2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.

If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done.

The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty...students' perusal of the sacred volume will make us better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.

The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises; being assured that they will gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God.

I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.