American Presidents

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

—George Washington

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

—Thomas Jefferson

99% of failures come from people who make excuses.

—George Washington

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

—Thomas Jefferson

I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it’s laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another.

—Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.

—Thomas Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

—Thomas Jefferson

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

—Thomas Jefferson

Never put off to tomorrow what you can do to-day.

—Thomas Jefferson

Take care of your cents: Dollars will take care of themselves.

—Thomas Jefferson

We never repent of having eat too little.

—Thomas Jefferson

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations…entangling alliances with none.

—Thomas Jefferson

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

—Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

—Thomas Jefferson

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

—Thomas Jefferson

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.

—Thomas Jefferson

Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.

—Thomas Jefferson

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

—Thomas Jefferson

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

—Thomas Jefferson

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

—Thomas Jefferson

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