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Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Read these famous Thomas Jefferson Quotes from his own letters,
writings and speeches. Thomas Jefferson is one of the most well
known of the Revolutionary War Heroes. He was also the primary author
of the Declaration of
Independence. These Thomas Jefferson Quotes
are listed chronologically with links to more at the bottom.
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Thomas Jefferson |
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For a list of interesting Thomas Jefferson facts click here.
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the
will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be
rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal
rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate which would be
oppression." - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
"But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment,
abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the
theocratic and visionary fear that this government, the world's best
hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself?" - First
Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government
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." - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
"Still one thing more, fellow citizens - a wise and frugal government,
which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which 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. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary
to close the circle of our felicities." - First Inaugural Address,
March 4, 1801
"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion,
religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations, entangling alliances with none... Freedom of religion; freedom
of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeus
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. The wisdom of our sages
and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment.
They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civil
instruction, the touchstone by which we try the services of those we
trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm,
let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone
leads to peace, liberty, and safety." - First Inaugural Address,
March 4, 1801
"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any
party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in
anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an
addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent."
- Letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 4, 1801
"Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with government 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." - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
"Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will
to be rightful must be reasonable - the minority possess their equal
rights which equal law must protect." - First Inaugural Address,
March 11, 1801
"Those who live by mystery & charlatanerie, fearing you would render
them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy, -- the most
sublime & benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on
man, -- endeavored to crush your well-earnt & well-deserved fame."
- Letter to Dr. Joseph Priestly, March 21, 1801
"The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they (the clergy)
have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its
benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty,
science, and the freest expansion of the human mind." - Letter to Moses
Robinson, March 23, 1801
"The Constitution on which our Union rests, shall be administered by me (as
President) according to the safe and honest meaning contemplated by the
plain understanding of the people of the United States at the time of its
adoption - a meaning to be found in the explanations of those who advocated,
not those who opposed it, and who opposed it merely lest the construction
should be applied which they denounced as possible." - Letter to Mesrs.
Eddy, Russel, Thurber, Wheaton and Smith, March 27, 1801
"The steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely
moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early
discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct, will
at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country.
Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be able I hope
to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom & harmony." -
Letter to Elbridge Gerry, March 29, 1801
Read on for more
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Monticello - Home of
Thomas Jefferson
"Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern
than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of
honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty
is at the same time more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character
possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the
best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from
the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is
sometimes incorrect." - Letter to Elias Shipman, July 12, 1801
"If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies
to be obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation, none." - Letter
to Elias Shipman, July 12, 1801
"The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions
and make them one people." - Letter to John Dickinson, July 23, 1801
"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our
laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society,
conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That
these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit,
will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular."
- Letter to Hugh White, May 2, 1801
"The liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable
to His will is a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good
government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support."
- Letter to Captain John Thomas, November 18, 1801
"I join cordially in admiring and revering the Constitution of the United
States, the result of the collected wisdom of our country. That wisdom has
committed to us the important task of proving by example that a government,
if organized in all its parts on the Representative principle unadulterated
by the infusion of spurious elements, if founded, not in the fears &
follies of man, but on his reason, on his sense of right, on the predominance
of the social over his dissocial passions, may be so free as to restrain him
in no moral right, and so firm as to protect him from every moral wrong."
- Letter to Amos Marsh, November 20, 1801
"Gentlemen,-The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which
you are so good as to express towards me on behalf of the Danbury Baptist
Association give me the highest satisfaction... Believing with you that
religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he
owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative
powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, 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. Adhering to this expression of
the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I
shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments
which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has
no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your
kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and
Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious
association assurances of my high respect and esteem." - Letter
to Danbury Baptist Association, January 1, 1802
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between
man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his
worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only,
and not opinions, 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." - Letter to Danbury Baptist Association, January 1, 1802
"Newspapers... serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke."
- Letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko, April 2, 1802
"One passage in the paper you enclosed me must be corrected. It is the
following, "And all say it was yourself more than any other individual,
that planned and established it," i.e., the Constitution. I was in
Europe when the Constitution was planned, and never saw it till after
it was established." - Letter to Dr. Joseph Priestly, June 19, 1802
"I was in Europe when the Constitution was planned, and never saw it
till after it was established. On receiving it I wrote strongly to Mr.
Madison, urging the want of provision for the freedom of religion, freedom
of the press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, the substitution of militia for
a standing army, and an express reservation to the States of all rights not
specifically granted to the Union. He accordingly moved in the first session
of Congress for these amendments, which were agreed to and ratified by the
States as they now stand. This is all the hand I had in what related to
the Constitution." - Letter to Dr. Joseph Priestly, June 19, 1802
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people,
under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."
- Letter to Thomas Cooper, November 29, 1802
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Did you enjoy these Thomas Jefferson Quotes? Check out these inspirational
quotations from some other Founding Fathers
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