No people who are ignorant can be truly free.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

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

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...

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than...

Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace

The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue...

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

The fantastical idea of virtue and the public good being a sufficient security to the state against the commission of crimes…was never mine. It is only the sanguinary hue of our penal laws which I...

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.

The Constitution of the United States is the result of the collected wisdom of our country

Sir,- I have duly received your favor of the 18th and am thankful to you for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to refuse what I do not think myself...

The art of governing consists simply of being honest, exercising common sense, following principle, and doing what is right and just.

A little rebellion now and then… is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

On every question of Construction (of the Constitution) lets us carry our-selves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, instead of trying what meaning may be...

It is unfortunate for our peace, that unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited praise has not the power to heal

All are dead, and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know us not.

The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government.

I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.

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...

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

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.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Equal rights for all, special privileges for none

History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny

The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.

Without society, and a society to our taste, men are never contented

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free.

We seldom report of having eaten too little.

I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing...

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...

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

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?

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.

We discover (in the gospels) a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication

One insult pocketed soon produces another

The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded, are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them, they cannot love us.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.

Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own...