Thomas Jefferson

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

The government closest to the people is best.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

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 like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

The most sacred of the duties of government is to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

The earth belongs in usufruct to the living; the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.