Thomas Jefferson Quotes

In truth, the parties of Whig [Liberal] and Tory [Conservative] are those of nature. They exist in all countries, whether called by these names, or by those of Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles, and Liberals.

The appellation of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all [political] parties.

Men have differed in opinion and been divided into parties by these opinions from the first origin of societies, and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak. The same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed through all time.

Wherever there are men, there will be parties; and wherever there are free men they will make themselves heard. Those of firm health and spirits are unwilling to cede more of their liberty than is necessary to preserve order; those of feeble constitutions will wish to see one strong arm able to protect them from the many. These are the Whigs and Tories of nature…

Republicans will take on people in the interest of power. Democrats will take on power in the interests of people.

The division of Whig and Tory... is the most salutary of all divisions and ought, therefore, to be fostered instead of being amalgamated; for take away this, and some more dangerous principle of division will take its place.

On my conservative days I’m a Democrat.

I was never a Democrat but there are some Republicans who think I ought to be.

To abolish all distinctions of party may not be practicable, perhaps not desirable, in a free government

The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.

The liberals of both the Democratic and Republican Parties are the instruments of Satan to destroy the former great principles of these two political parties.

We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists

Democrats never agree on anything, that's why they're Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they would be Republicans.

A Whig [Liberal] may be a fool, a Tory [Conservative] must be so.

A liberal Republican is a contradiction in terms ... a moderate Republican is a liberal who doesn't like to call himself a liberal.

Party divisions, whether on the whole operating for good or evil, are things inseparable from free government.

There are two great antagonistic principles at the root of all government, stability and experiment. The former is Tory, and the latter is Whig.

The democrat is a young conservative; the conservative is an old democrat. The aristocrat is the democrat ripe and gone to seed.

The Democrats fought with the conservatives. The Republicans fought with the liberals. The Bull Moosers fought with everybody.

There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between politicians of either major party.

…to make a commonwealth is to divide it into parties, which setteth them at perpetual variance, the one party endeavouring to preserve their eminence and inequality, and the other to attain their equality.

The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.

You've got the brain-washed, that's the Democrats, and the brain-dead, that's the Republicans!

I think my message goes out to the entire spectrum of political parties. I'm supported by the Tea Party, the Conservative Party and the Republican Party. I come from a Democratic world. My world is moderate Democrats, Reagan-type Democrats if you want, the blues or whatever you call them, the Blue Dogs. That's been my world, historically.

I'm also politically independent so I'm not a fan of either the Democrats in Congress or the Republicans in Congress.