2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.

Paper money is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.

Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art .

Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.

History by apprising them [the people] of the past will enable them to judge of the future. . . . It will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men: it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.

Who better to so softly bind the wound of one, than she who has suffered the wound herself.

Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.