Thomas Jefferson

The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

The pursuit of happiness is a right, not a guarantee.

No society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.

The democracy which I have advocated... is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

It is incumbent on those who would control the people to be sure that they are right, and then to be sure that they are not wrong.

The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people.

The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.

The government closest to the people serves the people best.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

The operations of the federal government will be most wisely and happily directed when they are exercised within their proper limits.

The freedom and happiness of man are the sole objects of all legitimate government.

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

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

The government is best which governs least.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.