Quotes from Thomas Jefferson

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

no people can be both ignorant and free.

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

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, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not an article for mere consumption, but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

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

When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

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 played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

The dead should not rule the living.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

The government you elect is the government you deserve.

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

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 to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.

It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

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.

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

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.

Good wine is a necessity of life for me.