Thomas Jefferson

I have a right to nothing, unless I have a right to myself.

The only security for all is in a free press.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a censor over each other.

The only sure foundation for a free and happy constitution is a pure and uncorrupted people.

Never spend your money before you have it.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.

I have great confidence in the common sense of mankind in general.

I cannot live without books.

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

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.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

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

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.