Thomas Jefferson Deism Quotes

A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry ~ Thomas Jefferson

Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I advance it therefore [...] that the blacks [...] are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities, of citizens of the United States; and, in the mean time, they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess. ~ Thomas Jefferson

We do not mean to count or weigh our contributions by any standard other than that of our abilities. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I do verily believe that if the principle were to prevail of a common law being in force in the United States (which principle possesses the general government at once of all the powers of the state governments, and reduces us to a single consolidated government), it would become the most corrupt government on the earth. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The future inhabitants of [both] the Atlantic and Mississippi states will be our sons. We think we see their happiness in their union, and we wish it. Events may prove otherwise; and if they see their interest in separating why should we take sides? God bless them both, and keep them in union if it be for their good, but separate them if it be better. ~ Thomas Jefferson

It should be our endeavor to cultivate the peace and friendship of every nation ... Our interest will be to throw open the doors of commerce, and to knock off all its shackles, giving perfect freedom to all persons for the vent to whatever they may choose to bring into our ports, and asking the same in theirs. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Books may be classed from the Faculties of the mind ~ Thomas Jefferson

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

Creeds have been the bane of the Christian church ... made of Christendom a slaughter-house. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is the most unfit man I know for such a place. ~ Thomas Jefferson

To all of which is added a selection from the elementary schools of subjects of the most promising genius, whose parents are too poor to give them further education, to be carried at the public expense through the college and university. The object is to bring into action that mass of talents which lies buried in poverty in every country, for want of the means of development, and thus give activity to a mass of mind, which, in proportion to our population, shall be double or treble of what it is in most countries. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want. ~ Thomas Jefferson

It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith." ~ Thomas Jefferson

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. ~ Thomas Jefferson

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The founding fathers went out of their way to establish a clear "wall of separation" between religion and state, to quote Thomas Jefferson. They reasoned, as James Madison so cleverly articulated, that both religion and government exist in greater purity if kept apart. ~ Phil Zuckerman

The system of banking have[for]ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. ~ Thomas Jefferson

It is not to the moderation and justice of others we are to trust for fair and equal access to market with out productions, or for our due share in the transportation of them; but to our own means of independence, and the firm will to use them. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Historically, if you look at people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, people with disposable incomes have always been agricultural innovators. ~ Sandra Lerner

that government is best which rules least," John Leland Baptist spokesman who knew Thomas Jefferson, circa 1760. ~ Robert G. Torbet

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. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I should ... prefer swallowing one incomprehensibility rather than two. It requires one effort only to admit the single incomprehensibility of matter endowed with thought, and two to believe, first that of an existence called spirit, of which we have neither evidence nor idea, and then secondly how that spirit, which has neither extension nor solidity, can put material organs into motion. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Resisting tyranny is obeying God ~ Thomas Jefferson

The hole and the patch should be commensurate. ~ Thomas Jefferson

That one generation of men in civil society have no right to make acts to bind another, is a truth that cannot be confused. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be. ~ Thomas Jefferson