Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Patriotism

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  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

• What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, Gun

  Letter toWilliam Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

• What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, Gun

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

• The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, People

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.268

• The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Patriotic, Heart

  Thomas Jefferson, J. Jefferson Looney (2004). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815”, p.265, Princeton University Press

• My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, correspondence and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by T.J. Randolph”, p.239

• On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotism, Trying, May

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.382

• Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Love You, Patriotism

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.423

• Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotism, Liberty, Civil Rights

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (2008). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.66, Courier Corporation

• The people cannot be all, and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotic, Tyrants, People

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.268

• My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Patriotism, Firsts

  Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution”, p.244, Algora Publishing

• It is Mortifying to suppose it possible that a people able and zealous to contend with the Enemy should be reduced to fold their Arms for want of the means of defence; yet no resources that we know of, ensure us against this event.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, People, Patriotism

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs Corespondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson Late, President of the United States: Now First Published the Original Manuscripts”, p.191

• We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Thinking, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.384, Cambridge University Press

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