Quote

Every honest man will suppose honest acts to flow from honest principles, and the rogues may rail without intermission.

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
Principles
Honest
Intermission
May
Rogues
Without
Rail
Every
Acts
Men
Suppose
Honesty
Flow

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Image
The juries are our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it.
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
Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendency of the people.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? — Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Honesty and interest are as intimately connected in the public as in the private code of morality.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy].
Thomas Jefferson
Image
If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to me. Only let them be brim full of affection.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.
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
The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Never use two words when one will do.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The sentiments of men are known not only by what they receive, but what they reject also.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The difficulty is no longer to find candidates for the offices, but offices for the candidates.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The same political parties which now agitiate the US have existed through all time. And in fact the terms of whig and tory belong to natural as well as to civil history. They denote the temper and constitution and mind of different individuals.
Thomas Jefferson