Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I hold to be of itself a lesson for all those who love liberty, and who would extend its blessings to their country. Men are not to be pedants in liberty, any more than in virtue. Though they are not to be oppressed by tyrants, they must at least be governed by their fellow-men. The great principles of independence in the heart of man are to be cherished and upheld; but order, prosperity, the purposes of society, must be accomplished. The many must delegate the government of themselves to the few. Control, executive power, must be lodged somewhere …

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

There have been in this century only one great man and one great thing: Napoleon and liberty. For want of the great man, let us have the great thing.

I would not like a king who could obey.

Where the law ends tyranny begins.

There never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.

What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

Many people say that government is necessary because some men cannot be trusted to look after themselves, but anarchists say that government is harmful because no men can be trusted to look after anyone else.

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom

'Twixt kings and tyrants there's this difference known: Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own.

France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams.

I do not want to be recorded in history as the man who bequeathed a tyranny.

If men's minds were as easily controlled as their tongues, every king would sit safely on his throne

Was not the issue this: whether mankind should be divided between those who command and those who serve; between those who use others at their will and those who must submit; whether the measure of a man's power to shape his own destiny should be the force at his disposal? Our nation was founded upon an answer to those questions, and we have fought this war to make good that answer.

I do not want history to record me as someone who has bequeathed to his nation the institution of despotism.

In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, 'Now shut up and obey me.' People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business.

Peoples nurtured on freedom and self-government judge any other form of polity to be deformed and unnatural. Those who are used to monarchy do the same .

The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty.

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.

Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

We make a great mistake in supposing all people are capable of self-government.