The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them. Thomas Jefferson More Quotes by Thomas Jefferson More Quotes From Thomas Jefferson I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. Thomas Jefferson life-and-lovelibertygovernment Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. Thomas Jefferson hunger-and-thirstcostpride The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful maneuvers, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But times and truth dissipated the delusion, and opened their eyes. Thomas Jefferson votingeyepeople The question whether the judges are invested with exclusive authority to decide on the constitutionality of a law has been heretofore a subject of consideration with me in the exercise of official duties. Certainly there is not a word in the Constitution which has given that power to them more than to the Executive or Legislative branches. Thomas Jefferson judginglawexercise It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice Thomas Jefferson integritywarpeace The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government Thomas Jefferson governmentprinciplesamerica Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital. Thomas Jefferson 4th-of-julymenbook The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. Thomas Jefferson freedomcountrypeople No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority. Thomas Jefferson rightsmenamerica Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment. Thomas Jefferson libertymotivationalmen If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. Thomas Jefferson governmenthumbleretirement Scenes are now to take place as will open the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandoned to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers. Thomas Jefferson eyepaperinsanity Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Thomas Jefferson libertarianatheismreligion If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter Thomas Jefferson latternewspapersgovernment Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. Thomas Jefferson trustgovernmentpeople I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition. Thomas Jefferson governmentfieldspeople Nothing is more incumbent on the old than to know when they should get out of the way and relinquish to younger successors the honors they can no longer earn, and the duties they can no longer perform. Thomas Jefferson shouldhonorway Man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do. Thomas Jefferson qualityanimalmen Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry. Thomas Jefferson opinionreligiousrights The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press. Thomas Jefferson strong-armsgunexercise
