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Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826] American

Rank: 3
President, 3rd U.S. President

Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809.

Government, Power, Friendship, God, Happiness, War, Best, Fear, Life, Men, Politics, Time, Truth, Wisdom, Alone, Education, Freedom, Good, History, Hope, Money, Peace, Religion, Trust, Experience, Fitness, Health, Knowledge, Motivational, Society, Age, Anger, Attitude, Beauty, Brainy, Business, Chance, Change, Cool, Courage, Diet, Dreams, Equality, Future, Gardening, Humor, Imagination, Independence, Inspirational, Learning, Legal, Love, Nature, Patriotism, Strength, Travel

Quote	Tags	Rank
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.	Truth, Wisdom	69
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.	Attitude	102
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.	Chance, Freedom, Good, Happiness, Health, Life	103
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.	Friendship, Politics, Religion	104
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.	Freedom, Happiness, Life, Men	105
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.	Good, Government, Happiness, Life	106
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.	Power	107
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.	Dreams, Future, History	108
Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.	Motivational	109
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.	Brainy	110
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.	Patriotism, Time	111
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.	Anger	112
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.	Best, Fitness	113
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.	Equality	114
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.	Government	115
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.	Friendship, Life	116
I know of 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.	Society	117
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.	Love, Politics	118
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.	Education, Government	119
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 would be oppression.		120
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.	Fear, God	121
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.	Experience	122
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.	Good	123
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.		124
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.		125
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.	Business, Government, Hope, Strength	126
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.	Government	201
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.	Politics	202
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.		203
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.		204
We never repent of having eaten too little.	Diet	205
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.	Best	206
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.		207
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.	Happiness	208
An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.	Men	209
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.	Religion	210
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 blind-folded fear.	Fear, God	211
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.	Happiness	212
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.		213
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 form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.	Government, History, Trust	214
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.		215
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.	Motivational, Time	216
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.	Knowledge, Truth	217
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.	Friendship, Peace	218
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.		219
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.		220
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.	Best, Experience, Government, Power, Time	221
History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.	Government, History	222
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.	God	223
I cannot live without books.	Education	224
It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.	Religion	225
Delay is preferable to error.		226
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.	Inspirational, Money	301
No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.		302
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.	Men, Politics	303
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.		304
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.	War	305
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.	Government	306
I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.		307
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.	Hope, Power, Wisdom	308
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.		309
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 more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.	Fear, God	310
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.		311
There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.	Nature	312
The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.		313
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.	Gardening	314
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?	Friendship	315
It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.	Change	316
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.	God, Time	317
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.		318
It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.	War	319
So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.	Government, Wisdom	320
Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.	Fitness, Health, Learning	321
Never spend your money before you have earned it.	Money	322
I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.		323
The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.		324
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.	Government	325
He who knows best knows how little he knows.	Best	326
Power is not alluring to pure minds.	Power	401
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.	Imagination	402
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.	Alone, Government	403
Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.		404
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.	Hope	405
In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.		406
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.	Government, Men	407
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.	Government	408
I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.		409
Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.		410
One man with courage is a majority.	Courage	411
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.		412
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.	Cool	413
An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.		414
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.		415
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.		416
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.	Humor, Truth	417
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.		418
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.	Government	419
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.		420
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.	Trust	421
I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.		422
If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?		423
Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.	Money	424
We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.		425
One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.	Alone, Travel	426
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.	Education	501
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.		502
As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.		503
Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.	Beauty, Wisdom	504
The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.	Government, War	505
The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.	Power	506
None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.		507
I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.		508
Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.	Society, Truth	509
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.		510
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.		511
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.		512
The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.	Government	513
No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.		514
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.		515
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.		516
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.	Alone, Government	517
The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.		518
How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.		519
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.	War	520
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.	Government	521
Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.		522
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.	Age	523
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.		524
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.	Government	525
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.		526
There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.	Fear	601
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.		602
Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.		603
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.	Knowledge	604
Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.		605
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.		606
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.	War	607
The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.		608
An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.		609
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.		610
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.		611
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.	Trust	612
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.		613
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.		614
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.	Friendship, Peace	615
The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.		616
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.	Freedom	617
Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.		618
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.		619
Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.		620
Taste cannot be controlled by law.	Legal	621
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.		622
If God is just, I tremble for my country.		623
Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.	Peace	624
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.	Power	625
The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.		626
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.		701
It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.		702
I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.		703
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia.	Independence	704
I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God - my daughter to my country.		705
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.		706
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.		707
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.		708
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.		709

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