Thomas Jefferson

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Biography of Thomas Jefferson
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Quote	Categories	Rating	Rate
"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."	Freedom, Friends, Government
"No more good must be attempted than the people can bear."	Evil
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."	America, Faith, Freedom
"It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read."	Life, Reading, Religion
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."	Ability, Government, Hope
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."	Men
"My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair."	Dreams, Hope, Sleeping
"It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."	Miscellaneous
"...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."	Miscellaneous
"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."	Friends, Honesty, Peace
"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."	Government, Honesty, Lies
"When a man has cast his longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."	Men
"How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened."	Evil, Good
"Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly."	Knowledge, Monarchy, Wisdom
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."	Education
"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe."	Government
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."	Government
"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 a patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the principles of our government."	Government
"With your talents and industry, with science, and that stedfast honesty which eternally pursues right, regardless of consequences, you may promise yourself every thing-but health, without which there is no happiness. An attention to health then should take place of every other object. The time necessary to secure this by active exercises, should be devoted to it in preference to every other pursuit."	Health
"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 procuring or preserving them, I shall think I have not lived in vain."	Peace
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Browse Thomas Jefferson quotes by category:

Ability	Accomplishment	Achievement
Adversity	Age	America
Anger	Anti-Religion	Argument
Art	Attitude	Beauty
Books	Change	Character
Conflict	Courage	Death
Decision-Making	Democracy	Desires
Difficulty	Dreams	Duty
Economics	Education	Equality
Evil	Excellence	Failure
Faith	Family	Fear
Freedom	Friends	Goals
God	Good	Government
Guns	Happiness	Health
Help	History	Honesty
Hope	Joy	Knowledge
Law	Liberty	Lies
Life	Men	Military
Miscellaneous	Monarchy	Money
Nature	Peace	Politics
Power	Presidency	Quotations
Race	Reading	Religion
Responsibility	School	Sin
Sleeping	Strength	Success
Talent	Taxes	Teaching
Time	Truth	Violence
Virtue	Wants	War
Wisdom	Wishing