The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. – Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. – Thomas Jefferson
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world. – Thomas Jefferson
We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. – Thomas Jefferson
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
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
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. – Thomas Jefferson
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. – Thomas Jefferson
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. – Thomas Jefferson
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. – Thomas Jefferson
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way. – Thomas Jefferson
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair. – Thomas Jefferson
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine. – Thomas Jefferson
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. – Thomas Jefferson
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. – Thomas Jefferson
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. – Thomas Jefferson
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. – Thomas Jefferson
There is not a truth existing which I fear… or would wish unknown to the whole world. – Thomas Jefferson
The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery. – Thomas Jefferson
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory. – Thomas Jefferson