~ Thomas Jefferson Quotes ~

[MysteRy]

If a due participation of office is a matter of right how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few: by resignation none.

[MysteRy]

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

[MysteRy]

The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.

[MysteRy]

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

[MysteRy]

I am mortified to be told that in the United States of America the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry and of criminal inquiry too.

[MysteRy]

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because if there be one he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blind-folded fear.

[MysteRy]

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

[MysteRy]

But friendship is precious not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

[MysteRy]

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

[MysteRy]

It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine well his own opinion.

[MysteRy]

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.

[MysteRy]

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

[MysteRy]

Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God if He ever had a chosen people whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

[MysteRy]

If you are obliged to neglect any thing let it be your chemistry. It is the least useful and the least amusing to a country gentleman of all the ordinary branches of science.

[MysteRy]

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it. To myself personally it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.