“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Political
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“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Political
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“The fantastical idea of virtue and the public good being a sufficient security to the state against the commission of crimes, which you say you have heard insisted on by some, I assure you was never mine.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Virtue
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“[E]very thing is useful which contributes to fix us in the principles and practice of virtue.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Virtue
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“You have lived longer than I have and perhaps may have formed a different judgment on better grounds; but my observations do not enable me to say I think integrity the characteristic of wealth. In general I believe the decisions of the people, in a body, will be more honest and more disinterested than those of wealthy men.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Wealth
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“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor … over each other.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“What has been the effect of [religious] coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“[O]ur rules can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“No republic is more real than that of letters, and I am the last in principles, as I am the least in pretensions to any dictatorship in it.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Literature
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“When tempted to do any thing in secret, ask yourself if you would do it in public.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Temptation
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“The present war having so long cut off all communication with Great-Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she wages war is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not seem the legitimate offspring either of science or of civilization.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: War
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“The lamp of war is kindled here, not to be extinguished but by torrents of blood.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: War
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“Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“I feel a sincere wish indeed to see our government brought back to it’s republican principles, to see that kind of government firmly fixed, to which my whole life has been devoted. I hope we shall now see it so established, as that when I retire, it may be under full security that we are to continue free and happy.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“[F]rom Saratoga [N.Y.] till we got back to Northampton [Mass.], was then mostly desert. Now it is what 34. years of free and good government have made it. It shews how soon the labor of man would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for misgovernment, and a diversion of all his energies from their proper object, the happiness of man, to the selfish interests of kings, nobles and priests.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“Government is being founded on opinion, the opinion of the public, even when it is wrong, ought to be respected to a certain degree.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society, depend so much upon an upright and skilful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”
Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
