Thomas Jefferson

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

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Books constitute capital. A library bookcase is the most inspiring furniture I have ever known.

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

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

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.

Wine from long habit has become an indispensable part of my daily meals.

I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial.

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

I have lived temperately, I wish no other success than that which I may leave to my country.