The quotations of

Thomas Jefferson

Founding Father, U.S. president from 1801 to 1809

1743–1826

73 quotes, most often on Government, America and Truth & Lies. Part of the U.S. Presidents and Founding Fathers collections.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations⁠—entangling alliances with none.
Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address (1801)
- Government
- Politics
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 wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
Letter to William Charles Jarvis (28 September 1820)
- Government
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.
Letter to Thomas Cooper (29 November 1802)
- America
- Government
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.
Letter to Abigail Smith Adams from Paris while a Minister to France (22 February 1787), referring to Shay’s Rebellion. “Jefferson’s Service to the New Nation,” Library of Congress
- Government
…a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.
Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address (1801)
- Government
It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
A letter to Horatio Spofford (1814)
- Government
- Truth & Lies
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
- Government
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.
- Government
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt…If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.
From a letter to John Taylor (June 1798), after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts
- Government
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
Letter to Richard Price (8 January 1789)
- Government
The Constitution of the United States asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty.
Letter to Justice William Johnson (1823)
- Government
Experience 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.
Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington (16 January 1787)
- Government
- Money
I 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 bid defiance to the laws of our country.
to George Logan, 1816
- Business
- Government
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.
A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
- Government
- Truth & Lies
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.
Letter to Edward Carrington, Paris (27 May 1788)
- Government
- Liberty

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