Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Virtue

• The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Heart, Godly

• Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Parent

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.110, Rowman & Littlefield

• I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Character, Men, Giving

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.109

• My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Long, Abuse, Virtue

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

• Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ambition, Government, Design

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.43, Rowman & Littlefield

• I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Practice, People

  "What works: Common sense solutions for a stronger America" by Cal Thomas, www.foxnews.com. April 8, 2014.

• Most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the government, and acts against the oppressions of the government. The latter are virtues, yet have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former. Real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Real, Government

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.353

• I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Art, Health, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: 1799-1803”, p.147, Cosimo, Inc.

• A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, Mean

• If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Religion

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.428, Penguin

• I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Educational, Men, Light

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretarry of state”, p.263

• Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen, people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

  Thomas Jefferson

  People, Peculiar, Earth

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.182, Penguin

• There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendency.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Aristocracy, Ingredients

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.187, Cambridge University Press

• Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Liberty, Virtue

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.6, Modern Library

• No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . . their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice . . . . These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Order, People

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.149

• When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community. The objects of their desires are changed; what they were fond of before has become indifferent; they were free while under the restraint of laws, but they would fain now be free to act against law.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ambition, Law, Community

• A cold-blooded, calculation, unprincipled, usurper, without a virtue, no statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ignorance, Knowing Nothing, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.352

• In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Real, Humor, Want

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.407, Penguin

• Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.... Do not be frightened from this inquiry from any fear of its consequences. If it ends in the belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Liberty, Comfort

  Thomas Jefferson's letter to Peter Carr, founders.archives.gov. August 10, 1787.

• Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Giving Up, Practice, Sublime

  "Jefferson: Political Writings".

• Health, learning and virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem and public honour.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Happiness, Teacher, Teaching

  Thomas Jefferson, Lyman Henry Butterfield, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara Oberg (1950). “The papers of Thomas Jefferson”

• History teaches the young the virtues of freedom. By apprising them of the past it will enable them to judge the future.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Past, History, Judging

• I rejoice when I hear of young men of virtue and talents, worthy to receive and likely to preserve the splendid inheritance of self- government, which we have acquired and shaped for them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Self, Inheritance

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.271, Cambridge University Press

• The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Individual Happiness, Order, Practice

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.246, Rowman & Littlefield

• To instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests and duties, as men and citizens...this brings us to the point at which are to commence the higher branches of education . . . . To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them the precepts of virtue and order.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Education, Men, Rights

  "Early history of the University of Virginia : as contained in the letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell, hitherto unpublished". Book by Thomas Jefferson, 1856.

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