Word Celebrity Blog

SOME QUOTATIONS BY THOMAS JEFFERSON


"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself  from the exercise of power over others."

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

























"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."

"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"Every generation needs a new revolution."

"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences."

"The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

"He who receives ideas from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me."



















"Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of  liberty."

"History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is."

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”

"I thought the work would be very innocent, and one which might be confined to the reason of any man; not likely to be much read if let alone, but, if persecuted, it will be vindication of his rights to buy, and to read what he pleases."


























"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately."

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail."

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”

"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."

"Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential."

"I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our Government to trial, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."