Thomas Jefferson

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."

- Thomas Jefferson

""I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.""

- Thomas Jefferson

"I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The man with the wrong mental attitude."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals & happiness."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"Being Irish is an honor that even Thomas Jefferson cherished. May your celebration of St. Patrick’s Day be as grand and as free-spirited as his Irish heart."

- Thomas Jefferson

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"I cannot live without books."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

- Thomas Jefferson

"“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude.”"

- Thomas Jefferson

"“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”"

- Thomas Jefferson

""I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.""

- Thomas Jefferson

"A lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I find that the harder I work, the less I call it work."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation and freedom in all just pursuits."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"When some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them hunt, I have answered yes—remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education—make a boy observe, induce him to be patient, and let him learn to notice everything in nature, and I will have laid the foundation for an excellent man."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

- Thomas Jefferson

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

- Thomas Jefferson

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned — this is the sum of good government."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Whenever you do something, act as if all the world were watching."

- Thomas Jefferson

"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

"When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I own I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of Legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution …"

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should have nothing to do with conquest."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape in to any form they please."

- Thomas Jefferson

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

- Thomas Jefferson

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"I find that the harder I work, the less I call it to work"

- Thomas Jefferson

"It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Never spend your money before you have earned it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The only time to buy something is when you can afford it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility: and he who knows most knows best how little he knows."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Skill is knowing how to do it. Virtue is doing it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have"

- Thomas Jefferson

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way."

- Thomas Jefferson

"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Brute animals are the most healthy, and they are exposed to all weather, and of men, those are healthiest who are the most exposed."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state."

- Thomas Jefferson

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Prioritize your time so that it reflects your values."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I find that the harder I work the more luck I seem to have."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American."

- Thomas Jefferson

"God bless you and give you health, happiness, and hope, the real comforters of this nether world."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"“The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes has been devoted to the attainment of trial by jury. It should be the creed of our political faith.”"

- Thomas Jefferson

"Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling never fails of employment in it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Coffee, the favorite drink of the civilized world."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions & make them one people. I do not speak of their leaders who are incurable, but of the honest and well-intentioned body of the people."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."

- Thomas Jefferson

"How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The most successful war seldom pays for its losses."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."

- Thomas Jefferson

"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."

- Thomas Jefferson

"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

"Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations."

- Thomas Jefferson

"He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

- Thomas Jefferson

"History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"We never repent of having eaten too little."

- Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

- 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

"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."

- Thomas Jefferson

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"He who knows best knows how little he knows."

- Thomas Jefferson

"One man with courage is a majority."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail."

- Thomas Jefferson

"My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave consequences to him who has the disposal of them."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I cannot live without books, but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom."

- Thomas Jefferson

"All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Be polite to all, but intimate with few."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Science is my passion; politics, my duty."

- Thomas Jefferson

"If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Good wine is a necessity of life for me."

- Thomas Jefferson

"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

"I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country."

- Thomas Jefferson

"When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred."

- Thomas Jefferson

"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

"Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold."

- Thomas Jefferson

"When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil; while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!"

- Thomas Jefferson

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

- Thomas Jefferson

"My god! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."

- Thomas Jefferson

"We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government."

- Thomas Jefferson

"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is."

- Thomas Jefferson

"God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men."

- Thomas Jefferson

"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

"Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time."

- Thomas Jefferson

"No nation is drunken where wine is cheap."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Never spend your money before you have it."

- Thomas Jefferson

""Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.""

- Thomas Jefferson

"If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I'm a great believer in luck, and the harder I work, the more I have it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Never spend your money before you’ve earned it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle."

- Thomas Jefferson

""I'm a great believer in luck, and the harder I work, the more I have it.""

- Thomas Jefferson