Bind them down by the chains of the Constitution where they can do no mischief. Thomas Jefferson More Quotes by Thomas Jefferson More Quotes From Thomas Jefferson History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes. Thomas Jefferson ignorance religious believe All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution. Thomas Jefferson opinion liberty religious The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. Thomas Jefferson teaching motivational inspirational He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce... Thomas Jefferson kings christian war The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society. Thomas Jefferson 4th-of-july freedom law It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. Thomas Jefferson religious god life Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty. Thomas Jefferson patriotism civil-rights liberty I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. Thomas Jefferson anchors law men The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes. Thomas Jefferson ambition mean country A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society. Thomas Jefferson hypocrisy responsibility integrity The most uninformed mind with a healthy body is happier than the wisest valetudinarian. Thomas Jefferson health body mind To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to definition. Thomas Jefferson political government fields Of all the cankers of human happiness none corrodes with so silent, yet so baneful an influence, as indolence. Thomas Jefferson silent influence happiness I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them. Thomas Jefferson kings europe country I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Thomas Jefferson party men philosophy Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. Thomas Jefferson patriotic courage men That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part. Thomas Jefferson democracy political men [T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch. Thomas Jefferson government judging law It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers but by their distribution that good government is effected. Thomas Jefferson concentration political government Most men die at age 25, but aren't buried until 70. Thomas Jefferson buried age men
