Best Thomas Jefferson Quotes

These are some of the best Thomas Jefferson quotes , mainly about government and attitude. Thomas Jefferson lived from 1743 to 1826 and was one of the Founding fathers of the United States of America. He was key to authoring the United States Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

• "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

• "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

• "When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred."

• “I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

• "Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits."

• "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

• "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."

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

• "Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor."

• "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion."

• "Walking is the very best exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."

• "The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money."

More Thomas Jefferson quotes below.

More Thomas Jefferson Quotes

• "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."

• "Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."

• "Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do."

• "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

• "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?"

• "How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened."

• "He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

• "I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give."

• "In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current."

• "Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly."

• "That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."

• "It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail."

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