2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Those who don’t read the newspapers are better off than those who do insofar as those who know nothing are better off than those whose heads are filled with half-truths and lies.

The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.

By making this wine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt.

Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the conscience of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose.

If a sect arises whose tenets would subvert morals, good sense has fair play and reasons and laughs it out of doors without suffering the State to be troubled with it.

We must use a good deal of economy in our wood, never cutting down new, where we can make the old do.

We are sensible of the duty and expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with patience till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong.

The declaration that religious faith shall be unpunished does not give immunity to criminal acts dictated by religious error.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.