Thomas Jefferson
Our ancestors ... were laborers, not lawyers.Collection: Lawyer
The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes, and they believe rightly.Collection: Believe
Sir, Your letter of the 15th is received, but Age has long since obliged me to withhold my mind from Speculations of the difficulty of those of your letter, that their are means of artificial buoyancy by which man may be supported in the Air, the Balloon has proved, and that means of directing it may be discovered is against no law of Nature and is therefore possible as in the case of Birds, but to do this by mechanical means alone in a medium so rare and unassisting as air must have the aid of some principal not yet generally known.Collection: Mean
This is perhaps the most important statement on religion ever made. It clarified the intent of the founders of the constitution irrespective of the attempts of modern day religious revisionists.Collection: Religious
It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one now in power, for these great reformations i.e., emancipation of slaves and settlement of the Virginia constitution on a firmer and more permanent basis.Collection: Virginia
I rejoice when I hear of young men of virtue and talents, worthy to receive and likely to preserve the splendid inheritance of self- government, which we have acquired and shaped for them.Collection: Men
I leave the world and its affairs to the young and energetic, and resign myself to their care, of whom I have endeavored to take care when young.Collection: Care
They are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes.Collection: Country
In a virtuous government, and more especially in times like these, public offices are what they should be - burdens to those appointed to them which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring them intense labor and great private loss.Collection: Loss
No person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six.Collection: Years
When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the stateCollection: Freedom
The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.Collection: 4th Of July
Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.Collection: Government
Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.Collection: Rights
Equal rights for all, special privileges for noneCollection: 4th Of July
The worst day in a man's life is when he sits down and begins thinking about how he can get something for nothing.Collection: Men
The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.Collection: Happiness
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.Collection: Gun
Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to the truth.Collection: Differences
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.Collection: Wisdom
It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.Collection: Freedom
Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.Collection: Moments
Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!Collection: Government
Men of quality are not threatened by women of equalityCollection: Equality
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.Collection: Money
Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.Collection: Real
The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate.Collection: Democracy
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.Collection: Life
If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.Collection: Life
The greatest calamity which could befall us would be submission to a government of unlimited powers.Collection: Government
A free government is of all others the most energetic.Collection: Government
Not for ourselves alone, but for all humanity... Let us hasten to find the path that leads to liberty, safety, and peace for everyone.Collection: Safety
To seek out the best [persons to serve in the government] though the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with ther purest motives, is something incorrect....No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.Collection: Men
Nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an eye witness.Collection: Eye
Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error.Collection: Errors
The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone.Collection: Government
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.Collection: Wisdom
Gaming corrupts our disposition and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.Collection: Gambling
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.Collection: People
It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.Collection: Pain
Let the farmer forevermore be honored in his calling; for they who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.Collection: Agriculture
The soil is the gift of God to the living.Collection: Soil
The mass of our citizens may be divided into two classes -- the laboring and the learned. The laboring will need the first grade of education to qualify them for their pursuits and duties; the learned will need it as a foundation for further acquirements.Collection: Class
The physician is happy in the attachment of the families in which he practices. All think he has saved one of them, and he finds himself everywhere a welcome guest, a home in every house.Collection: Home
A little revolution is a good thing.Collection: Littles
Industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of people.Collection: Happiness
The best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of the first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful.Collection: Country
Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise, and the weather shall be little regarded. If the body is feeble, the mind will not be strong.Collection: Strong
Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light.Collection: Perseverance