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
The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven. I can scarcely expect bread.
It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.
What has been the effect of coericion [sic]? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and errors all over the earth... [Instead] reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves.
I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it.
Those who bear equally the burthens of Government should equally participate of its benefits.
It would not be for the public good to have [a majority in Congress of one party] greater [than] two to one.
It is an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end.
It is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.
Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
All through your life, you'll be faced with making a decision between two things-choose the one that is right. If they are both right, then choose the one that will make you feel the best about it at the end of the day.
Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts.
For the power given to Congress by the Constitution does not extend to the internal regulation of the commerce of a State (that is to say, of the commerce between citizen and citizen,) which remain exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian tribes.
[F]alsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
Tobacco is a culture productive of infinite wretchedness.