Thomas Jefferson

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

"It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."

"Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits."

"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."

"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."

"In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty."

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor."

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

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

"I cannot live without books."

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

"I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master."

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion."

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

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

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

"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people."

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

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

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

"One man with courage is a majority."

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

"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."

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

"Power is not alluring to pure minds."

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

"Taste cannot be controlled by law."

"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."

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

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

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

"To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education."

"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."

"We never repent of having eaten too little."

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

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

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."