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
With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties.
Truth between candid minds can never do harm.
Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless, by human interposition, disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.
Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error.
Every man has a commission to admonish, exhort, convince another of error.
With the same honest views, the most honest men often form different conclusions.
He alone who walks strict and upright, and who, in matters of opinion, will be contented that others should be as free as himself and acquiesce when his opinion is freely overruled, will attain his object in the end.
I see the necessity of sacrificing our opinions sometimes to the opinions of others for the sake of harmony.
We ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that.
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.
Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself.
I am not myself apt to be alarmed at innovations recommended by reason. That dread belongs to those whose interests or prejudices shrink from the advance of truth and science.
Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason.
Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known and seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.