Thomas Jefferson Quotes - Page 50

• Every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact (casus non faederis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits. Without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Government, Would Be

  Thomas Jefferson, Merrill D. Peterson, United States. President (1801-1809 : Jefferson) (1975). “The portable Thomas Jefferson”, Viking Adult

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• The only greater [evil] than separation... [is] living under a government of discretion.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Evil, Separation

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• I do verily believe that if the principle were to prevail of a common law being in force in the United States (which principle possesses the general government at once of all the powers of the state governments, and reduces us to a single consolidated government), it would become the most corrupt government on the earth.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Believe, Government, Law

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”, p.437

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• Convinced that the republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind, my prayers & efforts shall be cordially distributed to the support of that we have so happily established. It is indeed an animating thought that, while we are securing the rights of ourselves & our posterity, we are pointing out the way to struggling nations who wish, like us, to emerge from their tyrannies also. Heaven help their struggles, and lead them, as it has done us, triumphantly thro' them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Prayer, War, Struggle

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.116, Rowman & Littlefield

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• I... [proposed] three distinct grades of education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a middle degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of life and such as should be desirable for all who were in easy circumstances. And 3d. an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences generally and in their highest degree... The expenses of [the elementary] schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth the education of the poor.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Children, Teaching, School

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• I do believe that General Washington had not a firm confidence in the durability of our government. He was naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy apprehensions; and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at length end in something like a British constitution, had some weight in his adoption of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with Congress, and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on with as little shock as might be to the public mind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Believe, Character, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.237

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• . . . in the full tide of successful experiment.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Success, Tides, July 4th 1776

  First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801

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• That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Moving, Men

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

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• I recoil with horror at the ferociousness of man. Will nations never devise a more rational umpire of differences than force? Are there no means of coercing injustice more gratifying to our nature than a waste of the blood of thousands and of the labor of millions of our fellow creatures?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Men, Blood

  Thomas Jefferson, Barbara B. Oberg, Lyman Henry Butterfield, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti (2003). “The papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 January 1798 to 31 January 1799”, Princeton Univ Pr

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• The most effective means of preventing tyranny is to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Tyrants, People

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

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• Experience has already shown that the impeachment the Constitution has provided is not even a scarecrow.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Political, President, Politics

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• There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  President, May, Motive

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.477

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• Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than that of face and stature.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Faces, Opinion, Conformity

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• Unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited praise has not the power to heal.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Abuse, Praise, Heal

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.151

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• Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Doe, Would Be, Use

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• The art of reasoning becomes of first importance. In this line antiquity has left us the finest models for imitation; I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as pre-eminent specimens of logic, taste, and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Art, Taste, Firsts

  "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson". Book by Thomas Jefferson, p. 30, 1904.

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• We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Military, Males, Citizens

  Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution”, p.257, Algora Publishing

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• It will take a thousand years for the frontier to reach the Pacific

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Years, Thousand

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• 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

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• And where else will [Hume,] this degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Son, Men, Democracy

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.261, Hackett Publishing

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• Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Law, Democracy

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Democracy, Majority, Minorities

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.592

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• To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; . . . even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern. . . .

  Thomas Jefferson

  Teacher, Religious, Men

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.390, Cambridge University Press

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• Both of our political parties, at least the honest portion of them, agree conscientiously in the same object: the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers, the other by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Believe, Ignorance

  B. L. Rayner, Thomas Jefferson (1834). “Life of Thomas Jefferson: with selections from the most valuable portions of his voluminious and unrivalled private correspondence : with portrait”, p.386

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• I hope the terms of Excellency, Honor, Worship, Esquire, forever disappear from among us... I wish that of Mr. would follow them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Forever, Political, Honor

  Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.85, Algora Publishing

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