Thomas Jefferson

Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. [Українська] [Русский]

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Take things always by their smooth handle.

—Thomas Jefferson

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

—Thomas Jefferson

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

—Thomas Jefferson

When angry, count 10. before you speak; if very angry, 100.

—Thomas Jefferson

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

—Thomas Jefferson

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

—Thomas Jefferson

All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.

—Thomas Jefferson

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

—Thomas Jefferson

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

—Thomas Jefferson

I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more.

—Thomas Jefferson

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

—Thomas Jefferson

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

—Thomas Jefferson

If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.

—Thomas Jefferson

How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.

—Thomas Jefferson

Never trouble another with what you can do yourself.

—Thomas Jefferson

I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

—Thomas Jefferson

Nothing is troublesome that one does willingly.

—Thomas Jefferson

I cannot live without books.

—Thomas Jefferson

Never buy a thing you do not want, because it is cheap, it will be dear to you.

—Thomas Jefferson

It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.

—Thomas Jefferson

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

—Thomas Jefferson