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1 " 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 , Letters of Thomas Jefferson
2 " Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty. "
― Thomas Jefferson
3 " 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. "
4 " 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. "
5 " There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people. "
6 " 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 , Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters
7 " I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led. "
8 " It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. "
9 " And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. "
10 " Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. "
11 " The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. "
12 " not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. "
― Thomas Jefferson , The Declaration of Independence
13 " Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. "
14 " I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another. "
15 " I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. "
16 " They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live. "
17 " Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument. "
18 " A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be. "
19 " The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. "
20 " 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. "
