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...

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

The most fortunate of us all in our journey through life frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which greatly afflict us. To fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be...

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against...

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.

The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Money, not morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations

Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing . . . this enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to it’s consummation. it shall have all my...

It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power [the judiciary] is independent of the nation.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

They (preachers) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live

But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.

Freedom, the first-born of science.

In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.

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...

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.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

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.

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

And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as...

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Sound principles will not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not perhaps happen but from the temptations offered...

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,...

My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave the consequences to Him who has the disposal of them

Defamation is becoming a necessity of life; inasmuch as a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them

I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and...

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.–The Fruit Hunters

. . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than...

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that i wish it to be always kept alive….I like a little rebellion now and then. It is...

I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened,...

I believe that justice is instinct and innate; the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as the threat of feeling, seeing and hearing.