There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class

The freedom of the press is on of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government

Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

If it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a...

All that is necessary for a student is access to a library.

Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance,...

I cannot live without books.

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.

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage...

Common sense is the foundation of all authorities, of the laws themselves, and of their construction.

France is every man’s second country

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work [Plato’s Republic], I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long...

To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and...

Politics, like religion, hold up torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead…

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations…entangling alliances with none

I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find...

France.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

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.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital [Paris].

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour

Beer, if drank with moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of...

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.

Our constitution is a peace establishment it is not calculated for war. War would endanger its existence.

Most virtues when carried beyond certain bonds degenerate into vices.

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks...

The dead should not rule the living.

If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the...

So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condition of all its inhabitants.

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.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.

For Heaven’s sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum

I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one God is reviving, and I...

If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.

He who knows best knows how little he knows

Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a...

I think we are a more dangerous team with what we can do this season,