September 2 2022

150+ Thomas Jefferson Quotes That Will Make You Realize His Impact

Yiannis Kalliantas Quotes politicians, quotes by a single personality, USA presidents

Thomas Jefferson was much more than a president. Over his long lifetime, Jefferson worked as a lawyer, philosopher, architect, diplomat, and statesman. As a young man, he was a dedicated student at the University of William and Mary. He then studied law and became a member of the colonial government of Virginia, where he argued that Britain had no authority over the colonies. Jefferson was a member of the Second Continental Congress, which shaped the growing confederation of colonies that would become the United States. As the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, he was one of the most important founding fathers in shaping the philosophy of liberty underpinning the United States. Jefferson went on to serve as Governor of Virginia and later as the third president of the United States. As president, just like Lincoln, he left a physical mark on the US by dramatically expanding its territory through the Louisiana Purchase.

Jefferson was an educated and influential man who shared treasure troves of wisdom throughout his life. His life and work have left huge impacts on the US and the world at large. Read and share these quotes from the great man to gain an important perspective for our modern world.

Best Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Freedom
Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Government
Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Liberty

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Education
Thomas Jefferson Religion Quotes
Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Banks
Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Slavery

Thomas Jefferson Famous Quotes
Thomas Jefferson Quotes On Images

Best Thomas Jefferson Quotes

If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. Thomas Jefferson
Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Thomas Jefferson

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. Thomas Jefferson
Nobody is better than you and remember, you are better than nobody. Thomas Jefferson
One man with courage is a majority. Thomas Jefferson
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. Thomas Jefferson

Be polite to all, but intimate with few. Thomas Jefferson
I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work. Thomas Jefferson
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. Thomas Jefferson

Every generation needs a new revolution. Thomas Jefferson
Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do. Thomas Jefferson
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it. Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. Thomas Jefferson

Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. Thomas Jefferson
Follow truth wherever it may lead you. Thomas Jefferson
An injured friend is the bitterest of foes. Thomas Jefferson
But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. Thomas Jefferson

When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred. Thomas Jefferson
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. Thomas Jefferson
Power is not alluring to pure minds. Thomas Jefferson
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time. Thomas Jefferson

It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice. Thomas Jefferson
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property. Thomas Jefferson
Delay is preferable to error. Thomas Jefferson
How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. Thomas Jefferson
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good. Thomas Jefferson
It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness. Thomas Jefferson
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people. Thomas Jefferson
Never spend your money before you have earned it. Thomas Jefferson
Of all machines, the human heart is the most complicated and inexplicable. Thomas Jefferson

Peace, that glorious moment in time when everyone stops and reloads. Thomas Jefferson
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it. Thomas Jefferson
Taste cannot be controlled by law. Thomas Jefferson
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. Thomas Jefferson
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. Thomas Jefferson

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. Thomas Jefferson
Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself. Thomas Jefferson
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Freedom

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery. Thomas Jefferson
Freedom, the first-born of science. Thomas Jefferson

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. Thomas Jefferson
The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms in practice the freedom asserted by the laws in theory. Thomas Jefferson
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.. Thomas Jefferson
Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Government

The government you elect is the government you deserve. Thomas Jefferson

When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part. Thomas Jefferson
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. Thomas Jefferson
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Thomas Jefferson
The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government. Thomas Jefferson

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. Thomas Jefferson
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government… Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. Thomas Jefferson
Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry. Thomas Jefferson
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. Thomas Jefferson

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Thomas Jefferson
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. Thomas Jefferson
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson
History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is. Thomas Jefferson
Any Government strong enough to give you what you want, is a Government strong enough to take everything you have! Thomas Jefferson

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. Thomas Jefferson
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will. Thomas Jefferson
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. Thomas Jefferson

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery. Thomas Jefferson
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Liberty

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. 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
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. Thomas Jefferson

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. Thomas Jefferson
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. Thomas Jefferson
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed. Thomas Jefferson
It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan. Thomas Jefferson

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. Thomas Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson
The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure. Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Education

No people who are ignorant can be truly free. Thomas Jefferson
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. Thomas Jefferson
He who knows best knows how little he knows. Thomas Jefferson
Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time. Thomas Jefferson
Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them. Thomas Jefferson

All that is necessary for a student is access to a library. 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
There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world. Thomas Jefferson
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Thomas Jefferson
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education. Thomas Jefferson

[A] lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools. Thomas Jefferson
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. Thomas Jefferson
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way. Thomas Jefferson
While the art of printing is left to us, science can never be retrograde; what is once acquired of real knowledge can never be lost. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Religion Quotes

In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. Thomas Jefferson

It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read. Thomas Jefferson
I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another. Thomas Jefferson
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others. Thomas Jefferson
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor – over each other. Thomas Jefferson
If by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, “that this would be the best of worlds if there were no religion in it. Thomas Jefferson

Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry… Thomas Jefferson
The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Banks

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Thomas Jefferson
Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations. Thomas Jefferson
The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. Thomas Jefferson

I own it to be my opinion, that good will arise from the destruction of our credit. Thomas Jefferson
I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. Thomas Jefferson
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless … Thomas Jefferson
The Bank of the United States is one of the most deadly hostilities existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution. Thomas Jefferson
A spirit… of gambling in our public paper has seized on too many of our citizens, and we fear it will check our commerce, arts, manufactures, and agriculture, unless stopped. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Slavery

Slavery is an abomination and must be loudly proclaimed as such, but I own that I nor any other man has any immediate solution to the problem. Thomas Jefferson
The day is not distant when we must bear and adopt [the abolition of slavery], or worse will follow. Thomas Jefferson
A man’s moral sense must be unusually strong if slavery does not make him a thief. Thomas Jefferson
Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Thomas Jefferson
The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain. Thomas Jefferson

We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. Thomas Jefferson
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it. Thomas Jefferson
[It is a] happy truth that man is capable of self-government, and only rendered otherwise by the moral degradation designedly superinduced on him by the wicked acts of his tyrant. Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Famous Quotes

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. Thomas Jefferson
… laws and constitutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind….. Thomas Jefferson

The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed. Thomas Jefferson
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. Thomas Jefferson
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people. Thomas Jefferson
Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man. Thomas Jefferson
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. Thomas Jefferson

Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep. Thomas Jefferson
Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. Thomas Jefferson
Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. Thomas Jefferson
On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. Thomas Jefferson

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad. Thomas Jefferson
An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes. Thomas Jefferson
I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere. Thomas Jefferson
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. Thomas Jefferson
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another. Thomas Jefferson

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle. Thomas Jefferson
I am a sect by myself, as far as I know. Thomas Jefferson
Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Thomas Jefferson
No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it. 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

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. Thomas Jefferson
It is the duty of every American citizen to take part in a vigorous debate on the issues of the day. Thomas Jefferson
I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more. Thomas Jefferson
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion. Thomas Jefferson
Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism. Thomas Jefferson

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. Thomas Jefferson
I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial. Thomas Jefferson
Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility. Thomas Jefferson
A Man’s management of his own purse speaks volumes about character. Thomas Jefferson
A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. Thomas Jefferson

All are dead, and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know us not. Thomas Jefferson