46 Quotes About Thomas-jefferson

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.

For these rich men, freedom was not the power to make choices; freedom was the power to create choices. England created the choices, the policies American elites had to abide by, just as planters created choices and policies that laborers had to follow. Only power gave Jefferson and other wealthy White colonists freedom from England. For Jefferson, power came from freedom. Indeed, power creates freedom, not the other way around - as the powerless are taught.

John Locke and Thomas Jefferson both were great men in politics; however, they both were wrong in their beliefs of what rights men should have. Both men left out one of the most important rights that all humans should have and that right is 'equality'.

But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule.

We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here highly resolve that we shall pass them on, as we will pass on an undivided Republic purged of racism and slavery, to our descendants. The popgun discharges of a few pathetic sectarians and crackpot revisionists are negligible, and will be drowned by the mounting chorus that demands: 'Mr Jefferson! BUILD UP THAT WALL'.

What he learned from his favorite teacher was not obedience to authority but delight in the exercise of his mind.