Timeless Inspiration: A Curated Collection of Thomas Jefferson's Most Motivational Quotes

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

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

- 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

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

- 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

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

- 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

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."

- 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"One man with courage is a majority."

- 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

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

- 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

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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

"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

"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

"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

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

- 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 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"Whenever you do a thing, 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

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

- 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 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

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

- 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

"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

"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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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

"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

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

"We never repent of having eaten too little."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- 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."