Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Thomas Jefferson was best known as the main author of the Declaration of Independence. Being a fine architect, he was also known as the 'father of archeology'. He was the third President of the United States of America, and a staunch supporter of democracy and human rights. Read here, some of his famous and inspirational quotes.

✦ "Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%."

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

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

✦ "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

✦ "Always take hold of things by the smooth handle."

✦ "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."

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

✦ "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."

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

✦ "A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise 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, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."

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

✦ "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."

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

✦ "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become very happy."

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

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

Abraham Lincoln called Thomas Jefferson as 'the most distinguished politician in American history'. He was an idol of liberty, democracy, and republicanism.