01c. 1784 ADExperience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
02c. 1784 ADWhen angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
03c. 1784 ADWhat a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
04c. 1784 ADEverything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
05c. 1784 ADHere was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of VirThomas Jefferson / quote ↗
06c. 1784 ADThe whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
09c. 1784 ADIf we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
10c. 1784 ADThe greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.--The Fruit HuntersThomas Jefferson / quote ↗
11c. 1784 ADThe equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
12c. 1784 ADIf once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
13c. 1784 ADThe natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
14c. 1784 ADI hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
15c. 1784 ADTo compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
16c. 1784 ADCommerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
17c. 1784 ADOur country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
18c. 1784 ADIt is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justiceThomas Jefferson / quote ↗
19c. 1784 ADWe 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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ... But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security...Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
20c. 1784 ADI hope we shall ... crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and to bid defiance to the laws of their country.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
21c. 1784 ADThe opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
22c. 1784 ADThat liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
23c. 1784 ADThe main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. . . . [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government.(A plaque with this quotation, with the first phrase omitted, is in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.)Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
24c. 1784 ADSometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.Thomas Jefferson / quote ↗
