Top 100 Jefferson's Quotes
#1. What I'm thinking about more and more these days is simply the importance of transparency, and Jefferson's saying that he'd rather have a free press without a government than a government without a free press.
Esther Dyson
#2. The 1947 Court (Everson v. Board of Education) for the first time had used only Jefferson's metaphor - completely divorced from its context and intent.
David Barton
#3. Paine and Joel Barlow attempted to change Jefferson's mind, urging him to settle thrifty German immigrants in the new lands and to permit black families to travel from other states to acquire their own land there, but the sugar interest triumphed,
Christopher Hitchens
#4. We've become slaves to words like 'local,' 'fresh,' and 'seasonal.' We all want to be Thomas Jefferson's agrarian hero, but sustainable food is a difficult beast.
Barton Seaver
#5. Jefferson's fear was that without such a system of public education, the country would end up being ruled by a privileged elite that would recycle itself through a network of private institutions that entrenched their advantages.
Fareed Zakaria
#6. Don't use your advance to buy an antique sports car, diamonds by the yard, or a bottle of wine from Thomas Jefferson's cellar instead of investing in your book.
M.J. Rose
#7. By the late twentieth century, Jefferson's windfall would be feeding much of the world.
Edward E. Baptist
#8. The case for industry breakups comes from Thomas Jefferson's idea that occasional revolutions are important to the health of any system. As he wrote in 1787, a little rebellion every now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical one.
Tim Wu
#9. In Jefferson's mind democracy was tantamount to extreme individualism.
Herbert Croly
#10. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence is a practical document for the use of practical men. It is not a thesis for philosophers, but a whip for tyrants; it is not a theory of government but a program of action.
Woodrow Wilson
#11. There has been no organized effort to keep government down since Jefferson's day. Ever since then the American people have been bolstering up its powers and giving it more and more jurisdiction over their affairs. They pay for that folly in increased taxes and diminished liberties.
H.L. Mencken
#12. I have, for instance, silently corrected Jefferson's frequent use of "it's" for "its" and "recieve" for "receive,
Jon Meacham
#13. True, (Jefferson's) rational religion ran in rivulets outside the American mainstream, but heterodoxy is faith of a different form and, like orthodoxy, should be recognized for what it is: a way of being religious.
Stephen R. Prothero
#14. Be good children, and we shall all meet in Heaven. I want to meet you all, white and black, in Heaven. Our Federal Union! It must be preserved! [Toast at a celebration of Thomas Jefferson's birthday, April 13 1830]
Andrew Jackson
#15. Jefferson had his own privy just steps away from his bed alcove, one of three in the house proper.12 He used pieces of scrap paper for hygiene purposes.13 (Examples were collected from his privy by a family member on the day of Jefferson's death and now survive in the Library of Congress.)14 He
Jon Meacham
#16. Jefferson's extraordinary efforts to defend the rights of neutrals to trade freely drove the country into a deep depression and severely damaged his presidency. He ended up violating much of what he and his party stood for.
Gordon S. Wood
#17. It was Jefferson's genius that kept the American Revolution from being sucked into the tunnel faster than it was. Jefferson had red hair. Nothing is implied here.
Tom Robbins
#18. It was of course Jefferson's gift at one time or another to put with eloquence the "right" answer to every moral question. In practice, however, he seldom deviated from an opportunistic course, calculated to bring him power.
Gore Vidal
#19. (Jefferson's personal distaste for slavery must be put alongside the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died).
Howard Zinn
#20. I've known white Australian girls from wealthy families who were sent to posh private schools, who knew all of that stuff, and I think would recognise much in Jefferson's book. What I related to most strongly was the sexism and misogyny Margo Jefferson had to battle.
Justine Larbalestier
#21. Broadly put, philosophers think: politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power.
Jon Meacham
#22. Americans could achieve Jefferson's democratic freedoms through Hamilton's economic development strategies and trade policies.
Patrick Mendis
#23. To achieve these Jeffersonian ends, Alexander Hamilton - Jefferson's philosophical rival - devised an ingenious strategy that entailed a strong manufacturing base, a national banking system, a centralized federal government, and an export-led economic scheme protected by the U.S. Navy.
Patrick Mendis
#24. After the Great Depression and after public urging, a nationwide public competition was held to determine a design for a memorial that would honor President Thomas Jefferson's bold vision for westward expansion for America.
Russ Carnahan
#25. A man liberated from monarchical or hereditary limitations stood a greater chance of possessing a mind free to roam and to grow and to create and to innovate in a climate in which citizens lived together in essential harmony and affection.87 This was Jefferson's ideal republic - and he was
Jon Meacham
#26. Political war was to be the rule, not the exception, in American life. "The country is so totally given up to the spirit of party, that not to follow blindfold the one or the other is an inexpiable offense," Adams wrote during Jefferson's first term.12
Jon Meacham
#28. Having joy in God not because of circumstances but despite circumstances is what makes God look great - and it's a true joy that comes from within.
