Explore 54 quotes by Thomas Jefferson

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Source

Medium

Language

Time

Authentication Score 2

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Peter Carr. 22 June 1792.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

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.

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Speaker

Source

Medium

Genre

Language

Time

Authentication Score 2

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1801, Senate Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Medium

Language

Time

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to John Norvell. 14 June 1807.

Original citation text copied to clipboard.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "John Norvell, 14 June 1807." The Portable Thomas Jefferson, edited by Merrill D. Peterson. Penguin Classics, 1977.

Current citation text copied to clipboard.

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

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Source

Medium

Language

Time

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to the Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland. 31 Mar. 1809.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it.

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Speaker

Source

Medium

Genre

Language

Time

Authentication Score 2

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1801, Senate Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

Notes on the State of Virginia

Buy Notes on the State of Virginia at Amazon Buy Notes on the State of Virginia at Amazon

Read Notes on the State of Virginia at the Library of Congress website

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Source

Genre

Language

Time

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas [published anonymously]. Notes on the State of Virginia. Paris: Philippe Denis Pierres, 1785, query 19.

Original citation text copied to clipboard.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia, edited by Frank Shuffelton. Penguin Classics, 1998, query 19.

Current citation text copied to clipboard.

Freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Speaker

Source

Medium

Genre

Language

Time

Authentication Score 2

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1801, Senate Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Speaker

Source

Medium

Genre

Language

Time

Authentication Score 2

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1801, Senate Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

I know 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 a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Source

Medium

Language

Time

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to William Charles Jarvis. 28 Sept. 1820.

Citation text copied to clipboard.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual, he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Source

Medium

Language

Time

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Peter Carr. 19 Aug. 1785.

Original citation text copied to clipboard.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "Peter Carr, Aug. 19, 1785." The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Adrienne Koch and William Peden. Modern Library, 1998.

Current citation text copied to clipboard.

Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Medium

Language

Time

Era

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington. 16 Jan. 1787.

Original citation text copied to clipboard.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "Col. Edward Carrington, Jan. 16, 1787." The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Including the Autobiography, The Declaration of Independence & His Public and Private Letters, edited by Adrienne Koch and William Peden. Modern Library, 1998.

Current citation text copied to clipboard.

And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.

Letter to John Adams, 1821

There are no other quotes from this source in the Bon Mots database.

More information about this quote

Topic

Author

Source

Medium

Language

Time

Authentication Score 3

More information on Authentication Score coming soon.

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to John Adams. 12 Sept. 1821.

Original citation text copied to clipboard.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "John Adams, Sept. 12, 1821." The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Adrienne Koch and William Peden. Modern Library, 1998.

Current citation text copied to clipboard.

The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.