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.
THOMAS JEFFERSONExperience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
More Thomas Jefferson Quotes
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I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
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 -
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 -
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
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 -
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
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 for their own purposes.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
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 -
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 -
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Take things always by their smooth handle.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
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 JEFFERSON -
When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Think as you please, and so let others, and you will have no disputes.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.
THOMAS JEFFERSON