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The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson
Age: 83 †
Born: 1743
Born: April 2
Died: 1826
Died: July 4
3Rd U.S. President
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President Jefferson
T. Jefferson
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More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

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Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people they fix too for the people the principles of their political creed.
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Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
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A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest, of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest.
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When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments.
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Paper is poverty, it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.
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Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.
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Industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of people.
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Of all the cankers of human happiness none corrodes with so silent, yet so baneful an influence, as indolence.
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From forty years' experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice.
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Question with boldness even the existence of a god.
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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.
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Every man's reason is his own rightful umpire. This principle, with that of acquiescence in the will of the majority, will preserve us free and prosperous as long as they are sacredly observed.
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The equal rights of man and the happiness of every individual are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.
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Those who have once got an ascendancy, and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantage.
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If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.
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I find as I grow older that I love those most whom I loved first.
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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, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
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If I had to choose between government and a free press, I would choose a free press.
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I am never tempted to pray but when a warm feeling for my friends comes athwart my heart.
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Perfection in wisdom, as well as in integrity, is neither required nor expected in these agents (public servants). It belongs not to man. The wise know too well their weaknesses to assume infallibility and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows.
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