Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jeffersonwas an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He was elected the second Vice President of the United States, serving under John Adams and in 1800 was elected the third President. Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, which motivated American colonists to break from Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionUS President
Date of Birth13 April 1743
CityShadwell, VA
CountryUnited States of America
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
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.
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
Paper money is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.
The whole history of these books (i.e. the Gospels) is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.
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.
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
Most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the government, and acts against the oppressions of the government. The latter are virtues, yet have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former. Real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.
It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.