Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.
Thomas Jefferson

Pleasure, Bite, Beneath

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
Thomas Jefferson

He who knows best knows how little he knows.
Thomas Jefferson

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
Thomas Jefferson

History, Government, Bad

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
Thomas Jefferson

Men, Greatest, Down

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson

Small, Liberty, Rather

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
Thomas Jefferson

Enemy, Wishes, Says

In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.
Thomas Jefferson

Violence, Shall, Took

Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
Thomas Jefferson

Friendship, Why, Others

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
Thomas Jefferson

It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
Thomas Jefferson

Religion, Words, Lives

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
Thomas Jefferson

Good, Mind, Human

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
Thomas Jefferson

Travel, Alone, Travels

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
Thomas Jefferson

Leave, Authority, Existing

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.
Thomas Jefferson

Money, Morality, Nations

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.
Thomas Jefferson

Others, Word, Act

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.
Thomas Jefferson

Knowledge, Truth, Reason

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.
Thomas Jefferson

Pain, Happened, Cost

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson

Truth, Ignorance, Nothing

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson

Nothing, Wrong, Ideas

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
Thomas Jefferson

Him, Reputation, Carry

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
Thomas Jefferson

Life, Men, Long

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Thomas Jefferson

Government, Liberty, Progress

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.
Thomas Jefferson

May, Country, Another

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Thomas Jefferson

Person, Law, Guilty

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: President

Born: April 13, 1743

Died: July 4, 1826

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