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 JEFFERSONBut friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly.
More Thomas Jefferson Quotes
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An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
If you want something you’ve never had, You must be willing to do something you’ve never done.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
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.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
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 -
It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I cannot live without books.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.
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 -
Never put off to tomorrow what you can do to-day.
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 -
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
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 -
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
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 JEFFERSON -
I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
Never spend your money before you have it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.
THOMAS JEFFERSON -
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
THOMAS JEFFERSON