Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Animals

• Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Animal, Rights, Vegetarian Diet

• Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Animal, Economic Inequality

  Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington, 16 January 1787

• I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Animal, Vegetarian Diet, Vegetarianism

  B. L. Rayner, Thomas Jefferson (1834). “Life of Thomas Jefferson: with selections from the most valuable portions of his voluminious and unrivalled private correspondence : with portrait”, p.394

• In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Believe, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.119

• The movements of nature are in a never ending circle. The animal species which has once been put into a train of motion, is still probably moving in that train. For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another and another might be lost, till this whole system of things should evanish by piece-meal; a conclusion not warranted by the local disappearance of one or two species of animals, and opposed by the thousands and thousands of instances of the renovating power constantly exercised by nature for the reproduction of all her subjects, animal, vegetable, and mineral.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Nature, Moving, Animal

  "Revenge of the Meat-Eating Megatherium" by Brian Switek, www.wired.com. June 9, 2011.

• Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Philosophy, Animal, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

• Man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Animal, Men, Quality

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

• SIR,-Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as a history of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating very little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principle diet.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Animal, Doctors, Hands

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.321

• No society can make a perpetual constitution... The earth belongs always to the living generation.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Animal, Generations, Earth

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.596, Cambridge University Press

• Ambition is a tricky little animal to tame. It is very skillful at concealing itself from its master.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ambition, Animal, Littles

• Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value themselves on having subdued the horse to the uses of man; but I doubt whether we have not lost more than we have gained, by the use of this animal.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Horse, Exercise, Animal

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence and miscellanies from the papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.287

• I am sure the man who powders most, perfumes most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most admired. Though to be candid, there are some who have too much good sense to esteem such monkey-like animals as these, in whose formation, as the saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God Almighty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Animal, Men, Half

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1858). “The life and letters of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography and select correspondence, from original manuscripts”, p.183

• It is well known, that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude are found in great numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it ... But to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain that such a one has existed in America, and that it has been the largest of all terrestrial beings.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Lying, Animal, Skeletons

• I believe that justice is instinct and innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise Creator must have seen to be necessary in an animal destined to live in society.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Believe, Animal

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (2008). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.88, Courier Corporation

• I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible to civilization. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that the reformation must be worked.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Character, Animal, Civilization

  Bernard Mayo, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Jefferson Himself: The Personal Narrative of a Many-Sided American”, p.121, University of Virginia Press

• Not less than two hours a day should be devoded to exercise, and weather should be little regarded. A person not sick will not be injured by getting wet. It is but taking a cold bath, which never gives a cold to any one. Brute animals are the most healthy, and they are exposed to all weather, and of men, those are healthiest who are the most exposed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Men, Animal

  Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.1099, Library of America

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