Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.