2,194 Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

The dead should not rule the living

The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.

[A]lthough a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible.

Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits?

On the subject of the history of the American Revolution, you ask who shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it? Nobody, except merely its external facts... all its councils, designs and discussions having been conducted by Congress [behind] closed doors - and no members, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which are the life and soul of history, must forever be unknown.

A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

One never really knows how much one has been touched by a place until one has left it.

When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.