Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Justice

• I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Anchors, Law

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.71

• I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

  Thomas Jefferson

  God, Country, War

  Notes on the State of Virginia, query 18 (1781 - 1785)

• I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever: that, considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Mean, Sleep

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.404

• The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Justice, Inalienable Rights

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.574

• Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Justice, Humanity

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.21, Rowman & Littlefield

• We owe gratitude to France, justice to England, good will to all, and subservience to none ... it was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gratitude, Fall, Agency

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph”, p.372

• It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice

  Thomas Jefferson

  Peace, Integrity, War

  Thomas Jefferson, Andrew M. Allison (1983). “The Real Thomas Jefferson”, Natl Center for Constitutional

• Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have remover their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Bible, God

  Notes on the State of Virginia, query 18 (1781 - 1785)

• We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.-Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Justice, Humanity, Honor

  Bernard Mayo, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Jefferson Himself: The Personal Narrative of a Many-Sided American”, p.55, University of Virginia Press

• But the Chief Justice says, 'There must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere.' True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in convention, at the call of Congress or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our Constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Mean, Two

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.298

• We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Self, Justice, Ears

  On slavery in the United States, 1820, in J. C. Miller 'The Wolf by the Ears' (1977)

• Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Justice, Persuasion

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

• The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Should Have, Justice

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.431, Penguin

• If the question [before justices of the peace] relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Judging, Justice

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.37, Cosimo, Inc.

• The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them, they cannot love us.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Equality, Two, Justice

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson memorial association of the United States (1907). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson”

• 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”

• Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of [any difficult situation] in the easiest manner possible.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Truth, Lying, Difficult Situations

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.286

• What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Justice, Gentleman, Dying

• The provisions we have made [for our government] are such as please ourselves; they answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Justice, Purpose

• War is not the best engine for us to resort to; nature has given us one in our commerce, which if properly managed, will be a better instrument for obliging the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Europe, Justice

  Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.137, Algora Publishing

• [A] spirit of justice and friendly accomodation...is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Justice, Friendly, Spirit

• It is not to the moderation and justice of others we are to trust for fair and equal access to market with out productions, or for our due share in the transportation of them; but to our own means of independence, and the firm will to use them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Justice, Independence

  Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.552, Library of America

• Perhaps it will be found that to obtain a just republic (and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach its greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may be found in its councils free from particular interests, and giving, therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Government, Giving

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.165, Cosimo, Inc.

• No person shall be restrained of his liberty but by regular process from a court of justice, authorized by a general law. . . . On complaint of an unlawful imprisonment to any judge whatsoever, he shall have the prisoner immediately brought before him and shall discharge him if his imprisonment be unlawful. The officer in whose custody the prisoner is shall obey the order of the judge, and both judge and officer shall be responsible civilly and criminally for a failure of duty herein.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Order, Justice

• The constitution has divided the powers of government into three branches, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, lodging each with a distinct magistracy. The Legislative it has given completely to the Senate and House of Representatives. It has declared that the Executive powers shall be vested in the President, submitting special articles of it to a negative by the Senate, and it has vested the Judiciary power in the courts of justice, with certain exceptions also in favor of the Senate.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Justice, House

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretary of state”, p.465

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