Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
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
Afraid
Liberty
Government
People
Tyranny
More quotes by Thomas Jefferson
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.
Thomas Jefferson
Free men do not ask permission to bear arms
Thomas Jefferson
If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its hearts, where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as Haman's.
Thomas Jefferson
Of distinction by birth or badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong.
Thomas Jefferson
Our part is to pursue with steadiness what is right, turning neither to right nor left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day, assured that the public approbation will in the end be with us.
Thomas Jefferson
It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also.
Thomas Jefferson
Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
Thomas Jefferson
I served with General Washington in die Legislature of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin in Congress. I never heard neither of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point.
Thomas Jefferson
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.
Thomas Jefferson
It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.
Thomas Jefferson
The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.
Thomas Jefferson
No society can make a perpetual constitution... The earth belongs always to the living generation.
Thomas Jefferson
We are sensible of the duty and expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with patience till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong.
Thomas Jefferson
We wish the happiness and prosperity of every nation.
Thomas Jefferson
I have a right to nothing which another has a right to take away.
Thomas Jefferson
Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree.
Thomas Jefferson
The chief purpose of government is to protect life. Abandon that and you have abandoned all.
Thomas Jefferson
I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.
Thomas Jefferson
Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility.
Thomas Jefferson
