2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

To seek out the best [persons to serve in the government] though the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with ther purest motives, is something incorrect....No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.

We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.

Victory and defeat are each of the same price.

Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.

Easter was when they nailed Him to the cross. And He never said a mumbling word.

To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.

The difficulty is no longer to find candidates for the offices, but offices for the candidates.

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.

[T]he true key for the construction of everything doubtful in a law is the intention of the law-makers. This is most safely gathered from the words, but may be sought also in extraneous circumstances provided they do not contradict the express words of the law.