Alchemyst's quotes

(showing 1-41 of 41)

"I cannot live without books."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: books
1,378 people liked it

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: atheism, philosophy, religion
305 people liked it

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
— Thomas Jefferson

190 people liked it

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: inspiration, motivation
254 people liked it

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: writing
161 people liked it

"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
— Thomas Jefferson

160 people liked it

"Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: books, honesty, wisdom
158 people liked it

"On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: principle, style
115 people liked it

"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: banks, destruction, federal, financial, loans, money, philosophy, political, politics, power, science, society, violence, war
132 people liked it

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
— Thomas Jefferson

90 people liked it

"Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants."
— Thomas Jefferson

78 people liked it

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
— Thomas Jefferson

66 people liked it

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: politics
77 people liked it

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. "
— Thomas Jefferson

81 people liked it

"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.""
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: contenment, life
81 people liked it

"I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it"
— Thomas Jefferson

75 people liked it

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. "
— Thomas Jefferson

74 people liked it

"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: insperational, jefferson, quotes, thomas
68 people liked it

"I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: freedom, government, politics
131 people liked it

"Information is the currency of democracy."
— Thomas Jefferson

49 people liked it

"The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: freedom, liberty
47 people liked it

"I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged."
— Thomas Jefferson

40 people liked it

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
— Thomas Jefferson

34 people liked it

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
— Thomas Jefferson

40 people liked it

"Upon the altar of God I pledge eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man "
— Thomas Jefferson

24 people liked it

"The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations."
— Thomas Jefferson

31 people liked it

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none"
— Thomas Jefferson

14 people liked it

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"
— Thomas Jefferson

28 people liked it

"Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today."
— Thomas Jefferson

14 people liked it

"Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not."
— Thomas Jefferson

19 people liked it

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
— Thomas Jefferson

13 people liked it

"If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions."
— Thomas Jefferson

14 people liked it

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
— Thomas Jefferson

20 people liked it

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
— Thomas Jefferson

17 people liked it

"Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: apathy, complacency, corruption, decline, misgovernment
13 people liked it

"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

17 people liked it

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."
— Thomas Jefferson

9 people liked it

"Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society."
— Thomas Jefferson

tags: church-and-state, civil-rights, government, religion
18 people liked it

"I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it."
— Thomas Jefferson

10 people liked it

"Every Generation Needs a New Revolution"
— Thomas Jefferson (Quotations of Thomas Jefferson)

tags: inspirational
11 people liked it

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