Quote

An industrious farmer occupies a more dignified place in the scale of beings...than a lazy lounger...too proud to work, and drawing out a miserable existence by eating on that surplus of other men's labor.

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
Existence
Scales
Place
Lazy
Occupies
Work
Miserable
Dignified
Men
Drawing
Industrious
Labor
Surplus
Eating
Farmer
Beings
Farmers
Proud
Scale

More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Image
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
Thomas Jefferson
Image
My views and feelings (are) in favor of the abolition of war-and I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war but of its abolition I despair.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
I shall rejoin myself to my native country, with new attachments, and with exaggerated esteem for its advantages for though there is less wealth there, there is more freedom, more ease, and less misery.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Gaming corrupts our disposition and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The system of banking have[for]ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Dependence begets subservience and paves the way for tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Preachers dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The purpose of establishing different houses of legislation is to introduce the influence of different interests or different principles.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Man ... feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The construction applied . . . to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate Congress a power . . . ought not to be construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty...
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Those who would trade safety for freedom deserve neither.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many on their getting warm, becoming rude and shooting one another.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of people.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Newspapers . . . serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.
Thomas Jefferson
Image
Planting is one of my great amusements, and even of those things which can only be for posterity, for a Septuagenary has no right to count on any thing but annuals.
Thomas Jefferson