferson -- still surv
JOHN ADAMS Thomas Jefferson still survives.
JOHN ADAMS Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?

{Letter to JOHN ADAMS Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither lib...
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN I’m not Thomas Jefferson. He was a pussy!
CHARLIE SHEEN A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution.
RICHARD DAWKINS We make no saint of Thomas Jefferson—we leave the mindless business of canonization and the worshi...
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS The office of the public teacher is an unenviable and thankless one.
FELIX ADLER We have a monument here for the greatest troublemakers of our history -- Thomas Jefferson and George...
DANA ROHRABACHER I think people understand I'm not actually the real Thomas Jefferson.
DAVEED DIGGS If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speech.'
ROBIN QUIVERS Quite naturally, the men who led in stirring up the revolt against Great Britain and in keeping the ...
CHARLES A. BEARD If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with r...
RUSH LIMBAUGH If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with re...
RUSH LIMBAUGH No doubt President Jefferson was brilliant - probably the key author of the American constitution. B...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I would like Americans to make things with their hands. Thomas Jefferson and I feel that makes for a...
NICK OFFERMAN It is a lie.
ARTHUR MILLER He's too close - he lived well into the 20th Century, ... If you look at Thomas Jefferson and presid...
BRUCE TYLER We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.
THOMAS JEFFERSON We know Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin as politicians, but they felt that science was someth...
RUSH D. HOLT, JR. I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselve...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON When I was 5, my father was very much my hero. And he ran for political office in a very thankless c...
HOWARD WARREN BUFFETT If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speec...
ROBIN QUIVERS The tolling of yon dismal bell and the loud but solemn discharge of artillery hath announced to the ...
JOHN TYLER Citizens of this city voted to build on a neutral site. ... That didn't mean putting it back on the ...
GREG FLORES People have always said - those words, 'too conservative,' is fairly relative. I'm sure ...
SHARRON ANGLE The phrase ‘separation of church and state,’ which appears in no founding document (only in a le...
DENNIS PRAGER He was not a [Thomas] Jefferson or a [George] Washington. But he was a solid second-tier.
DICK CHEATHAM Who would think it possible to redirect historical scholarship by explaining what Thomas Jefferson s...
EDMUND MORGAN To stand on the
brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli...
ASK AND IT IS GIVEN I like Thomas Jefferson, though he intimidated me. I thought he would have been very tough to be aro...
MAIRA KALMAN Life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly like Thomas Jefferson would have wanted: founded o...
MITCH KAPOR How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, To have a thankless child.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promi...
CARL SAGAN Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inf...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which t...
JOHN ADAMS These office-seekers are a curse to the country; no sooner was my election certain, than I became th...
ABRAHAM LINCOLN How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortu...
SAMUEL JOHNSON He wants to do everything he can for the varsity program. He wants to make Thomas Jefferson as good ...
DON POWELL Clever and attractive women do not want to vote; they are willing to let men govern as long as they ...
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW It's so funny, actors usually have a directing ambition. I've got no ambition for directing.
MAJANDRA DELFINO How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, I would appoint him secretary of state, and then Al Gore and I...
BILL CLINTON My dream is to make Katihar a model district. I have no personal ambition.
TARIQ ANWAR How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where...
BURL IVES Without Thomas Jefferson and his Declaration of Independence, there would have been no American revo...
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And e...
RONALD REAGAN Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that...
ABRAHAM LINCOLN The Denver District Attorney's Office was assigned to be the special prosecutor in regard to some cr...
LYNN KIMBROUGH America is a land where men govern, but women rule.
JOHN MASON BROWN Thomas Jefferson called the Barbary States 'petty powers' and declared they were no match for the ne...
FRANK LAMBERT A man's home is his castle. Taking it from him in order to give it to the politically powerful is wr...
HORACE COOPER ...probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those t...
JOHN F. KENNEDY There was a fascinating duality about Matthew that Daisy had never encountered in another man. At so...
LISA KLEYPAS History is philosophy teaching by examples.
THOMAS JEFFERSON But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - ar...
CARL SAGAN Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for res...
CARL SAGAN In politics and in his personal life, Thomas Jefferson was a complicated man, but in one thing he wa...
THOMAS J. CRAUGHWELL We want to be accurate. We want to know who the descendants of Thomas Jefferson are. And, if Sally H...
ROBERT GILLESPIE Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works....
RONALD REAGAN There is no right to a job or a wage rate, but there is a right to move from one country to another ...
ALEX TABARROK I would say 'no'! It's such a thankless job. If you do great, nobody mentions it. If you don't, ever...
ELLEN DEGENERES The confession of our failings is a thankless office. It savors less of sincerity or modesty than of...
WILLIAM HAZLITT It may be that without a vision men shall die. It is no less true that, without hard practical sense...
JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were gi...
H. JACKSON BROWN JR. Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were gi...
H. JACKSON BROWN, JR. Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were gi...
UNKNOWN Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were gi...
H. JACKSON BROWN JR. No matter how painful something is, you have to take it. I saw that in both my parents.
BERNARD LAGAT This society [Jesuits] has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or JOHN ADAMS I have the desire to work as an actress, but I have no ambition to be a star.
ALLY SHEEDY It is to such men as Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson and Jackson and Franklin, all most lowly born, th...
JOSEPH PULITZER 37. It is better to be single and unhappy than unhappily married.
JAMES C. DOBSON The Arch, formally known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, dedicated to President Thomas...
MARY HENDRON There are many men whose tongues might govern multitudes if they could govern their tongues.
GEORGE DENNISON PRENTICE I didn't sign a pledge to Wendi Thomas. I took an oath of office, and I have a commitment to the con...
JACK SAMMONS Hating Wall Street is an American tradition that dates back even to the days when Thomas Jefferson c...
ADAM DAVIDSON We've become slaves to words like 'local,' 'fresh,' and 'seasonal.' We a...
BARTON SEAVER Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I...
ABRAHAM LINCOLN We Americans think, in every country in transition, there's a Thomas Jefferson hiding behind som...
JOE BIDEN It's not always thankless. Let's face it - it's not always thankless. I've gotten a ...
KYRA SEDGWICK It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to...
GEORGE MACDONALD It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to...
GEORGE E. MACDONALD Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were gi...
H. JACKSON BROWN Voltaire said about God that ‘there is no God, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murder...
YUVAL NOAH HARARI Hosting is a thankless job.
T. J. MILLER The myth that John Locke was the philosopher behind the American Republic, is easily refuted by exam...
ROBERT TROUT I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been ...
JOHN F. KENNEDY I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been ...
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY

More Thomas Jefferson

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 Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from th...
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 Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to p...
THOMAS JEFFERSON If you want something you've never had
You must be willing to do something you've never done.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good gener...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of...
THOMAS JEFFERSON A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you w...
THOMAS JEFFERSON To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbeliev...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work Plato's R...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he...
THOMAS JEFFERSON In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by renderi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nati...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
THOMAS JEFFERSON An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of m...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then mo...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that o...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under a...
THOMAS JEFFERSON It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate -- to surmount every difficult...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolish...
THOMAS JEFFERSON He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time t...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
THOMAS JEFFERSON We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by th...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate ob...
THOMAS JEFFERSON My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
THOMAS JEFFERSON When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there...
THOMAS JEFFERSON That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fi...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my fam...
THOMAS JEFFERSON The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON We seldom report of having eaten too little.
THOMAS JEFFERSON I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
THOMAS JEFFERSON Tranquility is the old man's milk.
THOMAS JEFFERSON The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions,...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
THOMAS JEFFERSON In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
THOMAS JEFFERSON No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON