Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Wikipedia tells us that Jefferson was the 3^rd president, the main author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the more influential founding fathers. He was a strong supporter of states rights, religious freedom, and republican ideals. But mainly, it was liberty and freedom that motivated Jefferson. The original idea of government in the U.S. is captured in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson:

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. 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.

These quotes from Jefferson give you insight into the thoughts of one of the founding fathers of our country. Some of these quotes eerily serve as warnings for today’s over-reaching federal government from 200 years ago.

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

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

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.