Thomas Jefferson
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"Thomas Jefferson" was an American Founding Fathers of the United States/Founding Father, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence/Declaration of Independence (1776), and the third President of the United States (1801–1809). He was a spokesman for democracy, and embraced the principles of republicanism and the rights of the individual with worldwide influence. At the beginning of the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia, and then served as a wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781). In May 1785, he became the United States Minister to France and later the first United States Secretary of State (1790–1793) serving under President George Washington. In opposition to Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party/Federalism, Jefferson and his close friend, James Madison, organized the Democratic-Republican Party, and later resigned from Washington's cabinet. Elected Vice President in 1796 in the administration of John Adams, Jefferson opposed Adams, and with Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts.

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The idle are the only wretched.

A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.

Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.

I never told my religion nor scrutinize that of another. I never attempted to make a convert nor wished to change another's creed. I have judged of others' religion by their lives, for it is from our lives and not from our words that our religion must be read. By the same test must the world judge me.

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.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

I believe that justice is instinct and innate, the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as the threat of feeling, seeing and hearing.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

No instance exists of a person's writing two languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

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.

We never regret having eaten too little.

The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.

Our friendships are precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life;and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part is sunshine.

Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.

I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

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.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

A little rebellion now and then...is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.

I like the dreams of the future, better than the history of the past.

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.

I live for books.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

My views and feelings (are) in favor of the abolition of war-and I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair.

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

The happiest moments of my life have a been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

If people let 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 our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Never spend your money before you have it.

Health is worth more than learning.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded faith.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

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

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.

Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Delay is preferable to error.

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.