Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Pleasure

• Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Men, Law

  Thomas Jefferson “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, Lulu.com

• An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Leadership, Honesty, Exercise

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.185

• Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Motivational, Truth, Freedom

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.37

• I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Happiness, Peace, Laughter

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.296, Cambridge University Press

• Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Healthy, Individuality

• Take more pleasure in giving what is best to another than in having it for yourself, and then all the world will love you.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Father, Love You, Giving

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.91, Modern Library

• I long to be in the midst of the children, and have more pleasure in their little follies than in the wisdom of the wise.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Children

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.57, Modern Library

• I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it's soil, it's climate, it's equality, liberty, laws, people & manners. my god! how little do my countrymen know.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Law, People

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.424, Cosimo, Inc.

• I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pain, Emotional, Criticism

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.109, Rowman & Littlefield

• An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens . . . There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Book, Exercise, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.185

• I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gaycapital [Paris].

  Thomas Jefferson

  Paris, Independence, Savages

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.63, Rowman & Littlefield

• We are not immortal ourselves, my friend; how can we expect our enjoyments to be so? We have no rose without its thorn; no pleasure without alloy. It is the law of our existence; and we must acquiesce.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Rose, Pleasure

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.322, Rowman & Littlefield

• I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others... An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.... Power is not alluring to pure minds and is not with them the primary principle of contest.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Men, Mind

• I do not agree that an age of pleasure is no compensation for a moment of pain.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pain, Age, Moments

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.52, Cambridge University Press

• The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask, What farmer, what merchant, what laborer ever sees a tax gatherer of the United States?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Pride, Luxury, Comfort

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