Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Wisdom

• Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Positive, Wisdom

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.112
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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

• In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  Thomas Jefferson (2013). “The Jefferson Bible [annotated]: Original Old English Version and Modern Updates to The Jefferson Bible”, p.139, BookBaby

• He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Wisdom, Fun

• To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Men, Ideas

• Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Education, Wisdom, People

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

• A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.65, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Law, Tyrants

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.224, Cambridge University Press

• I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Peace, War

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.254, Rowman & Littlefield

• The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; and he who knows most knows best how little he knows.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Weakness

  Thomas Jefferson (1941). “The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson: Including the Jefferson Bible, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,"”

• It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, War, Government Debt

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.184, Cosimo, Inc.

• A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Government, History

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State”, p.82

• To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association-the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Father, Exercise

  Thomas Jefferson (1900). “The Life and Writings of ...”

• A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Government, Medicine

  Letter to James Madison, 30 Jan. 1787

• An occasional insurrection will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Government, Aristocracy

• I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Death, Wisdom, Religious

• The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen states in the course of eleven years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of government prevent insurrections.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Country, Thinking

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.277

• Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Book, Fate

  Thomas Jefferson (2012). “Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

• At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about "a public debt being a public blessing"; that the stock representing it was a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in dreams.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Dream, Wisdom, Blessing

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.239

• preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Educational, Ignorance

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.8

• The banks themselves were doing business on capitals three-fourths of which were fictitious. This fictitious capital... is now to be lost, and to fall on somebody; it must take on those who have property to meet it, and probably on the less cautious part, who, not aware of the impending catastrophe, have suffered themselves to contract, or to be in debt, and must now sacrifice their property of a value many times the amount of the debt. We have been truly sowing the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Fall, Sacrifice

• The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Workout, Children

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.130, Hackett Publishing

• 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

• If you have to eat crow, eat it while it's young and tender.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Motivational, Wisdom, Crow

• I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Hope, Wisdom, Fear

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.49, Cambridge University Press

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