"The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period."

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

"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

"The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies."

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

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

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

"Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to enjoy the fruits of his labours and the produce of his property in peace and safety and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered."

"We never repent of having eaten too little."

"My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me."

"The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them."

"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."

"I never did or countenanced in public life a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith having never believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man."

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

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

"No nation is drunken where wine is cheap and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is in truth the only antidote to the bane of whiskey."

"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."

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

"The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public debt... merits the consideration of Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults?...Or shall it rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union."

"Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour."

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

"No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place."

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. 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 blindfolded fear."

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

"Everything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue."

"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."

"They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live."

"I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another."

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government and to protect its free expression should be our first object."

"One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more."

". . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."

"So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done."

"No people can be both ignorant and free."

"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others."

"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."

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

"In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also."

"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."

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

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

"I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital [Paris]."

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

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

"The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism."

"I consider him [Alexander von Humboldt] the most important scientist whom I have met."

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

"Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival."

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

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?"

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