Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.