Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.

No people who are ignorant can be truly free.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.

The price of liberty is constant vigilance.

There exists indeed an opposition to it [building of UVA, Jefferson’s secular college] by the friends of William and Mary, which is not strong. The most restive is that of the priests of the different...

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.

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...

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason...

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

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.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

There is not a truth existing which I fear… or would wish unknown to the whole world.

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.

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has...

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise

If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, then and only then will truth, prevail over fanaticism

I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make be the difference of price...

Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.

I have great hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment, call (up the law for religious freedom) and make it the keystone of the arch of our government

I have the consolation to reflect that during the period of my administration not a drop of the blood of a single fellow citizen was shed by the sword of war or of the law

Perfect happiness I believe was never intended by the deity to be the lot of any one of his creatures in this world; but that he has very much put in our power the nearness...

…vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions...

May it [American independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under...

Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself.

Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the...

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

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.

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...

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither

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.

Difficulties indeed sometimes arise; but common sense and honest intentions will generally steer through them.

The merchant has no country

He who receives ideas from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me

Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometric progression as they rise

No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to...

I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship...

Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

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.

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

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...

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.

Those who sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither.

It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it

The foundation on which all our constitution are built is the natural equality of man