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570 Powerful Thomas Jefferson Quotes to Inspire You

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1. “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

Thomas Jefferson

Democracy, Majority, Rights, Minority, Political Philosophy

2. “He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”

Thomas Jefferson

Ideas, Sharing, Knowledge, Education, Collaboration

3. “The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.”

Thomas Jefferson

Policy, Freedom, Governance, Independence, Individualism

4. “It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers but by their distribution that good government is effected.”

Thomas Jefferson

Government, Power, Distribution, Democracy, Governance

5. “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny, Silence, Conscience, Resistance, Social Responsibility

6. “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”

Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny, Law, Rebellion, Resistance, Rights

7. “Taste cannot be controlled by law.”

Thomas Jefferson

Taste, Law, Freedom, Expression, Art

8. “The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

Thomas Jefferson

God, Liberty, Security, Belief, National Values

9. “The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”

Thomas Jefferson

Government, Honesty, Integrity, Ethics, Leadership

10. “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”

Thomas Jefferson

Trial By Jury, Justice, Constitution, Governance, Rights

11. “An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.”

Thomas Jefferson

Enemy, Belief, Subjectivity, Conflict, Perspective

12. “Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry...”

Thomas Jefferson

Civil Rights, Religion, Independence, Opinions, Equality

13. “I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief that they have known something of what has been passing in their times.”

Thomas Jefferson

Media, Awareness, Misinformation, Society, Critique

14. “Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.”

Thomas Jefferson

Ambition, Corruption, Power, Conduct, Politics

15. “I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”

Thomas Jefferson

Government, Energy, Control, Oppression, Philosophy

16. “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.”

Thomas Jefferson

Media, Trust, Misinformation, Skepticism, Information

17. “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.”

Thomas Jefferson

Labor, Agriculture, Value, Spirituality, Nature

18. “Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.”

Thomas Jefferson

Religion, Opinion, Diversity, Censorship, Tolerance

19. “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

Thomas Jefferson

Liberty, Rights, Law, Individuality, Freedom

20. “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

Thomas Jefferson

Compulsion, Funding, Belief, Morality, Tyranny

21. “Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. The small landowners are the most precious part of a state.”

Thomas Jefferson

Property, Rights, Land, Society, Justice

22. “One man with courage is a majority.”

Thomas Jefferson

Courage, Empowerment, Individuality, Leadership, Motivation

23. “Delay is preferable to error.”

Thomas Jefferson

Delay, Caution, Decision-making, Error, Wisdom

24. “Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.”

Thomas Jefferson

Willingness, Attitude, Effort, Perspective, Acceptance

25. “To every obstacle oppose patience, perseverance and soothing language.”

Thomas Jefferson

Obstacles, Patience, Perseverance, Communication, Strategy

26. “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”

Thomas Jefferson

Press, Freedom, Safety, Democracy, Literacy

27. “If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its hearts, where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as Haman’s.”

Thomas Jefferson

Governance, Emotion, History, Justice, Reflection