Motivational Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was known for his vast contributions to the founding of the nation and his profound impact on American political thought. He was a man of many words, and his quotes have been widely discussed and analyzed over the years. Jefferson’s ability to articulate his thoughts through eloquent and memorable phrases has made his words a lasting part of American heritage. These quotes cover a wide range of topics, including freedom, governance, and human rights, reflecting his deep philosophical beliefs and his vision for the country. His writings and speeches are studied by scholars and enthusiasts alike, who seek to understand the principles that guided one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Jefferson’s legacy, shaped by his words, continues to influence American society and political thought to this day.

Thomas Jefferson

Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.

All know that permitting the slaves of the south to spread into the west will not add one being to that unfortunate condition, that it will increase the happiness of those existing, and by spreading them over a larger surface, will dilute the evil everywhere, and facilitate the means of getting finally rid of it, an event more anxiously wished by those on whom it presses than by the noisy pretenders to exclusive humanity. In the meantime, it is a ladder for rivals climbing to power.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?

Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.

…but I see nothing in this renewal of the game of ‘Robin’s alive’ but a general demoralization of the nation, a filching from industry it’s honest earnings, wherewith to build up palaces, and raise gambling stock for swindlers and shavers, who are to close too their career of piracies by fraudulent bankruptcies. my dependance for a remedy however, is in the wisdom which grows with time and suffering. whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the 1st chapter in the book of wisdom.

The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

Our tenet ever was…that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifically enumerated, and that, as it was never meant that they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action; consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise money.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.

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

We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands or tenements].

Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.

In America, on the other hand, the society of your husband, the fond cares for the children…fill every moment with a healthy and an useful activity.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.