Jefferson Bethke
#29. The Bible rarely tells me to fight against someone who doesn't believe what I believe, but it frequently tells me to fight against my sin and the disease in me that's drawing me away from Jesus.
Jefferson Bethke
#30. As computers have become more powerful, computer graphics have advanced to the point where it's possible to create photo-realistic images. The bottleneck wasn't, 'How do we make pixels prettier?' It was, 'How do we engage with them more?'
Jefferson Han
#31. Jefferson subsequently came to believe that Henry's speech attacking the Stamp Act had been "the dawn of the Revolution."36
John Ferling
#33. For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.
Thomas Jefferson
#34. We're tying off string at the edge of Hampton's claim when I notice Jefferson staring at me. "You don't have to watch my eyes," I grumble. "When I sense gold, I'll tell you straight."
"That's not why I'm looking," he replies, and Hampton fails to keep the grin from his face.
Rae Carson
#35. Creativity isn't far away, or outside of you. It's an inner movement, a heart-shift, a joy making its way out of your throat or hands or feet. So go for it. No one's watching. The payoff is magnificent.
Margo Jefferson
#36. The minute you think you have gotten on God's good side by your own behavior, you are naturally prone to demonize those who haven't.
Jefferson Bethke
#37. The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.
Thomas Jefferson
#38. Law is often the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.
Thomas Jefferson
#39. You will perceive by my preaching that I am growing old: it is the privilege of years, and I am sure you will pardon it from the purity of it's motives.
Thomas Jefferson
#40. In seeking an empire of liberty, Jefferson wished not only to expand the country's territorial holdings, but also to extend American institutions around the globe.
Robert Dallek
#41. President George Washington's namesake capital, once a marketplace for slave auctions, is now synonymous with democracy and freedom; so is the iconic Jefferson, who wanted to build an "Empire of Liberty" for the world.
Patrick Mendis
#42. For better or worse, there is not a situation in one's daily life that does not have feminist subtext, superstructure, implications and one is constantly aware of it, even when you want to rest it stands up and hits you in the face.
Margo Jefferson
#43. He is the kind of person I should expect to rescue one from a mad dog at any risk but then insist on a stoical indifference to the fright afterward. Jefferson Davis's future wife describing him at first meeting.
Shelby Foote
#44. Every man's reason is his own rightful umpire. This principle, with that of acquiescence in the will of the majority, will preserve us free and prosperous as long as they are sacredly observed.
Thomas Jefferson
#45. No instance exists of a person's writing two language perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.
Thomas Jefferson
#46. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were political enemies, but they became fast friends. And when they passed away on the same day, the last words of one of them was, The country is safe. Jefferson still lives. And the last words of the other was, John Adams will see that things go forward.
Harry S. Truman
#47. Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Thomas Jefferson
#48. I am sure that in estimating every man's value either in private or public life, a pure integrity is the quality we take first into calculation, and that learning and talents are only the second.
Thomas Jefferson
#49. Brave men don't fight for nothing, like children.' protested Howell's (Major Joe Howell) friend. 'We want to know what we are fighting about. If we are wrong we may apologize.
Herbert Asbury
#50. Thomas Jefferson High
School [..] His high school was named after a slave owner who was also one of
the world's greatest theoreticians on the subject of human liberty.
Kurt Vonnegut
#51. When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
#52. Good humor, Jefferson added, "is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society all the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration;
Jon Meacham
#53. There's a growing body of evidence that meditation actually reduces cortisol and promotes better health.
Charles G. Jefferson
#54. I don't know what we did without Velcro in the American theater. It's a miracle substance! People had long intermissions, probably.
Jefferson Mays
#55. A lot of data, whether it's imagery or other kinds of things, work really well when it's geographically laid out. I'm talking about imagery, statistics, incidents and other things that happen around the globe.
Jefferson Han
#56. I see no comfort in outliving one's friends, and remaining a mere monument of the times which are past.
Thomas Jefferson
#57. The Civil War was the climax of a tragedy that was preordained from the time of the Revolution. Only with the elimination of slavery could this nation that Jefferson had called "the world's best hope" for democracy even begin to fulfill its great promise.
Gordon S. Wood
#58. Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South's two halves together.
Jefferson Davis
#59. Depression is so treacherous - it can be so alluring as well as punishing. After all, it's yours and yours alone - no one else can interfere with it.
Margo Jefferson
#60. I have lived temperately ... I double the doctor's recommendation of a glass and a half wine each day and even treble it with a friend.
Thomas Jefferson
#62. A Man's management of his own purse speaks volumes about character
Thomas Jefferson
#63. Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate.
