Thomas Jefferson's quote

(April 13, 1743– July 4, 1826) American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States (1801–1809).

토머스 제퍼슨 (ko)
I cannot live without books.
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.
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.
Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.
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.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.
When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
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.
Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
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.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.
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.
Information is the currency of democracy.
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
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.
Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.
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.
I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
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.
Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance.
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.
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.
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
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.
If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.
The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.
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.
I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
A little rebellion is a good thing.
A room without books is like a life without meaning.
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not.
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent they conquered.
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.
Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today.
Coffee - the favorite drink of the civilized world.
Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.
Every Generation Needs a New Revolution Quotations of Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God.
The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves.
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.