Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happines s to himself from the exercise of power over others. -- Thomas Jefferson No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.Ê -- Thomas Jefferson Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstr ucted action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of other s. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyr ant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual. -- Thomas Jefferson What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time t o time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? -- Thomas Jefferson In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. -- Thoma s Jefferson That government is best which governs least. -- Thomas Jefferson Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. -- Thomas Jefferson It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected toge ther, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately. -- T homas Jefferson The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is , as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. -- Thom as Jefferson The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such nature. They disarm o nly those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... such laws serve rather to encourage than to prevent homocides, for an unarmed man may be a ttacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -- Thomas Jefferson The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. -- Thomas Jefferson The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discoun ting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.ÊÊ -- Thomas Jefferson The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain gr ound. -- Thomas Jefferson What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be r efreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its nat ural manure.Ê -- Thomas Jefferson When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the governm ent, there is tyranny.Ê -- Thomas Jefferson The federal government is our servant, not our master! -- Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but be tter so than not to be exercised at all. -- Thomas Jefferson