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Truth, between candid minds, can never do harm.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John Adams, Jul. 17, 1791
I never did in my life, either by myself or by any other, have a sentence of mine inserted in a newspaper without putting my name to it; and I believe I never shall.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John Adams, Jul. 17, 1791
A tour of duty, in whatever line he can be most useful to his country, is due from every individual.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to James Madison, Jun. 9, 1793
The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the tumult of the world. It leads me to seek for happiness in the lap and love of my family, in the society of my neighbors and my books, in the wholesome occupations of my farm and my affairs, in an interest or affection in every bud that opens, in every breath that blows around me, in an entire freedom of rest, of motion, of thought, owing account to myself alone of my hours and actions.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to James Madison, Jun. 9, 1793
It is not to the moderation and justice of others we are to trust for fair and equal access to market with out productions, or for our due share in the transportation of them; but to our own means of independence, and the firm will to use them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, Report of Secretary of State on Trade and the Tariff, Dec. 16, 1793
Perhaps it will be found that to obtain a just republic (and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach its greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may be found in its councils free from particular interests, and giving, therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Monsieur D'Ivernois, Feb. 6, 1795
It is unfortunate that the efforts of mankind to recover the freedom of which they have been so long deprived will be accompanied with violence, with errors, and even with crimes. But while we weep over the means, we must pray for the end.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Monsieur D'Ivernois, Feb. 6, 1795
Nothing but good can result from an exchange of information and opinions between those whose circumstances and morals admit no doubt of the integrity of their views.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Elbridge Gerry, May 13, 1797
You and I have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the streets to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats. This may do for young men with whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to peaceable minds. Tranquility is the old man's milk.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Edward Rutledge, Jun. 24, 1797
It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to James Lewis, Jr., May 9, 1798
Those who have once got an ascendancy, and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantage.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John Taylor, Jun. 1, 1798
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John Taylor, Jun. 1, 1798
When great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out for what good may arise from them as consolations to us, and Providence has in fact so established the order of things, as that most evils are the means of producing some good.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sep. 23, 1800
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, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sep. 23, 1800
Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1801
Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1801
Opinion, and the just maintenance of it, shall never be a crime in my view.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Samuel Adams, Mar. 29, 1801
To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus Himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which He wished any one to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to Himself every human excellence; and believing He never claimed any other.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Apr. 21, 1803
It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself to resist invasions of it in the case of others, or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Apr. 21, 1803
When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Wilson C. Nicholas, Sep. 7, 1803
I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Albert Gallatin, Dec. 13, 1803
When you and I look back on the country over which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit! Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under all the inspiring energies of health and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of war, they are strewed by the way, some earlier, some later, and scarce a few stragglers remain to count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet, by their own fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable thing to bear up through the heat of the action, to witness the death of all our companions, and merely be the last victim? I doubt it. We have, however, the traveller's consolation. Every step shortens the distance we have to go; the end of our journey is in sight.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Governor John Page, Jun. 25, 1804
This abomination [slavery] must have an end. And there is a superior bench reserved in Heaven for those who hasten it.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Edward Rutledge, July 14, 1787
There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. 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.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repared by the success of another, and instead of one harvest, a continued one through the year.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Charles W. Peale, August 20, 1811
I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Judge John Tyler, Jun. 28, 1804
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Lafayette, The Thomas Jefferson Papers
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