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Always take hold of things by the smooth handle grateful that they are not worse rather than the rough handle, bitter that they are not better.

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
Grateful
Worse
Hold
Rather
Smooth
Better
Rough
Take
Bitter
Always
Handle
Things
Gratitude

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The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves.
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To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense he wished any one to be sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others ascribing to himself every human excellence & believing he never claimed any other.
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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.
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Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.
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I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird, or as a being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs.
Thomas Jefferson
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The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.
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Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being from the hand of nature. Individuals exercise it by their single will collections of men by that of their majority for the law of the majority is the natural law of every society of men.
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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.
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Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.
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It has been thought that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law. But I do not know this to be true, and, if doubtful, we should follow principle.
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No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America.
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Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.
Thomas Jefferson
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The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
Thomas Jefferson
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Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise.
Thomas Jefferson
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I have no ambition to govern men it is a painful and thankless office.
Thomas Jefferson
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No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence.
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I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.
Thomas Jefferson
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The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.
Thomas Jefferson
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I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations.
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I am... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.
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