Quote

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

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
Politics
Free
Read
President
Able
Every
Presses
Men
Press
Safe

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Image
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The truth is, that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those, calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in His genuine words.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
If I had to choose between government and a free press, I would choose a free press.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The construction applied . . . to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate Congress a power . . . ought not to be construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
You see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. But it is an enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world, and procure them its praise.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and prayer parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use a mere earthly lover.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation... to a continuance in union... I have no hesitation in saying, 'let us separate.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Every man has two countries: his own and France.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Delay is preferable to error.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Travelling. ... when men of sober age travel, they gather knowlege which they may apply usefully for their country
Thomas Jefferson
Image
On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar.
Thomas Jefferson