2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth either in religion, law, or politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know, nor notice, it’s sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper the former and persecute the latter.

Determine never to be idle. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance....The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism.

New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature.

. . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

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

The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

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