Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

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

Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

I cannot live without books.

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

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

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

Never spend your money before you have it.

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

No instance exists of a person's writing two languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.

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

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

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

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.