I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital [Paris].
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. , for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehens...
I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from th...
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia.
When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through it is best to make up our minds to meet it with firmness and accommodate everything to it in the best way practical. This...
The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them.
The sword of the law should never fall but on those whose guilt is so apparent as to be pronounced by their friends as well as foes.
Happiness is not being pained in body nor troubled in mind.
Question with boldness even the existence of aGod; because, if there be one, he must more approve ofthe homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. Tosay that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is tosay they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels,no soul. I cannot reason...
No people who are ignorant can be truly free.
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.