Thomas Jefferson

“It is neither wealth nor splendor but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.”

“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”

“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.”

“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”

“I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.”

“There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”

“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.”

“Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.”

“Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.”

“The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”

“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.”

“It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.”

“Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.”

“Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.”

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

“When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.”