2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Nothing but a necessity invincible by any other means can justify ... a prostitution of laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence.

I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality.

The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. . . . [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government. A plaque with this quotation, with the first phrase omitted, is in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

A man's moral sense must be unusually strong if slavery does not make him a thief.

No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.

The merchant has no country .

The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves.