Quote

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others... An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.... Power is not alluring to pure minds and is not with them the primary principle of contest.

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
Never
Pleasure
Fellows
Contest
Men
Happiness
Principle
Contests
Others
Minds
Conceive
Power
Exercise
Propose
Able
Citizens
Primaries
Feel
Pure
Primary
Feels
Principles
Fellow
Mind
Honest
Rational
Alluring

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Image
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
All authority belongs to the people.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The constitutional freedom of religion is the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Our people shall be free
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The Christian god is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The Bible makes the best people in the world.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
There are two amendments only which I am anxious for: 1. A bill of rights, which it is so much the interest of all to have that I conceive it must be yielded...2. The restoring of the principle of necessary rotation, particularly to the Senate and Presidency, but most of all to the last.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Nothing but a necessity invincible by any other means can justify ... a prostitution of laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The genius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions over this land.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Female education ... has occupied my attention so far only as the education of my own daughters ... I thought it essential to give them a solid education which might enable them, when become mothers, to educate their own daughters, and even to direct the course for sons, should their fathers be.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
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
Image
I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Do not neglect your music. It will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you.
Thomas Jefferson