Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Freedom of speech cannot be limited, without being lost.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.
-- Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
-- Thomas Jefferson
A library book...is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, is their only capital.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Determine never to be idle... It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I know, (there is) no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of society, but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
-- Thomas Jefferson
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
-- Thomas Jefferson
The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few to ride them.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance.
-- Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
-- Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effects of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
-- Thomas Jefferson
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Delay is preferable to error.
-- Thomas Jefferson
To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression.
-- Thomas Jefferson
There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the country under regulations as would secure their safe return in due time.
-- Thomas Jefferson
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendancy of the people.
-- Thomas Jefferson
believe... that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
-- Thomas Jefferson
What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
-- Thomas Jefferson
We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
-- Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself
-- Thomas Jefferson
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
-- Thomas Jefferson
It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.
-- Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-- Thomas Jefferson
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
-- Thomas Jefferson
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
-- Thomas Jefferson
There is not a truth existing which I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
-- Thomas Jefferson
On matters of style, swim with the current. On matters of principle, stand like a rock.
-- Thomas Jefferson
When the press is free and every man can read, all is safe.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
-- Thomas Jefferson
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
-- Thomas Jefferson
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
-- Thomas Jefferson
It is not honorable to take mere legal advantage, when it happens to be contrary to justice.
-- Thomas Jefferson
When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.
-- Thomas Jefferson
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