Hunter S. Thompson
#64. Excessive taxation ... will carry reason & reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.
Thomas Jefferson
#65. Questioning our government's actions does not violate the principles of liberty, equality, and freedom of speech; it exercises them, and by exercise we grow stronger. I have read enough of Thomas Jefferson to feel sure
Barbara Kingsolver
#66. Grace just flows. It's a one-way type of love that runs the conduit directly from God's heart to ours.
Jefferson Bethke
#67. The United States has already passed on as the world's economic leader. Having flouted Thomas Jefferson for too long, America has succumbed to public debt, the 'fore horse for oppression and despotism,' after which 'taxation will follow, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
Ilana Mercer
#68. No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read.
(The Course of Human Events, NEH Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities 2003)
David McCullough
#69. Freedom has been privatized - it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That's fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.
Eric Foner
#70. She and Don were taken to a hangar where a pair of F-15 fighter jets were waiting: his and hers, as it turned out. "Why?" Don asked uneasily. "We're taking you to the U.S.S. William Jefferson Clinton." "An aircraft carrier?
Thomas Waite
#72. While learning the language in France a young man's morals, health and fortune are more irresistibly endangered than in any country of the universe.
Thomas Jefferson
#73. It is in the love of one's family only that heartfelt happiness is known.
Thomas Jefferson
#74. I'm kind of a reluctant Anglophile. My mother's a children's librarian, and all of the children's literature I read was from her childhood - E. Nesbit and Dickens, which isn't children's literature at all, but I was sort of steeped in English literature. I thought I was of that world.
Jefferson Mays
#75. Jeez!You're making me want to take you on the grass again.
Paige Toon
#76. I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial.
Thomas Jefferson
#77. On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar.
Thomas Jefferson
#78. Heaven isn't a place for people who are scared of hell; it's for people who love Jesus.
Jefferson Bethke
#79. What Are the Odds? Here's an astonishing fact: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who were the only signers of the Declaration of Independence to become president, both died on July 4, 1826.
Kendra Hazlett Armstrong
#80. A man's moral sense must be unusually strong if slavery does not make him a thief.
Thomas Jefferson
#81. He does most in God's great world who does his best in his own little world.
Thomas Jefferson
#82. One of my favorite things about following Jesus is I get to drop the act, admit I'm not good enough, walk in freedom-and that's good news.
Jefferson Bethke
#83. Didn't Gandalf say "With great power comes great responsibility"? (If it wasn't Gandalf, maybe it was Thomas Jefferson. Or Spider-Man's uncle.)
Tom Angleberger
#84. We Americans think, in every country in transition, there's a Thomas Jefferson hiding behind some rock or a James Madison beyond one sand dune.
Joe Biden
#85. Jim Harrison's novels, John McPhee's nonfiction, Flannery O'Connor's short stories, and the crime novels of John Sandford, Ken Bruen, and T. Jefferson Parker. His books
C.J. Box
#86. I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.
Thomas Jefferson
#87. Sometimes how we dialogue in today's culture is just as important as why we dialogue.
Jefferson Bethke
#88. If the book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose.
Thomas Jefferson
#89. There was a lot of playing by myself, wearing last year's Halloween costume and wandering around the yard talking to myself - which may account for my fondness for doing different voices.
Jefferson Mays
#90. I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother's aunt who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and a few others.
B.B. King
#91. What's important is that you can be a wife and mother or you can be a devoted daughter all your life. You can't be both. Not when Thomas Jefferson is your father. You have to choose, Patsy. His
Stephanie Dray
#92. But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake.
Pat Robertson
#93. For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum
Thomas Jefferson
#94. People like Jefferson, Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony and M. L. K. are larger than life to me. I find myself staring at photographs of Lincoln almost in disbelief that he was a man who walked the earth and not merely some fiction writer's creation.
Henry Rollins
#95. I think it's God that makes people care for people, Jefferson. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. I believe it's God that brings loved ones together. I believe it's God that makes trees bud and food grow out of the earth.
Ernest J. Gaines
#96. Most Americans are unaware that Thomas Jefferson was the first American president to go to war against radical Islam. Jefferson was very concerned with Islam's war-like doctrine and its inability to separate mosque and state.
Brad Thor
#97. Be honest about your weakness, be honest that you're scared, and be honest about the fact that it's Jesus who defeats the sins that trip you up, not you. God cast us as Israel, not the hero.
Jefferson Bethke
#98. We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object is the same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth and the resources of other nations.
Thomas Jefferson
#99. The problem with fear-based Christianity is we only obey when the fear is there. If you only want to obey God when you feel threatened by his commands, it's not God you worship, but your fear.
Jefferson Bethke
#100. Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one's family and affairs.
Thomas Jefferson
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