I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.

The advertisements are the most truthful part of a newspaper.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as...

Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to John Holmes on the Missouri Statehood Question – April 20, 1820I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send me of the letter to...

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.

My creed had been formed on unsheathing the sword at Lexington

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games...

It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately. – Thomas Jefferson

I see no comfort in outliving one’s friends, and remaining a mere monument of the times which are past.

It is, however, an evil for which there is no remedy, our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost

In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the...

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it’s laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right...

I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more.”(Letter to John Banister, Jr., June 19, 1787)

The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure.

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...

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…

If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form let them stand undisturbed as monuments to the safety with which error of opinion may be...

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.

Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent with our government

The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if...

Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree...

Power is not alluring to pure minds

I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting...

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in...

It be urged that the wild and uncultivated tree, hitherto yielding sour and bitter fruit only, can never be made to yield better; yet we know that the grafting art implants a new tree on...

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and...

“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves...

Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to steal, murder, plunder, or bear...

That peace, safety, and concord may be the portion of our native land, and be long enjoyed by our fellow-citizens, is the most ardent wish of my heart, and if I can be instrumental in...