Thomas Jefferson Quotes - 24 quotes

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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was a key figure in American history. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was born on April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia. Jefferson's early education included studyi... show more

quote icon The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon 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

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quote icon What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon ...how much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that 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

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quote icon Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon 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

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quote icon No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon Never spend your money before you have it.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon I am increasingly persuaded That the earth belongs exclusively to the living And that one generation has no more right To bind another to its laws and judgments Than one independent nation has the right to command another. :And what is government ultimately But the putting into effect of the lessons Which we have learned in dealing with The contradictions in our own characters? You have a disconcerting lack of faith In your fellow man.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

- Thomas Jefferson

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quote icon You cannot expect a people so long oppressed To be transported from despotism To liberty on a feather bed.

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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