The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.
THOMAS JEFFERSONHow little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
More Thomas Jefferson Quotes
-
-
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Never put off to tomorrow what you can do to-day.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
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 my pocket nor breaks my leg.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Every human being must be viewed according to what it is good for. For not one of us, no, not one, is perfect. And were we to love none who had imperfection, this world would be a desert for our love.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
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 shall place them beyond the reach of accident.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
THOMAS JEFFERSON