2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Everything yields to diligence.

The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.

I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box.

The people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights.

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.

Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

France, freed from that monster, Bonaparte, must again become the most agreeable country on earth. It would be the second choice of all whose ties of family and fortune give a preference to some other one, and the first choice of all not under those ties.

Eternal Vigilance is the price of democracy.