50 Motivational quotes by Thomas Jefferson:

Here are 50 motivational quotes by Thomas Jefferson:

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friend."
"The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money."
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
"The only security of all is in a free press."
"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."
"I cannot live without books."
"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."
"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
"I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others."
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."
"No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will."
"I would rather be a little nobody, than to be a evil somebody."
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
"The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be."
"The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world."
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."
"My reading of history convinces me that the worst government results from too much government."
"The man who loves his country on its own account, and not merely for its trappings of interest or power, can never be
"An injured friend is the bitterest of foes."
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
"Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
"It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness."
"Delay is preferable to error."
"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state."
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."
"In every country where man is free to think and to speak, a difference of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently and leaving our horizon more bright and serene."
"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them."
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."
"The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives."
"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms within his own lands or tenements."
"There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me."
"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave."
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."