Quote

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

Thomas Jefferson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thomas Jefferson
Age: 83 †
Born: 1743
Born: April 2
Died: 1826
Died: July 4
3Rd U.S. President
Archaeologist
Architect
Cryptographer
Diplomat
Farmer
Inventor
Jurist
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Slaveholder
President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
Ones
Wrong
Ideas
Better
Nothing
Believe
Aries
Always
False
Atheism

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Image
No instance exists of a person's writing two language perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
All things here appear to me to trudge on in one and the same round: we rise in the morning that we may eat breakfast, dinner andsupper and to bed again that we may get up the next morning and do the same: so that you never saw two peas more alike than our yesterday and to-day.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Turning, then, from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow men, who yield themselves the willing dupes and drudges of these mountebanks, I consider reformation and redress as desperate, and abandon them to the Quixotism of more enthusiastic minds.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The art of life is the art of avoiding pain and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
In a government bottomed on the will of all, the... liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to all.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Nothing is so engaging as the little domestic cares into which you appear to be entering, and as to reading it is useful for onlyfilling up the chinks of more useful and healthy occupations.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condition of all its inhabitants.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of people.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments?
Thomas Jefferson
Image
It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war as much as possible.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.
Thomas Jefferson