Thomas Jefferson Quotes

To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.

The most truthful part of a newspaper is the advertisements.

My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice, and to keep my name out of the newspapers.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep the right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should […]

How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We are called by different names, brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans – we are all federalists.

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.

And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.